Four Baylor Men's Basketball Players Earn All-Big 12 Honors
IRVING, Texas – Four Baylor basketball players were recognized with Big 12 yearly awards, as voted on by the league’s coaches and announced Sunday morning by the conference office.
Senior guard Makai Mason was selected to the All-Big 12 Second Team, while sophomore forwards Mario Kegler and Mark Vital and freshman guard Jared Butler were tabbed as honorable mention All-Big 12 selections.
Additionally, Vital was named to the Big 12 All-Defensive Team, Butler was selected to the inaugural Big 12 All-Freshman Team, and Mason was recognized on the Big 12 All-Newcomer Team.
This marks 13 consecutive seasons Baylor has had multiple All-Big 12 honorees, and it’s the third time in the last four years that a school-record four Bears were recognized. The Bears’ four All-Big 12 selections matched the 2012, 2016 and 2017 seasons for most in school history.
Mason, the first grad transfer in program history, ranks seventh in the Big 12 in scoring (14.6), 11th in assists (3.2), fourth in free throw percentage (.827), sixth in 3-pointers made (2.0), 12th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.3) and 14th in minutes (31.8). He set a Baylor record for points in a Big 12 game with 40 against TCU on Feb. 2, and his 40 points are six more than any other Big 12 player has scored in a game this season.
Butler, a freshman guard from Reserve, La., has played in all 31 games and made 18 starts for the Bears. He started 16 games in conference play and ranked 12th in the league in scoring (12.5), seventh in assists (3.4), sixth in 3-point percentage (.422), fourth in 3-pointers made (2.4), 13th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.2) and 26th in minutes (30.1) in league games. Butler’s 12.5 points per game and 43 made 3-pointers in conference play led all Big 12 freshmen.
Kegler, a redshirt sophomore from Jackson, Miss., ranks 25th in the league in scoring (10.4), 12th in rebounding (5.9), 15th in blocks (0.6), eighth in defensive rebounding (4.4) and 28th in minutes (28.0). He posted back-to-back 20-point games to lead the Bears to wins against West Virginia and Texas, recording 23 points vs. WVU and 24 against UT, including the game-winning free throws with 3.2 seconds left in overtime.
Vital, a redshirt sophomore from Lake Charles, La., leads the Big 12 and ranks 11th nationally in offensive rebounding (3.5), ranks fourth in the league in total rebounding (7.2), eighth in blocks (0.9) and 29th in minutes (27.8). Vital started all 31 games, six more than any other BU player, and led the team with 863 total minutes played.
Mason joins Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. and Manu Lecomte in 2017 to give the Bears three All-Newcomer honorees in the last three seasons. Vital joins Lual-Acuil Jr. and Ishmail Wainright in 2017 to give BU three All-Defensive selections over the last three years.
Baylor completed the regular season with a 19-12 record, including a 10-8 mark in Big 12 play. The Bears finished fourth in the league after being picked ninth out of 10 teams in the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll, despite losing leading scorer Tristan Clark to a season-ending injury two games into conference play. BU also had to overcome injuries to Mason (six games missed), King McClure (five games missed) and Jake Lindsey (missed entire season). Those four projected starters combined to miss 59 total games, including 42 in Big 12 play.
Baylor is the No. 4 seed at the 2019 Big 12 Championship and will face No. 5 seed Iowa State in Thursday’s quarterfinals. Tipoff is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. CT from the Sprint Center in Kansas City. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN or ESPN2.
2019 BAYLOR SEASON HONORS
JARED BUTLER
All-Big 12, Honorable Mention
Big 12 All-Freshman Team
Big 12 Newcomer of the Week (Feb. 25)
TRISTAN CLARK
Big 12 Player of the Week (Dec. 31)
Emerald Coast Classic All-Tournament Team
FREDDIE GILLESPIE
Academic All-Big 12 First Team
MARIO KEGLER
All-Big 12, Honorable Mention
JAKE LINDSEY
Academic All-Big 12 First Team
MAKAI MASON
All-Big 12, Second Team
Big 12 All-Newcomer Team
Big 12 co-Newcomer of the Week (Jan. 28)
Big 12 Player of the Week (Feb. 4)
NCAA.com National Player of the Week (Feb. 4)
Google Cloud Academic All-District 7
KING McCLURE
Big 12 co-Player of the Week (Jan. 21)
MARK VITAL
All-Big 12, Honorable Mention
Big 12 All-Defensive Team
2019 ALL-BIG 12 AWARDS
Player of the Year: Jarrett Culver (Texas Tech)
Defensive Player of the Year: Barry Brown (Kansas State)
Newcomer of the Year: Dedric Lawson (Kansas)
Freshman of the Year: Jaxson Hayes (Texas)
Sixth Man Award: Lindell Wigginton (Iowa State)
Coach of the Year: Chris Beard (Texas Tech)
First Team
Marial Shayok, Iowa State
Dedric Lawson, Kansas
Barry Brown, Kansas State
Dean Wade, Kansas State
Jarrett Culver, Texas Tech
Second Team
Makai Mason, Baylor
Jaxson Hayes, Texas
Desmond Bane, TCU
Matt Mooney, Texas Tech
Derek Culver, West Virginia
Third Team
Devon Dotson, Kansas
Kristian Doolittle, Oklahoma
Christian James, Oklahoma
Alex Robinson, TCU
Davide Moretti, Texas Tech
Honorable Mention: Jared Butler, Baylor; Mario Kegler, Baylor; Mark Vital, Baylor; Talen Horton-Tucker, Iowa State; Nick Weiler-Babb, Iowa State; Lindell Wigginton, Iowa State; Xavier Sneed, Kansas State; Kamau Stokes, Kansas State; Brady Manek, Oklahoma; Cameron McGriff, Oklahoma State; Lindy Waters, Oklahoma State; Kouat Noi, TCU; Matt Coleman, Texas; Kerwin Roach, Texas; Tariq Owens, Texas Tech
All-Defensive Team
Mark Vital, Baylor
Marcus Garrett, Kansas
Barry Brown, Kansas State
Jaxson Hayes, Texas
Matt Mooney, Texas Tech
Tariq Owens, Texas Tech
All-Newcomer Team
Makai Mason, Baylor
Marial Shayok, Iowa State
Dedric Lawson, Kansas
Jaxson Hayes, Texas
Matt Mooney, Texas Tech
All-Freshman Team
Jared Butler, Baylor
Talen Horton-Tucker, Iowa State
Devon Dotson, Kansas
Jaxson Hayes, Texas
Derek Culver, West Virginia