NCAA Basketball: Top 5 Wooden Award candidates

Devonte' Graham

1. Devonte' Graham -- Kansas Jayhawks, senior guard

Devonte' Graham, who was my preseason pick to win the 2018 Wooden Award, is in a great position to find himself winning it when it is all said and done after his stellar season stepping into the role as the catalyst for the Kansas Jayhawks' offense.

Kansas guard Frank Mason III won the Wooden Award last season while Graham played a smaller role as a junior. However, taking a backseat to Mason before Mason graduated last year has paid off for the senior guard, as he may very well become the second straight Kansas guard to win the award.

The 6'2", 185-pound guard is averaging 17.6 points per game, 4.0 rebounds per game, 7.2 assists per game, 0.1 blocks per game and 1.6 steals per game on a 40.5% shooting percentage, a 42.3% three-point field goal percentage, and an 83.0% free throw percentage as he leads the Jayhawks into the Big XII conference tournament as the #1 seed.

There were doubts that this Kansas team would be able to win the Big XII conference championship and that their 13-year streak of winning at least a share of the regular season conference championship, which was tied for the all-time record with the 13-year streak of the UCLA Bruins from the 1966-1967 season to the 1978-1979 season, would come to an end.

The Jayhawks, who pride themselves on their homecourt advantage, struggled early in the season, dropping two home non-conference games before getting blown out in their Big XII conference home opener at Allen Fieldhouse to the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

At that point in, the Red Raiders, the West Virginia Mountaineers, the TCU Horned Frogs and the Oklahoma Sooners were all extremely hot. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks simply were not. They ended up dropping yet another home Big XII conference game to the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

However, on the back of Devonte' Graham, the Jayhawks rode to their 14th consecutive Big XII conference regular season championship, which is the new all-time record for consecutive regular season conference championships won.

The Jayhawks actually ended up winning it by two whole games as well, as they finished with a 13-5 conference record while the Mountaineers and Red Raiders finished tied for 2nd place with 11-7 conference record.