The award, named for the legendary Boston Celtics and Holy Cross point guard, has been given annually to college basketball’s best player at each position since 2004.

A national committee of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list of 20 candidates.

Mason is one of three players from the Big 12 Conference on the point guard watch list, joining Iowa State’s Monte Morris, the Big 12 preseason player of the year, and Oklahoma State’s Jawun Evans.

Mason is Kansas’ leading returning scorer at 12.9 points per game, which ranked 12th in the Big 12 and made Mason the second-highest returning scorer in the league for 2016-17. He led KU in assists at 4.6, which was fourth in the conference.

By mid-February, the watch list of 20 players for the 2017 Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award will be narrowed to 10. In March, five finalists will be presented to Mr. Cousy and the Hall of Fame’s selection committee. The winner of the 2017 Bob Cousy Award will be presented at the ESPN College Basketball Awards Show in Los Angeles on April 7, 2017.

Green cuts Kansas

Five-star, Class of 2017 point guard Quade Green recently trimmed his list to a final five and Kansas was not on it.

Green, a 6-foot lead guard from Philadelphia is now down to Duke, Kentucky, Villanova, Syracuse and Temple.

Ranked No. 23 overall by Rivals.com, Green visited Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness over the weekend and some analysts believe the Wildcats have become the team to beat, with Syracuse also strongly in the mix.

In early August, Rivals recruiting guru Eric Bossi predicted that Green would land at Duke.

Regardless of where he winds up, we now know it won’t be at Kansas, which remains heavily involved with a few other five-star Class of 2017 point guards, including Collin Sexton, Trae Young and Trevon Duval.

Sexton and Duval visited for Late Night and Young has a visit to campus scheduled for later this month.

Magic waive Alexander

Former Kansas forward Cliff Alexander, who spent the 2015-16 season with the Portland Trailblazers despite going undrafted following his lone season at KU, was cut by the Orlando Magic on Sunday.

Deemed a long shot to make the roster to begin with, the 6-foot-8, 245-pound Alexander appeared in just two preseason games and averaged 1 point in 5.1 minutes.

Ellis recovering

Perry Ellis, who left Kansas after a stellar four-year career as the Jayhawks’ No. 8 scorer (1,798 points) and No. 12 rebounder (834) recently returned to the court after an offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia. Ellis, who went undrafted in last June’s NBA Draft was quickly picked up by the Dallas Mavericks, with whom he played summer league before being cut and signed by the Charlotte Hornets.

Although many believe he will spend the upcoming season playing in the NBA’s Developmental League, the fact that Ellis is back on the floor, playing in some five-on-five settings gives him a chance to get some playing time in the preseason before rosters are finalized.