Four Jayhawks Land on Coaches’ All-Big 12 Team

IRVING, Texas – Highlighted by junior Perry Ellis, four Kansas men’s basketball players were named All-Big 12 Sunday as the conference released its coaches’ All-Big 12 awards for the 2014-15 season.
 
Ellis was named All-Big 12 First Team, marking the conference-leading 26^th time a Jayhawk has been named to the league’s first team. KU sophomore guard Frank Mason III earned second-team recognition, while sophomore guard Wayne Selden, Jr., and freshman guard Kelly Oubre, Jr. were honorable mention selections. Additionally, Oubre was named to the Big 12 All-Newcomer Team. Each award is chosen by the league coaches.
 
“We were all hopeful that Perry would get player of the year, but there were several guys who were deserving. I’m happy that Perry is on the first team,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said. “I’m also happy for Frank that he was recognized. He’s had a great year and certainly was deserving of second team. Our other players mentioned were Kelly and Wayne, and I’m proud Kelly was selected to the all-newcomer team. I thought Huggs (West Virginia’s Bob Huggins) was well deserving of the coach of the year.”
 
Ellis and Selden are on the All-Big 12 squad for the second-straight season. Last year Ellis was a third-team honoree, while Selden was honorable mention. Mason and Oubre are all-league members for the first time in 2014-15.
 
“It’s certainly nice to be recognized favorably by the league coaches, but I kind of feel like I did last year with Andrew (Wiggins),” Self said. “Although Andrew didn’t win player of the year, I knew he was right there and was hopeful that he would have won it. I feel the same way about Perry this year.”
 
In the 19-year history of the conference, Kansas lays claim to a league-best 99 All-Big 12 selections which includes first-, second-, third-, honorable mention, all-defensive and all-newcomer team honorees. Texas is second with 75. Ellis gives Kansas a first-team selection for the 15^th-consecutive season and the 17^th time in the 19-year history of the league. Ellis is the 17^th KU All-Big 12 First Team choice in the 12 seasons under Self.
 
A Wichita native, Ellis is the only player in the Big 12 to rank in the top-10 in scoring (6^th, 14.2 ppg), rebounding (4^th, 7.0 rpg) and field goal percentage (6^th, .471). Four other players in the league check in among the top-10 in two of the three stats, including Mason, but only Ellis holds a top-10 ranking in all three. A three-time Big 12 Player of the Week in 2014-15, Ellis is tied for second in the conference with seven double-doubles and has four games with 20 or more points, including three in league play. Additionally, Ellis is 12^th amongst his Big 12 counterparts in free throw percentage at 71.1 percent.
 
Mason leads Kansas, and is fourth in the Big 12, with 4.1 assists per game. KU’s second-leading scorer from Petersburg, Virginia, Mason posted three 20-point games this season, including a career-high-tying 21 points at No. 15 Oklahoma in the regular-season finale. He scores 12.6 points per game, which is 10^th in the league. Mason also ranks seventh in the Big 12 in free throw percentage at 80.3 percent, 10^th in field goal percentage at 45.0 percent, 10^th in steals at 1.4 per game and fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.0.
 
Kansas’ third-leading scorer, Selden averages 9.1 points per game and is tied for second on the team with 36 three-pointers made. The Roxbury, Massachusetts, native is 12^th in the Big 12 in assists per game with a 2.9 average and tied for 14^th in the league with 1.5 three-pointers made per contest.
 
Oubre becomes the 12^th Jayhawk to appear on the Big 12 All-Newcomer Team, previously known as the all-rookie team. The New Orleans native averages 9.0 points, 5.1 rebounds and is second on the KU team with 35 steals. This is the third-straight season with a KU player named to the all-newcomer squad as Oubre joins Ben McLemore in 2012-13 and Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, who earned the honor last year.
 
No. 9/10 Kansas (24-7, 13-5) won its unprecedented 11^th-straight Big 12 regular-season championship in 2014-15. It was KU’s 15^th Big 12 and NCAA-leading 58^th overall conference regular-season title. Kansas will next play in the quarterfinals of the 2015 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, March 11-14, at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. As the No. 1 seed, Kansas will play its first game on Thursday, March 12 at 1:30 p.m. (Central), on ESPN2. KU will face the winner of the No. 8 Kansas State vs. No. 9 TCU contest to be played March 11. Kansas has won 13 conference postseason tournament titles, including nine in the Big 12 era.
 
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