Devonte' Graham Tops Trae Young, Unanimously Named Big 12 Player of the Year

Kansas Jayhawks senior guard Devonte' Graham was voted as the unanimous Big 12 Player of the Year, per Jake Trotter of ESPN.com, topping Oklahoma's star freshman Trae Young.

Other Big 12 awards announced Sunday included Kansas' Bill Self and Texas Tech's Chris Beard being named Big 12 co-Coaches of the Year as well as West Virginia's Jevon Carter taking home the conference's Defensive Player of the Year award.

Young, meanwhile, was named the conference's Player of the Year. The All-Big 12 first team was comprised of Graham, Young, Keenan Evans of Texas Tech, Jevon Carter of West Virginia and Dean Wade of Kansas State.

Graham was excellent for the Big 12 regular-season champions, averaging 17.6 points, 7.2 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game, leading the team in points and assists. He's paired with fellow senior Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and junior Lagerald Vick and sophomores Udoka Azubuike and Malik Newman to once again make the Jayhawks one of the favorites to win the national title.

Young stormed onto the college scene in a big way and is averaging 27.5 points and 8.9 assists per game this season, emerging as a potential top-five pick in the upcoming draft in the process. But the Sooners floundered in league play, going just 8-10 and losing 11 of their last 17 games and seven of their last nine.

That's put their NCAA tournament hopes in jeopardy and likely cost Young the Big 12 Player of the Year award as well, though not everyone will agree with Young failing to win the award. Nonetheless, there was plenty of support for Graham taking home the honor:

"I am so happy for Devonte'. It's well deserved," Kansas head coach Bill Self said, per Jesse Newell of the Kansas City Star. "He's played as big a role on this team I believe as any player that we've had since we've been here, on any team. Everyone inside the program knows it goes far past statistics. We're really happy for him."