Graham earns Big 12, national player of the week awards

By Matt Tait     Dec 4, 2017

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Kansas guard Devonte' Graham (4) swoops in for a shot during the second half, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017 at American Airlines Arena in Miami.

After exploding for back-to-back 35-point games in Kansas victories over Toledo and Syracuse, senior point guard Devonte’ Graham was named Big 12 player of the week on Monday.

Graham also picked up a pair of national weekly honors, snagging the same recognition from ncaa.com and The Lute Olson Award.

Asked Monday if he saw Graham’s hot start coming, Self slipped into comedian mode.

“Yeah, I expected him to get 35 the last two games,” he deadpanned. “If you look at his yearly stats, over seven games, I would (have thought) he’d be averaging about 18 and shooting about 40 percent from 3 and having a lot of assists. So, yeah, these were probably the stats I would’ve anticipated this early. But I wouldn’t have anticipated him scoring 70 points in a week, though. That’s a pretty good week.”

Graham entered last week’s Toledo contest averaging 12 points per game and now ranks third in the Big 12 in scoring with an 18.6 average.

Graham is not just leading Kansas scoring, he ranks second in the Big 12 in assists at 8 per game, fourth in steals (2.3), third in free throw percentage (92.3), fifth in 3-point field goals made (2.9), seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.8) and tied for third in double-doubles with two.

Monday marked the second time in Graham’s career that he had been named the Big 12 Player of the Week, with the other coming Feb. 15, 2016, when he scored his previous career high of 27 points at Oklahoma.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.