Big 12 Coaches Name Cade Cunningham Player of Year
Oklahoma State guard Cade Cunningham is the 2020-21 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Player of the Year, according to a vote of the league’s men’s basketball coaches.
Cunningham, a freshman, became the fourth freshman in Big 12 history to be named both the Player of the Year and the Freshman of the Year, joining Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart (2012-13), Kansas State’s Michael Beasley (2007-08) and Texas’ Kevin Durant (2006-07).
Cunningham finished the regular season as the league’s top scorer in both overall (19.7) and conference (20.1) games and is on the national ballot for the John R. Wooden Award and the Bob Cousy Point Guard Award
Cunningham averaged 19.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.0 blocks per game for the Cowboys.
READ MORE: 2020-21 Big 12 Basketball Individual Awards
READ MORE: Big 12 Basketball Power Rankings: Oklahoma State, Texas Rising Fast
Other superlative award winnings included Texas Tech guard Mac McClung, who was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year; Baylor guard Davion Mitchell, who was named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year; Kansas forward David McCormack, who was named the Big 12 Most Improved Player of the Year; and Texas forward Kai Jones, who was named the Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year.
Mitchell was named to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team for the second time and repeats as a finalist for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year.
Baylor head coach Scott Drew was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year, after leading the Bears to their first Big 12 regular-season title, and their first conference title of any kind since 1950. The Bears enter this week’s Big 12 Tournament as the No. 1 seed.
The first team included Cunningham and Mitchell, along Baylor guard Jared Butler, Oklahoma guard Austin Reaves and West Virginia forward Derek Culver.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard. Send him a tweet with your question to be included in this week’s Big 12 Basketball Mailbag, which appears each Friday during the conference season.
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