As February fades and the fun of March Madness enters full swing, the college basketball landscape takes center stage with conference and NCAA tournaments aplenty.

The end of the regular season also means award season is on its way, with All-Conference selections being made, along with multiple players up for their respective conference’s player of the year.

Iowa State has had a resurgent season under T.J. Otzelberger and is one win away from matching the largest single-season turnaround in NCAA history.

It hasn’t just been Otzelberger that has allowed this team to essentially skip whatever “rebuilding” process would have occurred, at least for a season. It’s also in thanks in large part to Izaiah Brockington, the transfer from Penn State.

Brockington has put his team on his back at times on offense and has brought a contagious energy on the floor from the very first game at Hilton Coliseum.

His efforts have earned him conversation not only for national awards but front-running arguments for Big 12 Player of the Year.

But if you ask me, it’s not his to lose.

Enter Ochai Agbaji.

Agbaji is a lottery pick in this year’s NBA Draft, according to some experts, and almost all expect him to get his name called in the first round. He has his Kansas Jayhawks within a half-game of first place in the Big 12 with two games in hand.

Many believe the Big 12 Player of the Year race is essentially down to Brockington and Agbaji (including the person writing this). What they have both done for their teams is immeasurable in impact.

Or is it?

Comparing the statistics straight-up already gives Agbaji a leg-up on Brockington.

Agbaji’s average numbers, granted in two fewer games, are, for the most part, higher than Brockington’s. Brockington only averages more rebounds (7.3 compared to 5.3 per game for Agbaji) and steals (1.3 to 0.8) than his Big 12 counterpart.

If you take a deeper dive into the statistics, Agbaji is doing all of his damage with a lower usage rate than Brockington. Agbaji has a 25.4 percent usage rate compared to Brockington’s 27.6. Usage rate essentially determines how many “team plays are used by the player.”

Agbaji’s “effective field goal percentage” is also about nine points higher than Brockington, a product of shooting a higher percentage of his shots from beyond the three-point line.

Anyone who has watched Iowa State basketball this season can see how important Brockington is to the team’s offense. If he had a dollar for every time he’s had to bail his team out with a shot late in the shot clock, it’d be his largest NIL deal by far.

But Agbaji is just as important to what his team does, as the Jayhawks feature more of an offensive-heavy game with less emphasis on defensive pressure.

The statistics favor Agbaji, but that certainly shouldn’t be the only factor in determining the Big 12 Player of the Year, so we’ll dive into some other ones.

The head-to-head matchup only occurred once this season due to Agbaji not playing in Ames on Feb. 1 due to COVID-19 Health and Safety Protocols.

When the teams met Jan. 11, Agbaji had 22 points and seven rebounds compared to 17 points and eight rebounds for Brockington in the Cyclones’ 62-61 loss in Allen Fieldhouse.

That makes the score two to zero in favor of Agbaji with one more unofficial category to go; overall team performance.

The “MVP” in other sports usually goes to the best team’s best player, and the Big 12 Player of the Year is essentially the MVP of the Big 12 conference.

Kansas is 12-4 in the Big 12 and 23-6 overall and fighting to win the Big 12 regular-season title. Iowa State is 7-10 in the Big 12 and 20-10 overall and is likely to be taken out in the first round of the Big 12 tournament by Texas Tech, Kansas or Baylor.

It’s not exactly fair to judge an individual by the team’s performance, but sometimes life isn’t fair.

Izaiah Brockington has had an incredible season for the Cyclones and has given the people of Ames so many angry dunks, offensive takeovers and effort plays this season. This isn’t meant to discount the impact he’s had.

But Ochai Agbaji is the best player in the conference who also happens to be playing on what could be the best team in the conference. He’s my favorite to win the Big 12 Player of the Year.

Both players should be unanimous selections for first-team All-Big 12, but excluding an extraneous circumstance such as sharing the player of the year award, it will likely go to Agbaji.