Big 12 Basketball: 2018-19 preseason all-conference and awards predictions
By Chris Kern
Newcomer Of The Year
Dedric Lawson
Dedric Lawson is the clear frontrunner for this award. He is one of six preseason All-American’s in the whole country.
His is going to be a leader for this Kansas team as well as a focal point of the offense. He can make plays on both ends of the floor.
Lawson is going to make this the second straight year a Jayhawk wins this award. Malik Newman won it last year despite struggling for parts of the year.
Newman got it going late in the season and had some big moments in March but he was inconsistent before that.
The Jayhawks are going to need Lawson to be a big-time player each and every night. They lost many key players from last season but they are still ranked #1 in the AP preseason poll.
Kansas being ranked so high shows how much people believe in Lawson’s ability. They have a lot of talent around him but Lawson is expected to be the guy.
This team is so deep so they won’t need him to take over every night but there are gonna be some big games where there go to him to make plays down the stretch.
Despite his size and strength, he has the ability to play on the perimeter which makes it incredibly tough to guard him.
If Lawson plays the way he’s expected to, he will win this award no question. The better question might be whether or not he wins Big 12 Player of the year or even the Naismith award.