12 Men’s Basketball Awards Announced
Oklahoma’s Cade Cunningham became only the fourth freshman in Conference history to win Player of the Year, while Baylor’s Scott Drew was named Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season in the Phillips 66 All-Big 12 award. men’s basketball 2020-21 chosen by the head coaches.
Cunningham was also the unanimous freshman of the year, while Mac Tech’s McClung of Texas Tech was the unanimous newcomer of the year. Davion Mitchell of Baylor was named Defensive Player of the Year, David McCormack of Kansas received the Most Improved Player award and Kai Jones of Texas was chosen for the Sixth Man Award.
The All-Big 12 First Team consisted of Cunningham, Jared Butler and Davion Mitchell of Baylor, Austin Reaves of Oklahoma and Derek Culver of West Virginia. Cunningham and Butler were the unanimous selections.
In addition to Cunningham, the other 12 great newbies who won both Player and Freshman of the Year were Marcus Smart (2012-13) from OSU, Michael Beasley from K-State (2007-08) and Kevin Durant from Texas (2006-07) ). Cunningham ended the regular season as the league’s top scorer in both the general (19.7) and conference (20.1) games and is in the national vote for the John R. Wooden Award. He is also a finalist for the Bob Cousy Point Guard Award and was the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week after his 40-point, 11-rebound performance in an overtime win in the then-No. Oklahoma. According to Stats Perform, only four other power conference players in the past 20 seasons can match Cunningham’s line of statistics of 19.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.4 steals and 1 , 0 blocks per game.
Mitchell was recognized for his defensive play in both seasons at Baylor. In addition to the Defensive Player of the Year honor, he was nominated for Team 12 Big All-Defensive for the second time and repeats as a finalist for Naismith’s Defensive Player of the Year. He is second in the Big 12 in steals (1,9), behind teammate Butler and second in the turnover / assists ratio (2,3). He averages 13.8 points and leads the team with 125 assists, including two double-digit assists.
Transferred from Georgetown, McClung had an immediate impact on the Red Raiders. He is fourth in the league in scoring in general games (16.1) and conference-only games (17.0). His 10 games of more than 20 points are second in the Big 12, behind 11 from Cunningham. He reached the season record of 30 points in West Virginia on January 25 and scored double figures in 20 games this season.
After averaging 6.9 points and 4.1 rebounds in 18 games last year, McCormack improved his numbers to 13.1 points and 6.1 rebounds this season, starting all 27 games for the Jayhawks. His percentage of 0.536 in league games leads the league, while he is second in all games with a 0.511. McCormack ranks third on the Big 12 with six doubles and has 17 games with double-digit scores, including 11 out of the last 12.
Jones reached double digits scoring 10 times this year, leaving the bank for Texas. He averages 8.5 points and 4.8 rebounds in 22.7 minutes per game, and is the team’s second with a shot percentage of 0.565. Jones had the season record of 17 points at Iowa State on March 2.
Drew took Baylor to his first regular season title Big 12 and the program’s first conference title since 1950 – a 71-year period. The Bears finished 13-1 in conference games and head to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Championship with a general score of 21-1. The BU fought against adversity as it was unable to play from February 6th to 20th and lost 18 days of practice due to COVID-19.
Click on the PDF for a complete list of honors.