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Oklahoma star forward Romero Osby heads a group of three Sooner basketball players who have been named to the All-Big 12 team for the 2012-13 season.
Osby, OU's leading scorer, rebounder and one of the team captains this season, was named to the All-Big 12 first team, joining Ben McLemore and Jeff Withey of Kansas, Rodney McGruder of Kansas State and Oklahoma State's Marcus Smart. The first-team honorees include three seniors and two freshman (McLemore and Smart).
OU Junior forward Amath M'Baye and senior guard Steven Pledger were both named to the third team. In addition, M'Baye was was selected to the All-Big 12 Rookie Team.
OSU's Smart was named Player of the Year in the conference and Bruce Weber of Kansas State was awarded Coach of the Year honors for guiding the Wildcats to 25 overall wins, a 14-4 conference record and a share of the regular-season conference crown. Other individual awards included Defensive Player of the Year: Withey of Kansas, Newcomer of the Year: Will Clyburn of Iowa State, Freshman Player of the Year: Smart, Sixth Man Award: Tyrus McGee of Iowa State, and Scholar of the Year: Iowa State's Melvin Ejim.
Osby averaged 22.0 points and eight rebounds in 19 of the Sooners final 23 games in the regular season. The 6-8 senior forward surpassed 20 points in six conference games and scored at least 26 points on three occasions. He scored a career-high 33 points in OU's 92-86 overtime loss on Feb, 27 at Texas. Osby was the third leading scorer in the Big 12 this season.
M'Baye, a junior forward who transferred from Wyoming, averaged 10.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game this season as a starter for the Sooners. In Big 12 play, he shot 40 percent from three-point range and and was successful on 83 percent of his free-throw attempts.
Pledger, a four-year letter winner who was an honorable mention all-conference selection a year ago, was second on the team in scoring with a 12.0 average and was the Sooners' best perimeter scorer and third in the Big 12, averaging a little over two a game and 37.7 percent accuracy from beyond the three-point line. Pledger is second on the Oklahoma all-time three-point scoring list with 247. He needs just 12 more to break Terry Evans' school record.
The Big 12 men's basketball awards were voted on by the conference coaches.