MANHATTAN, Kan. – Seniors Coleman Hawkins and David N’Guessan were each honored for their respective seasons, as Hawkins was named to the All-Big 12 Third Team and N’Guessan to the Honorable Mention team in announcement by the conference office on Sunday (March 9).
It marked the first career Big 12 awards for Hawkins and N’Guessan, while they were the fifth and sixth Wildcats to be selected to the All-Big 12 teams under head coach Jerome Tang. Hawkins was named the Preseason Big 12 Co-Newcomer of the Year and to the Preseason All-Big 12 Second Team.
Hawkins is the first Wildcat to earn recognition to one of the three All-Big 12 teams since Keyontae Johnson and Markquis Nowell were elected to the All-Big 12 First Team in 2023.
The all-conference honors were the fourth in Hawkins’s career after he was named to the Big Ten Honorable Mention team at Illinois in 2023-24. He was also a Second Team pick by the AP and a Third Team honoree by the league media.
Big 12 regular-season champion Houston headlined the individual awards, as Cougars’ Joseph Tugler and LJ Cryer were selected as the Defensive Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, respectively, while head coach Kelvin Sampson was the league’s Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season. Runner-up Texas Tech had both the Player and Newcomer of the Year in JT Toppin, while Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe was Freshman of the Year, Iowa State’s Curtis Jones was the Sixth Man Award winner and BYU’s Richie Saunders was league’s Most Improved Player.
The All-Big 12 awards are selected by league’s 16 coaches, who are not allowed to vote for their own players.
A 6-foot-10, 255-pound wing from Sacramento, Calif., Hawkins is the only Division I player in the country to average at least 10 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. He is averaging 10.4 points on 39.6 percent (108-of-273) shooting, including 29.8 percent (31-of-104) from 3-point range, to go with 6.9 rebounds, 4.5 assists. 1.9 steals and 1.3 blocks in 33.3 minutes per game. He is the team leader in steals and blocks, while he is second in rebounding and assists and fourth in scoring. He has scored in double figures in 15 games, including 10 times in Big 12 play, while he has tallied 3 double-doubles, including a points/assists double-double at Kansas on Jan. 18.
A 6-foot-9, 220-pound wing from De Lier, The Netherlands, N’Guessan has been the Wildcats’ leading scorer and rebounder for most of the season, as he is averaging 13.3 points on a Big 12-best 63.8 percent (169-of-265) shooting from the field with 7.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 0.9 blocks in 29.9 minutes per game. He has scored in double figures in a team-best 25 games, including a team-best five 20-point performance. He has also collected a team-best 6 double-doubles, including 5 in Big 12 play. In addition to being the league’s leader in field goal percentage, he ranks in the top 20 in both scoring and rebounding.
K-State (15-16, 9-11 Big 12) is the No. 10 seed at this week’s Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship and will face 15-seed Arizona State (13-18, 4-16 Big 12) at 6 p.m., CT on Tuesday at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. The winner will get No. 7 seed Baylor (18-13, 10-10 Big 12) at 6 p.m., CT on Wednesday.
Phillips 66 All-Big 12 Awards
Player of the Year: JT Toppin, Texas Tech
Defensive Player of the Year: Joseph Tugler, Houston
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: LJ Cryer, Houston
Freshman of the Year: VJ Edgecombe, Baylor
Newcomer of the Year: JT Toppin, Texas Tech
Sixth Man Award: Curtis Jones, Iowa State
Most Improved: Richie Saunders, BYU
Coach of the Year: Kelvin Sampson, Houston
All-Big 12 First Team
Caleb Love, Arizona
Norchad Omier, Baylor
Richie Saunders, BYU
LJ Cryer, Houston
J’Wan Roberts, Houston
Curtis Jones, Iowa State
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
JT Toppin, Texas Tech*
Darrion Williams, Texas Tech
Javon Small, West Virginia
All-Big 12 Second Team
VJ Edgecombe, Baylor
Keyshawn Hall, UCF
Milos Uzan, Houston
Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State
Chance McMillian, Texas Tech
All-Big 12 Third Team
Joseph Tugler, Houston
Zeke Mayo, Kansas
Coleman Hawkins, Kansas State
Keshon Gilbert, Iowa State
Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Honorable Mention: Arizona: Tobe Awaka, Henri Veesaar; Baylor: Robert Wright; BYU: Egor Demin; UCF: Darius Johnson; Cincinnati: Jizzle James; Colorado: Julian Hammond III; Houston: Emanuel Sharp; Kansas: Dajuan Harris Jr.; Kansas State: David N’Guessan; Oklahoma State: Bryce Thompson; TCU: Noah Reynolds, Ernest Udeh Jr.; Utah: Gabe Madsen
All-Defensive Team
Jayden Quaintance, Arizona State
J’Wan Roberts, Houston
Joseph Tugler, Houston
Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Sencire Harris, West Virginia
All-Freshman Team
Jayden Quaintance, Arizona State
VJ Edgecombe, Baylor
Robert Wright, Baylor
Egor Demin, BYU
Christian Anderson, Texas Tech
All-Newcomer Team
Norchad Omier, Baylor
Keyshawn Hall, UCF
Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State
Zeke Mayo, Kansas