MANHATTAN, Kan. (KStateSports.com) – Junior Arthur Kaluma and senior Tylor Perry were each named to the All-Big 12 Honorable Mention team on Sunday (March 10), as the conference office announced its annual men’s basketball awards.
It marked the first career Big 12 awards for Kaluma and Perry, while they represented the third and fourth Wildcats to be selected to the All-Big 12 teams under head coach Jerome Tang. Both were named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Honorable Mention team.
The all-conference honors were the third in Perry’s career after twice being named to the Conference USA First Team at North Texas. Kaluma was selected to the 2022 BIG EAST All-Freshman Team while at Creighton.
Big 12 regular-season Houston headlined the individual awards, as Cougar senior Jamal Shead was selected as both Big 12 Player and Defensive Player of the Year, while head coach Kelvin Sampson was named the league’s Coach of the Year. Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson and Baylor’s Ja’Kobe Walter were chosen as the Newcomer and Freshman of the Year, respectively. BYU’s Jaxson Robinson was honored with the Sixth Man Award, while Texas’ Dylan Disu was the league’s Most Improved Player.
The All-Big 12 awards are selected by league’s 10 head coaches, who are not allowed to vote for their own players.
A 6-foot-7, 225-pound forward from Glendale, Ariz., Kaluma is currently averaging 14.8 points on 43 percent (141-of-328) shooting, including 35.5 percent (49-of-138) from 3-point range, and 75.2 percent (112-of-149) from the free throw line, to go with a team-best 7.1 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 34.8 minutes per game. He has scored in double figures in a team-best 26 games, including six 20-point games. He has also collected a team-best 5 double-doubles. He is one of 4 Big 12 players (Kansas’ Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr. and TCU’s Emanuel Miller) to rank in the Big 12’s top-15 in both scoring and rebounding. He ranks fifth in rebounding and 11th in scoring.
A 5-foot-11, 180-pound guard from Fort Coffee, Okla., Perry is currently averaging a team-best 15.2 points on 36 percent (123-of-342) shooting, including 33.2 percent (85-of-256) from 3-point range, and 91 percent (141-of-155) from the free throw line to go with 4.5 assists and 3.0 rebounds in 36.8 minutes per game. He ranks in the Big 12’s top-15 in 7 categories, including first in minutes, second in free throw percentage, third in 3-point field goals/game (2.74), sixth in assists, eighth in scoring, 11th in 3-point field goal percentage and 13th in assist/turnover ratio (1.69). He has scored in double figures in 22 of 30 games, including a team-best 10 games of 20 or more points.
K-State is the No. 10 seed at this week’s Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship and will face No. 7 Texas (20-11, 9-9 Big 12) at 6 p.m., CT on Wednesday, March 13 at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. The tournament begins Tuesday (March 12) with two first-round games.
