photo by: Mike Yoder

Kansas junior basketball guard Devonté Graham answers questions from campers at the Bill Self Basketball Camp Monday, June 13, 2016.

On the same day the Big 12 released its preseason all-conference team that included Iowa State’s gifted scoring point guard Monte Morris as player of the year, Bovada Sportsbook released odds for Associated Press player of the year.

Duke junior guard Grayson Allen had the shortest odds at 9/2. Solid choice given that Allen won the McDonald’s All-American dunk contest and finished second in the three-point shooting competition. He followed that up as a freshman by rallying Duke to victory vs. Wisconsin in the national championship game with 16 points in 21 minutes.

Allen, who had averaged just 4.4 points a game as a freshman, used his title game as a launching pad to a spectacular sophomore season in which he averaged 21.6 ppg.

Five players from a strong freshman class are among the 24 players listed: Markelle Fultz of Washington (7/1), Duke’s Jayson Tatum (8/1), UCLA’s Lonzo Ball (10/1) Josh Jackson (14/1) of Kansas and Kentucky’s Bam Adebayo (50/1).

A freshman hasn’t won the award since Anthony Davis in 2012.

Jackson is one of three Big 12 players on the board, joining teammate Frank Mason III (50/1) and Iowa State’s Morris (14/1).

But if I were setting odds, the Big 12 player to whom I would assign the shortest odds is not on the board, although he did make first-team all-conference.

Devonté Graham scored 27 points and outplayed Wooden Award winner Buddy Hield at both ends in leading the Jayhawks to a victory in Norman. Graham led his team to the Big 12 conference tournament title with another 27-point effort. Graham, gaining a big-game, big-shot reputation at about the same point Mario Chalmers’ started picking up steam, appears on the brink of a big junior season.

His shot, terrific from Day 1, gets better every year. He shot .425 from three as a freshman, .441 last season and nobody should be surprised if he makes more triples than he misses as a junior.

He leads aggressively, distributes unselfishly and is a strong defender.

Mason and Jackson will create plenty of open shots for Graham after breaking down defenses and Graham, now that he’s an upperclassman, won’t succumb to the temptation of deferring to older teammates.

It’s possible Graham and Allen will match up against each other in Madison Square Garden on Nov. 15. Even if they do, much of the attention will center on Jackson and Tatum because everybody loves fresh talents.

But if Graham does match up with Allen and gets the better of him, he won’t seem like such a long shot to earn national honors.