30 greatest college basketball players this century
23. Frank Mason III, Kansas (2013-2017)
- 2017 Wooden Award Winner
- 2017 Consensus First-Team All-American
- 2017 Big 12 Player of the Year
As a freshman on the Kansas Jayhawks, Frank Mason was a backup point guard that saw the floor for just 16.1 minutes per game. However, the legend of Frank Mason and the #BIFM hashtag movement began soon after the guard posted just two points in an NCAA Tournament upset loss to Stanford when a hilariously then-obscure rap song hit YouTube and caught fire.
The artist that recorded said song, RedHead, must’ve had a crystal ball, because, over the next three years, Mason did develop into the type of college basketball player deserving of a theme song and a movement behind him. From his sophomore to senior year in Lawrence, Mason started in all 110 games in which he played.
In his sophomore and junior seasons, Mason earned respect as a gritty player with immense toughness and obvious on-court leadership abilities, but he was playing second-fiddle statistically as Perry Ellis spent his 60th year with the Jayhawks, posting his best numbers to that point as a junior with averages of 12.9 points, 4.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.
When he became a senior, though, it was Mason’s Kansas team and he showed out. On the year, the point guard put up 20.9 points, 5.2 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game while shooting 49 percent from the field and 47.1 percent from 3-point range, good enough to earn him the Wooden Award. Though he and Kansas failed to make the Final Four, it wasn’t on him as he averaged 22.3 points, six assists and 4.5 rebounds per game in the tournament.
Mason became a cult legend of college basketball first but then earned his keep on the court thereafter.