RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.25 (Men's Basketball)
In his final outing in Allen Fieldhouse on Monday, Devonte’ Graham posted his fourth double-double this season and of his career with 10 points and 11 assists #KUbball pic.twitter.com/y1rXjf2o8E
— Kansas Basketball (@KUHoops) March 3, 2018
A post shared by Kansas Basketball (@kuhoops) on Feb 26, 2018 at 9:14pm PST
Kansas senior Devonte’ Graham etched his named into KU lore when he was named the 2018 Big 12 Player of the Year on March 4. The Raleigh, North Carolina, guard was a unanimous selection by the conference coaches in becoming the 12th Jayhawk to be named his conference’s player of the year. KU has earned the honor 16 times total as three Jayhawks – Dave Robisch (1970, 1971), Danny Manning (1986, 1987, 1988) and Raef LaFrentz (1997, 1998) were league players of the year multiple times.
Seven times a KU student-athlete earned the honor in the Big Eight Conference, which existed from 1957-58 to 1995-96, and nine times a Jayhawk has been the Big 12 Player of the Year as the league started in 1996-97.
Graham is the second-straight Jayhawk to be named Big 12 Player of the Year. In the 22-year history of the Big 12 a school has won the honor in consecutive seasons seven times with Kansas owning four of those occasions: Raef LaFrentz (1997 and 1998); Drew Gooden (2002) and Nick Collison (2003); Marcus Morris (2011) and Thomas Robinson (2012); and Frank Mason III (2017) and Graham (2018).
Kansas’ nine Big 12 Players of the Year are more than any other conference school. Iowa State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State each have three selections, while Texas has two, Kansas State one and former league member Nebraska has one.
Every one of Kansas’ conference players of the year went on to earn All-America honors and Graham will most likely follow suit.
KU’s Conference Players of the Year
Big Eight
Dave Robisch (1970, 1971)
Bud Stallworth (1972)
Danny Manning (1986, 1987, 1988)
Jacque Vaughn (1996)
Big 12
Raef LaFrentz (1997, 1998)
Drew Gooden (2002)
Nick Collison (2003)
Wayne Simien (2005)
Marcus Morris (2011)
Thomas Robinson (2012)
Frank Mason III (2017)
Devonte’ Graham (2018)
