You know it’s almost tournament time when the college basketball awards start rolling in at the same time.
Many of the awards announced Monday honored Kansas seniors Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich, both of whom were named NABC All-Americans, finalists for the Wooden Award and members of the All-Big 12 first team. Hinrich was also selected to the Big 12’s all-defensive team.
Collison was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches all-American first team, while Hinrich was named to the third team. Joining Collison on the first team were T.J. Ford (Texas), David West (Xavier), Josh Howard (Wake Forest) and Hollis Price (Oklahoma).
Ford and Price also joined the KU duo among the 22 finalists for the Wooden Award and as members of the All-Big 12 first team. Texas Tech junior Andre Emmett was the final member of the conference’s first team, as selected by a panel of sports writers.
The other members of the Big 12’s All-Defensive team were Price, Royal Ivey (Texas), Melvin Sanders (Oklahoma State) and Jason Thomas (Texas).
Kansas sophomore Keith Langford was honored twice Monday. Langford was named to the Big 12’s All-Underrated team, along with with Kasib Powell (Texas Tech), Quannas White (Oklahoma), Lawrence Roberts (Baylor) and Gilson DeJesus (Kansas State).
Langford and KU sophomore Aaron Miles also were named to the All-Big 12 honorable mention list.
