The John R. Wooden Award will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this season. Leading up to the award ceremony on April 10, 2026, The Sporting Tribune in partnership with the Wooden Award and the Los Angeles Athletic Club will highlight past winners of the Wooden Award and the Legends of Coaching Award.
The Kansas Jayhawks are arguably the most historic program in the history of college basketball, with an all-time roster that features some of the greatest talent the sport has seen throughout the last century. However, until the 2016-17 season, Kansas still hadn’t been home to a consensus National Player of the Year after Danny Manning only went without the AP award in 1988.
Enter Frank Mason III. The 2017 Wooden Award winner established an exclusive club by earning consensus honors across the sport, a club in which he’s still the lone Jayhawk occupant.
The southeastern Virginia native began his career in Lawrence as a reserve in 2013-14, averaging 5.5 points in 16.1 minutes per game his freshman year. For the remaining three seasons of his four-year career at Kansas, Mason III didn’t miss a start and became the most integral piece of the fabric of coach Bill Self’s roster.
As a sophomore, Mason III averaged 12.6 points in 33.5 minutes per game en route to a Round of 32 loss to Wichita State in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Mason III put up nearly identical statistics as a junior but the Jayhawks were a far better team, earning the No. 1 overall seed in March Madness after winning the Big 12 Tournament for the only time in Mason III’s career. Kansas would go on to advance to the Elite 8 in 2016, but eventual national champion Villanova ended their season in Louisville.
As a senior in 2016-17, Mason III took the leap from a very good point guard on a contender to the very best player in all of college basketball. Averaging a career high 20.9 points and 5.2 assists per game, he led Kansas to a 28-3 regular season record and became the first Jayhawk since Manning in ‘88 to bring the Wooden Award to Lawrence.
After being upset by TCU in the Big 12 quarterfinals, Kansas entered the 2017 NCAA Tournament highly motivated. The Jayhawks won their first three games in the Big Dance by an average of 26.6 points per game en route to a second straight Elite 8, which made it all the more surprising when No. 3 seed Oregon handily ended Mason III’s career with a 74-60 upset in the 2017 Elite 8.
Mason III was drafted by Sacramento Kings with the 34th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft and spent parts of four seasons in the league. Now 31 years old, Mason III is still active in Europe and plays for Limoges GSC in France. At 5’11, Mason III is also the only Wooden Award winner that was listed under six feet tall.