There’s still some voting to be done on the ones everybody will talk about, but now that the regular season is over and postseason play is under way, a number of national player of the year honors are starting to roll in.
And if the early returns are any indication of what’s to come, Kansas senior Frank Mason III better clear some space in his dorm room.
Mason, who led Kansas with 20.5 and 5.1 points and assists per game during KU’s 28-3 regular season, which ended with a 13th consecutive Big 12 title and No. 1 national ranking, already has picked up some serious praise for his sensational season that [earned him Big 12 player of the year][1] honors on Sunday.
Bobby Nightengale did a great job of looking back at [why all of the Big 12 coaches voted for Mason][2] as their conference player of the year — Mason was a unanimous pick, meaning he got the vote from the nine coaches allowed to vote for him — following the 2016-17 regular season.
And Bleacher Report on Sunday night named Mason their national player of the year. By mid-day Monday, NBC Sports had joined them. USA Today and The Sporting News followed suit on Monday by naming Mason a first-team All-American. Josh Jackson was named a second-team All-American by both publications.
Here are a couple of quick blurbs that support Mason earning the season honors.
From Bleacher Report:
————–
> The numbers are awesome, but what
> truly makes Mason the pick here is how
> clutch he’s been. He started the year
> with a buzzer-beater to take down Duke
> in the second game of the season.
> Kansas has also made a habit of
> playing from behind, and when the
> outlook looks bleak, Mason calmly rips
> the opponent’s heart out.
>
> He has the moments. He has the
> numbers. He has the wins. He made this
> pick easy. Frank Mason III is the
> Bleacher Report National Player of the
> Year.
From USA Today:
———-
> Frank Mason III, Sr., G, Kansas:
> There’s a very high bar to clear at
> Kansas. To become one of the Jayhawks’
> all-time greats — which coach Bill
> Self believes Mason is, and that his
> jersey will hang in the rafters of
> Allen Fieldhouse — you have to be
> somewhat legendary. And Mason, an
> under-recruited kid who originally
> committed to Towson, has turned into
> just that over the course of a storied
> four-year career in Lawrence.
>
> Perhaps most impressive: Just how
> consistently excellent Mason has been
> this year, as a senior, starting with
> a 30-point effort against Indiana and
> a buzzer-beater to beat Duke to open
> the year and 16 other games in which
> he scored at least 20 points. He’s
> averaged 20.5 ppg, 5.1 apg, 4.2 apg
> this year.
From The Sporting News:
—————
> Mason’s consistency was staggering. He
> scored 20 points or more in 18 of
> Kansas’ 31 games, made at least 40
> percent of his 3-point attempts in 17
> games, passed for at least five
> assists in 19 games. He almost never
> had a bad night, which is the primary
> reason Kansas lost only three times.
> And let’s be honest about this: By the
> time the season’s final weeks arrived,
> Mason was no longer the Jayhawks’
> obviously best player. Josh Jackson
> was dominant in that stretch. But
> Mason not only didn’t fight Jackson’s
> ascendance, he fueled it without ever
> losing a grip on what was making his
> own season extraordinary.
From NBC Sports:
———–
> Kansas isn’t as dominant as Kansas
> teams in the past have been. They’ve
> actually had some struggles this
> season, too often finding themselves
> trailing by double-figures in games
> they shouldn’t be trailing by
> double-figures. Ask people around that
> program, however, and what they’ll
> tell you is that Mason is probably the
> biggest reason why they were able to
> win some of the games that they won.
> He led the charge in the two biggest
> Kansas comebacks this season — coming
> from 14 points down in the final three
> minutes against West Virginia, or six
> points down in the final two minutes
> at Baylor — and was the guy who had
> the ball in his hands on the biggest
> possessions of a close game.
>
> He was great in the biggest games of
> the year. He’s had his ‘Player of the
> Year Moments,’ whether it be the
> game-winning bucket against Duke, or
> the 21 points he had at Kentucky, or
> the 23 points and eight assists he had
> at Baylor. There are, without
> question, better NBA prospects in
> college basketball this season. But I
> don’t think there are any better
> college basketball players.
Stay tuned for more. This is likely just the beginning.
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2017/mar/05/mason-jackson-self-all-pick-big-12-hardware/
[2]: http://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/call-nightengale/2017/mar/5/looking-back-at-praise-from-big-12-coach/
