Ellis, Mason, Self Earn USBWA District VI Honors
ST. LOUIS – Kansas men’s basketball student-athletes Perry Ellis and Frank Mason III join head coach Bill Self on the 2015-16 U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) All-District VI Team, the USBWA announced Tuesday.
The All-District VI Team is comprised of 10 student-athletes selected on voting from the USBWA membership of 900-plus. District VI is made up of schools from the states of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. The USBWA has selected All-District teams since the 1956-57 season, its founding year.
Ellis is appearing on the All-District VI Team for the second straight year, while Mason is making his first appearance on the squad. Self is the District VI Coach of the Year for the fifth time while at Kansas, also earning the accolade in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2011.
A Wichita native, Ellis is coming off back-to-back 20-point performances with 20 points at Texas (2/29) and 22 points against Iowa State (3/5) on his senior night. The two efforts garnered Ellis with the final 2015-16 Big 12 Player of the Week honor as he has 11 20-point efforts this season. Ellis leads Kansas in scoring (16.5 ppg) and is second in rebounding (6.0 rpg). Ellis has nine games of scoring 19 or more points in Big 12 play this season, including seven 20-point efforts and overall he ranks third in the league in scoring and ninth in rebounding. He also ranks among the Big 12 leaders in field goal percentage (fifth at 52.1) and free throw percentage (12th at 76.3). Ellis averaged 17.7 points and 5.8 rebounds during Big 12 play in 2015-16.
Mason leads Kansas with 142 assists and his 4.6 dimes per game are fourth in the Big 12. The Petersburg, Virginia, native’s 13.4 scoring average is eighth in the league and he is fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.4 and 13th in free throw percentage (73.2). More recently, Mason is shooting 61.9 percent from the field in his last five games and has 11 assists with one turnover in his last two outings.
Self guided No. 1 Kansas (27-4, 15-3) to its 12th-straight, 16th Big 12 and NCAA-leading 59th overall conference regular-season title in 2015-16. Playing in the toughest conference in the country (with the top-ranked conference RPI), Kansas clinched the regular-season title by two games. KU’s current 11-game winning streak is the third-longest active streak nationally. KU won the 2015 Maui Jim Maui Invitational champions, which started a 13-game winning streak during non-conference and the early stages of Big 12 play.
Kansas is 9-3 against nationally-ranked teams, including 3-0 versus top-10 teams. The Jayhawks have won six-straight against ranked opponents entering the postseason.
According to the NCAA, Kansas holds the No. 1 RPI and the No. 6 toughest schedule while the Big 12 has the No. 1 RPI among all conferences in 2015-16. Kansas has been ranked No. 1 in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches’ polls since March 1. Kansas has ranked seventh or higher in every poll this season, including No. 1 four weeks.
In 13 seasons at Kansas, Self is 379-82 (82.2 percent) for an average of 29.2 wins per year. He has guided the Jayhawks to 12-straight Big 12 regular-season titles, nine Big 12 tournament titles, the 2008 NCAA title and a dominating 206-9 record inside Allen Fieldhouse.
To date, Self has been named National Coach of the Year by USA Today and Bleacher Report, and Big 12 Coach of the Year by the Associated Press this season.
USBWA DISTRICT VI HONORS
COACH OF THE YEAR: BILL SELF, Kansas
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma
ALL-DISTRICT TEAM (10)
Ron Baker, Wichita State
Isaiah Cousins, Oklahoma
PERRY ELLIS, Kansas
Buddy Hield, Oklahoma
Peter Jok, Iowa
FRANK MASON III, Kansas
Monte Morris, Iowa State
Georges Niang, Iowa State
Jarrod Uthoff, Iowa
Fred VanVleet, Wichita State
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