Big 12 coaches, players explain why they think so highly of K-State’s Dean Wade

For someone who grew up admiring the Big 12’s finest basketball players, it was a surreal feeling for Dean Wade to stroll through Sprint Center as the conference’s preseason player of the year on Wednesday.

The senior Kansas State forward can recite previous winners by memory, from Frank Mason and Buddy Hield to Blake Griffin and Kevin Durant.

“All those guys are unbelievable players,” Wade said. “To even be mentioned in the same sentence as them means a lot.”

His peers think he is deserving of the honor. One by one, fellow Big 12 players and coaches praised Wade as one of the most dynamic and dangerous big men in the league.

Wade, coming off a sensational season in which he averaged 16.2 points and 6.2 rebounds and earned first-team all conference honors, is one of the most respected players around.

“I wouldn’t say that his success and his progress has surprised me at all,” KU coach Bill Self said. “I would say that when you have a guy that is that size, that explosive, and can shoot, that tells me he’s got a chance ... He’s one of the premier players, not just in our league, he’s one of the premier players in the country.”

K-State coach Bruce Weber is looking forward to seeing what the Wildcats can do with a healthy Wade leading the way this season.

A year ago, Wade was the driving force behind K-State’s march a fourth-place finish in conference play and a No. 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament. But he missed all but eight minutes of the postseason with a foot injury.

K-State went small and danced its way to the Elite Eight without its best player.

Now that he’s back, no ceiling feels too high for this team. That’s why the Wildcats came in at No. 12 in the preseason AP poll and No. 2 in the preseason Big 12 poll.

If anything, Weber thinks K-State deserves even more hype.

“We have everyone back and we went to the Elite Eight without supposedly the preseason Player of the Year in the Big 12,” Weber said. “Why shouldn’t we be in the top 10?”

K-State is too talented and deep for the upcoming season to be all about Wade, but he will lead the way.

He is too big (6-foot-10, 228 pounds) and efficient (55 percent shooter on field goals, 44 percent from three) for defenses to contain, let alone stop.

“He’s a mismatch on any pick and pop play,” Oklahoma forward Jamuni McNeace said, “ because he ends up matched up against a guard. He is really athletic. If our smaller guys come up to him he will post them up a little bit and score that way. He’s just overall a good player. He is one of the best big men in the country.”

“Dean is just so versatile,” added Oklahoma State forward Cameron McGriff. “He is going to score in many ways. You have to stay in tune with him on both ends of the court. He will crash the glass on the offensive boards. He is pretty intelligent defensively, as well.”

Wade hopes to continue hurting defenders in similar ways this season, while also expanding his game. K-State coaches have always urged him to shoot more, and he would like to fully take advantage of that green light. But he would also like to improve as a rebounder.

Truth be told, if he averaged a double-double last season he would probably be in the NBA right now instead of preparing for his senior year of college.

With help from newcomer Austin Trice, he would like to help K-State rebound at a much higher level than last season when it ranked last in the conference on the glass.

Being named preseason Big 12 Player of the Year has given him the confidence to do exactly that.

“It really made me feel good that the top Big 12 officials and people like that thought that highly of me,” Wade said. “It means a lot. I am very thankful for it. But at the same time it is going to push me to work harder to actually receive the award at the end of the season.”

That’s not something he necessarily expected to do when he arrived at K-State as a skinny freshman out of St. John, Kan. But few will be surprised if he does four years later.

“He’s deserving of that preseason expectation,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said. “Terrific player. To see his game progress as it has from his freshman year it’s kind of been storybook really, because each year he’s added to his game. He represents the best-case scenario.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2018 at 3:35 PM.