Arizona’s Jaden Bradley was named Player of the Year to highlight the 2026 Phillips 66 All-Big 12 men’s basketball awards. After winning its first Big 12 regular season title, Arizona’s Tobe Awaka (Sixth Man) and head coach Tommy Lloyd (coach of the year) completed a trio of Wildcats to earn Big 12 superlatives.
Kansas’ Flory Bidunga (defensive player) and Melvin Council Jr. (newcomer), along with Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey (Scholar-Athlete), BYU’s AJ Dybantsa (freshman), and Texas Tech’s Christian Anderson (most improved) completed the individual “of the year” awards.
Bradley is the third Arizona player in the past five seasons to be named conference player of the year, but the first to earn the honor in the Wildcats’ two seasons in the Big 12. The senior from Rochester, N.Y. averaged 13.4 points and 4.6 assists to lead his team to an 18-2 record. He had key 25+ point performances in wins at BYU and Baylor, which proved key for Arizona’s title chances.
Bidunga is the ninth Kansas player to earn the league’s top defensive honor and the first since Dajuan Harris in 2023. The Kinshasa, Congo native had a league-leading 2.7 blocks per game, helping Kansas hold its opponents to a 38.7 field goal percentage, the best in the Conference. Offensively, he adds 13.8 points per game to go along with 9.0 rebounds.
Lipsey is the fourth Scholar-Athlete of the Year from Iowa State, and the first for the Cyclones since 2018-19. The senior averaged 13.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 5.0 assists, helping his hometown school to a top 10 national ranking. The communications studies major holds a 3.73 GPA.
In a year where the storylines centered around a deep and talented freshman class, Dybantsa emerged as the Big 12’s best, becoming the first from BYU to earn the award in the program’s three seasons in the league. The Brockton, Massachusetts native averages an NCAA-leading 24.7 points per game, which is on track to be a top-five mark in the history of the Big 12.
Council is the Jayhawks’ fourth Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and second honoree in the past three seasons. The guard from Rochester, N.Y. averages 13.4 points and 4.9 rebounds, while becoming a fan favorite for his senior leadership. The St. Bonaventure transfer ranks among the Conference’s top 10 in both assists per game (5.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.9).
Awaka was the nation’s leading rebounder off the bench, averaging 9.7 rebounds and 9.9 points when entering the game as a reserve. The Hyde Park, N.Y. native reached double-digit rebounds in eight Big 12 games. He is the first Arizona player to win Sixth Man Award in the Big 12.
Anderson nearly doubled his scoring average, going from 10.6 points to 19.2 this season to earn the Most Improved Award. The sophomore from Atlanta ranks third in Division I with 7.8 assists per game and has represented Texas Tech’s next-man-up mentality after the injury to JT Toppin, scoring 20+ points in three of the five games since. He is the first Red Raider to capture the award since its institution for the 2019-20 season.
Lloyd led Arizona to its first Big 12 regular season title, navigating the nation’s toughest league with an 18-2 record. The 2022 AP National Coach of the Year earns his first honor in the Big 12 Conference, while amassing 141 wins in the first five seasons of his career, the most of any coach in NCAA Division I history.
In addition, the Conference named a 10-person first team along with five-member second and third teams plus all-defensive, all-freshman and all-newcomer teams. Dybantsa, Houston’s Kingston Flemings and Texas Tech’s JT Toppin were unanimously voted to the first team.
2026 Phillips 66 All-Big 12 Men’s Basketball Awards
Player of the Year: Jaden Bradley, Arizona
Defensive Player of the Year: Flory Bidunga, Kansas
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Freshman of the Year: AJ Dybantsa, BYU
Newcomer of the Year: Melvin Council Jr., Kansas
Sixth Man Award: Tobe Awaka, Arizona*
Most Improved: Christian Anderson, Texas Tech
Coach of the Year: Tommy Lloyd, Arizona
All-Big 12 First Team
Jaden Bradley, Arizona
Brayden Burries, Arizona
Motiejus Krivas, Arizona
AJ Dybantsa, BYU*
Emanuel Sharp, Houston
Kingston Flemings, Houston*
Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State
Flory Bidunga, Kansas
Christian Anderson, Texas Tech
JT Toppin, Texas Tech*
All-Big 12 Second Team
Richie Saunders, BYU
Baba Miller, Cincinnati
Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Milan Momcilovic, Iowa State
Darryn Peterson, Kansas
All-Big 12 Third Team
Koa Peat, Arizona
Cameron Carr, Baylor
Rob Wright, BYU
Themus Fulks, UCF
Xavier Edmonds, TCU
All-Big 12 Honorable Mention:
Arizona: Tobe Awaka
Baylor: Tounde Yessoufou
Cincinnati: Moustapha Thiam
Colorado: Isaiah Johnson
Houston: Joseph Tugler, Milos Uzan
Kansas: Melvin Council Jr.
Kansas State: PJ Haggerty
Oklahoma State: Parsa Fallah
TCU: David Punch
Texas Tech: Donovan Atwell
West Virginia: Honor Huff
Utah: Terrence Brown
All-Defensive Team
Jaden Bradley, Arizona
Motiejus Krivas, Arizona
Emanuel Sharp, Houston
Joseph Tugler, Houston
Tamin Lipsey, Iowa State
Flory Bidunga, Kansas*
A tie resulted in an extra position on the team
All-Freshman Team
Brayden Burries, Arizona*
Koa Peat, Arizona
AJ Dybantsa, BYU*
Kingston Flemings, Houston*
Darryn Peterson, Kansas*
All-Newcomer Team
Cameron Carr, Baylor
Themus Fulks, UCF
Baba Miller, Cincinnati
Melvin Council Jr., Kansas
Donovan Atwell, Texas Tech
*- unanimous selection