For someone who grew up admiring the Big 12’s finest basketball players, it was a surreal feeling for Dean Wade to stroll through Sprint Center as the conference’s preseason player of the year on Wednesday.
The senior Kansas State forward can recite previous winners by memory, from Frank Mason and Buddy Hield to Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant.
“All those guys are unbelievable players,” Wade said. “To even be mentioned in the same sentence as them means a lot.”
His peers think he is deserving of the honor. One by one, fellow Big 12 players and coaches praised Wade as one of the most dynamic and dangerous big men in the league.