Kansas Jayhawks’ Ochai Agbaji joins select group as Big 12 Tournament outstanding player
The individual honors continue to stack up for Ochai Agbaji.
The Kansas senior was named the most outstanding player of the Big 12 Tournament, after his 16 points helped the Jayhawks to a 74-65 victory over Texas Tech on Saturday at T-Mobile Center.
Ogbaji became the fifth player to follow a Big 12 Player of the Year season with the tournament award. He joins Iowa State’s Marcus Fizer (2000), Oklahoma State’s Tony Allen (2004), Texas’ Kevin Durant (2007) and Kansas’ Marcus Morris (2011) in pulling off the double.
Another Kansas player, Devonté Graham, won both honors, but not in the same season.
Agbaji averaged 18.7 points in Kansas’ three victories. He becomes the 10th Kansas player to win the tournament award, joining Paul Pierce (twice), Jeff Boschee, Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Sherron Collins, Morris, Jeff Withey, Graham and Malik Newman.
Joining Agbaji on the all-tournament team:
Christian Braun, Kansas
Braun averaged 11 points and posted the tournament’s first double-double when he scored 11 and grabbed 14 rebounds in the quarterfinal victory over West Virginia. Kansas’ David McCormack recorded the event’s other double-double with 18 points and 11 boards on Saturday.
Bryson Williams, Texas Tech
Williams had averaged 26 points in his previous three games against Kansas, including one when he was playing for UTEP. He finished with 17 on Saturday and averaged 10 points in three tournament games.
Terrence Shannon, Texas Tech
Shannon came up with a pair of double figure scoring games, including 14 in the championship. He looked to help Tech win its first Big 12 Tournament title in the program’s second trip to the final. The Red Raiders fell to Oklahoma State in 2005, in the final tournament played at Kemper Arena.
Umoja Gibson, Oklahoma
The Sooners guard nearly led seventh-seed OU to the semifinal round before falling to Texas Tech 56-55. Gibson led Oklahoma with 16. That followed a 14-point performance in the quarterfinal upset over second-seeded Baylor.
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 8:06 PM.