Kansas center Hunter Dickinson on Monday afternoon received first-team All-Big 12 honors from a poll of the league’s head coaches, making him one of three Jayhawks to earn some kind of distinction.
This is the second straight year Dickinson has been named to the first team. This season, the fifth-year senior center, who is coming off a 33-point career-high showing in his final game at Allen Fieldhouse, has averaged 17.4 points and 9.9 rebounds per game, with both totals placing him among the league leaders.
Senior guard Zeke Mayo was named both to the Big 12’s third team and to its all-newcomer team.
Mayo, a Lawrence native who transferred from South Dakota State for his final season of eligibility after earning Summit League player of the year honors last year, has exceeded expectations this season with 14.0 points per game, including 40.1% 3-point shooting. Many of his best performances have come close to home at Allen Fieldhouse, including a string of three straight performances with at least 25 points in late December.
Sixth-year guard Dajuan Harris Jr. also earned an All-Big 12 honorable mention for the third year in a row, meaning at least one coach included him on one of the top three teams.
KU coach Bill Self said on Monday he felt the results went mostly as expected, but he believed senior forward KJ Adams should have received an honorable mention as well.
The Jayhawks will play their first game of the Big 12 tournament on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.
Houston’s Kelvin Sampson received the title of coach of the year. Two more Houston players, Joseph Tugler (defensive player of the year) and L.J. Cryer (scholar-athlete of the year) took home awards, while Texas Tech’s JT Toppin was both player and newcomer of the year.
Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe was freshman of the year, Richie Saunders of BYU was most improved and Iowa State’s Curtis Jones was the sixth man of the year.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
