Jalen Wilson will leave Kansas basketball as a Danny Manning Mr. Jayhawk Award winner

LAWRENCE — For Bill Self, the decision wasn’t all that difficult.

Self, Kansas men’s basketball’s head coach, has watched how Jalen Wilson has represented the program the past four years. Self has watched Wilson rack up accomplishments on the court playing for the Jayhawks, and become both a leader in the locker room and in the community. And this past season, it was without a doubt Wilson’s team.

So, when Self selected the winner of the Danny Manning Mr. Jayhawk Award, he picked Wilson. The announcement came this past week during the team’s end-of-season banquet. Wilson follows Ochai Agbaji as the latest honoree.

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“There was one person that thought Jalen Wilson could score 20 a game; we all know who that was … Derale, his dad,” Self told the crowd. “When Jalen had a little incident last year before the season, that’s when we found out who Jalen Wilson really was. Stud. And the sacrifices he made on a national championship team, for the betterment of everybody else, didn’t go unnoticed. And I don’t know if I told (Wilson) this, or if I told mom or dad this, but for us to be really good, their son had to play at an All-American level this year.”

Self continued to say Wilson didn’t stop there, and that Wilson was probably second in the running for national player of the year. On a team that lost so much production from the national championship run in 2022, Wilson spearheaded the effort to win another Big 12 Conference regular season title. He became the Big 12 player of the year and led Kansas to another No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Self likened the season Wilson had to what Wayne Simien and Frank Mason III have done at Kansas in the past. Self doesn’t know if anyone’s gotten as much out of what they’re capable of as Wilson. Once again, Self described Wilson as the biggest winner he’s ever coached.

Wilson is the 10th player in program history to both score at least 1,400 points and collect at least 800 rebounds in a career. The last to do that was Perry Ellis. And this past season, Wilson averaged 20.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game as he led the team in both areas.

“When he walks into a room, he thinks he’s the coolest, best looking, the most competitive, the toughest, guy, regardless, and I love that about him, that he has so much self-confidence,” Self said about Wilson while speaking with reporters. “I also love the fact that he doesn’t remember the misses, he only remembers the makes. And you can take that — you can say that in basketball, but that’s also life, too. He doesn’t get down about the bad things that happen, he gets pumped up about what potentially is out there. So, I think he’s been a great role model for all of us.”

Wilson could still return to college and keep playing for the Jayhawks. Self even joked about that as he talked about Wilson in front of the crowd at the banquet. But all indications are he’s going to make the jump to the professional ranks this year.

Wilson doesn’t just have the potential to be a draft pick, but a first round pick — depending on how the pre-draft process works out. Coming back to school for another year allowed him to provide a significant boost to his resume. And he’ll likely receive an invite to the NBA combine.

“I just want to thank you all for supporting us all year, through all the ups and downs,” Wilson told the crowd at the banquet. “I always say that y’all support us through everything, and like I said in my senior night speech to have you guys for four years is a true blessing and honor. I’m going to miss you guys so much, miss playing here, miss seeing you guys’ faces, but like I’ve said this will always be home and I’m just looking forward to the future and this place to keep getting better.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball's Jalen Wilson wins Danny Manning Mr. Jayhawk Award