Big Eight Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year

The Big Eight Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year was an annual award given to the Big Eight Conference's most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1956–57 season and concluded after the 1995–96 season (the Big Eight disbanded and was re-formed into the present day Big 12 Conference). From 1960 through 1967 no award was given out. Wayman Tisdale of Oklahoma and Danny Manning of Kansas are the only players to have received the award three times. Manning was also the consensus national player of the year in 1988. Four other players won the award twice, last performed by Doug Smith of Missouri (1990, 1991). Missouri also claimed the most winners with eight, followed by Oklahoma with seven.

Big Eight Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year

Awarded for	the most outstanding basketball player in the Big Eight Conference
Country	United States
History
First award	1957
Final award	1996

Key

†	Co-Players of the Year
*	Awarded a national player of the year award: Helms Foundation College Basketball Player of the Year (1904–05 to 1978–79) UPI College Basketball Player of the Year (1954–55 to 1995–96) Naismith College Player of the Year (1968–69 to present) John R. Wooden Award (1976–77 to present)
Player (X)	Denotes the number of times the player has been awarded the Big Eight Player of the Year award at that point

Winners

Gary Thompson, Iowa State, 1957

Bob Boozer, Kansas State, 1958 and 1959

Donald Smith, Iowa State, 1968

Dave Robisch, Kansas, 1970

Lon Kruger (left), Kansas State, 1973 and 1974

Alvan Adams, Oklahoma, 1975

Kim Anderson, Missouri, 1977

Wayman Tisdale, Oklahoma, 1983 through 1985

Danny Manning, Kansas, 1986 through 1988

Jacque Vaughn, Kansas, 1996

Season	Player	School	Position	Class	Reference
1956–57	Gary Thompson	Iowa State	G	Senior	[1]
1957–58	Bob Boozer	Kansas State	F	Junior	[2]
1958–59	Bob Boozer (2)	Kansas State	F	Senior	[3]
1959–67	None selected[4]
1967–68	Donald Smith	Iowa State	C / PF	Senior	[4]
1968–69	Cliff Meely	Colorado	C	Sophomore	[5]
1969–70	Dave Robisch	Kansas	C	Junior	[6]
1970–71	Cliff Meely (2)	Colorado	C	Senior	[7]
1971–72	Bud Stallworth	Kansas	SG	Senior	[8]
1972–73	Lon Kruger	Kansas State	G	Junior	[9]
1973–74	Lon Kruger (2)	Kansas State	G	Senior	[10]
1974–75	Alvan Adams	Oklahoma	C	Junior	[11]
1975–76	Willie Smith	Missouri	PG / SG	Senior	[12]
1976–77	Kim Anderson	Missouri	SF	Senior	[13]
1977–78	Mike Evans	Kansas State	SG / PG	Senior	[14]
1978–79	John McCullough	Oklahoma	SG / SF	Senior	[15]
1979–80	Rolando Blackman	Kansas State	SG	Junior	[16]
1980–81	Andre Smith	Nebraska	C	Senior	[17]
1981–82	Ricky Frazier	Missouri	SF	Senior	[18]
1982–83†	Steve Stipanovich	Missouri	C	Senior	[19]
	Wayman Tisdale	Oklahoma	PF	Freshman	[19]
1983–84	Wayman Tisdale (2)	Oklahoma	PF	Sophomore	[20]
1984–85	Wayman Tisdale (3)	Oklahoma	PF	Junior	[20]
1985–86	Danny Manning	Kansas	PF	Sophomore	[21]
1986–87	Danny Manning (2)	Kansas	PF	Junior	[21]
1987–88	Danny Manning* (3)	Kansas	PF	Senior	[21]
1988–89	Stacey King	Oklahoma	C/F	Senior	[22]
1989–90	Doug Smith	Missouri	F	Junior	[23]
1990–91†	Byron Houston	Oklahoma State	SF	Junior	[24]
	Doug Smith (2)	Missouri	F	Senior	[24]
1991–92	Anthony Peeler	Missouri	SG	Senior	[25]
1992–93	Bryant Reeves	Oklahoma State	C	Sophomore	[26]
1993–94	Melvin Booker	Missouri	PG	Senior	[27]
1994–95	Ryan Minor	Oklahoma	F	Junior	[28]
1995–96	Jacque Vaughn	Kansas	PG	Junior	[29]

Winners by school

For clarification of each school's membership history, see Big Eight Conference § Membership timeline.

School (year joined)	Winners	Years
Missouri (1907)	8	1976, 1977, 1982, 1983†, 1990, 1991†, 1992, 1994
Oklahoma (1919)	7	1975, 1979, 1983†, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1995
Kansas (1907)	6	1970, 1972, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1996
Kansas State (1913)	6	1958, 1959, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1980
Colorado (1947)	2	1969, 1971
Iowa State (1910)	2	1957, 1968
Oklahoma State (1958)	2	1991†, 1993
Nebraska (1921)	1	1981

See also

• Big 12 Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year – the successor to the Big Eight Conference and its players of the year (although the Big 12 does not recognize Big Eight Players of the Year as their own)