Oread Observations: Jalen Wilson's Place in a Legendary Jayhawks Run
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It can be hard to stop and smell the roses when you’re in the midst of a Big 12 championship chase. That’s likely especially true this year for the Kansas Jayhawks and Jayhawk faithful, given the absurdly competitive nature of the conference this year.
With the biggest game of the Big 12 schedule on tap this weekend between KU and the Baylor Bears, no one will blame you if your emotions trend more toward nervous excitement than toward appreciation.
But following Tuesday’s impressive win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the topic of the “golden era” of Kansas basketball popped up, and whether or not we’re currently living through it.
For what it’s worth, we are almost certainly living through the best era the Jayhawks will ever have. That’s not a doom-and-gloom take, it’s just the reality. This program has been absurd for a long time, with four Final Four appearances and a pair of national titles in the last two decades, plus all the Big 12 championships. These things aren’t even close to normal in college basketball, yet KU succeeds and excels to a remarkable degree year in, year out.
The time for full-scale reminiscing and appreciation will come whenever this season, and for Jayhawks fans that will hopefully be after another title, or at least another national semifinal appearance.
At present, however, there’s one specific element of this team that deserves immediate recognition and respect.
Everyone knows that Jalen Wilson will be the Big 12 Player of the Year and will definitely be a consensus first-team All-American, too. Throw in some other honors, like being the likely Julius Erving Award winner for the nation’s best small forward, and this is already an all-time great season for Wilson.
And yet, that’s become a run-of-the-mill occurrence for Kansas basketball.
Last season, Ochai Agbaji was the best story in college basketball, rising from recruiting and redshirt obscurity to All-America status after taking one of the biggest junior-to-senior leaps ever. Being named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four for a title-winning team was the cherry on top of his historically decorated campaign.
While Udoka Azubuike’s chance to etch his name into March Madness history was robbed by the pandemic in the 2019-20 season, no one in KU or Big 12 circles will forget his ferocious, dominant senior season that led to player-of-the-year honors.
Two years earlier it was Devonte’ Graham thrilling legions of college hoops fans while leading the Jayhawks to another Final Four. A late surge propelled Kansas to San Antonio and helped Graham steal the conference player of the year award from Oklahoma’s Trae Young, who had a pretty special year in his own right.
And of course, in the 2016-17, Frank Mason III posted one of the greatest individual seasons in KU history on his way to being named the consensus national player of the year. Mason was incredible from the very beginning that season, starting up what has become an unprecedented run of individual success stories in America’s toughest conference.
Once Wilson brings home the award next month, that will be five Big 12 Players of the Year in the last seven seasons for Kansas. That is remarkable, almost unthinkable.
Those same words come close to describing Wilson’s run this year. Despite opposing teams knowing exactly how important he is to KU and how dangerous he is offensively, he still leads the Big 12 in scoring, he’s second in the league in rebounding and he’s effectively been the entirety of the Jayhawks’ production at times this year.
Obviously, there's still work to be done this season for Wilson and Kansas, and depending on how this year ends he could have his name irrevocably on the list of the greatest Jayhawks ever.
His excellence is the latest edition of what's become the norm in Lawrence, but that norm isn't close to normal. Night in and night out, he's the best player in the country's best conference, the most obvious choice to put atop the scouting report and yet a dominating force nonetheless.
Just like Agbaji. And Azubuike. And Graham. And Mason.
The list of iconic Jayhawks is hilariously long, but even by Kansas standards this run of individual success has been incomprehensible.
Some day, it will be fun to look back on this stretch and debate who was the best of this illustrious group (or at least of the four after the national player of the year). For now, though, basking in the glory of the consistent, spectacular force is good enough.
If you get a brief moment in between the steps of your personal anxious preparation for Saturday's marquee matchup with Baylor, try to recognize the greatness of Jalen Wilson, and try to recognize just how special and truly unique this most recent era of KU history has been.
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