As Kevin Durant swept through the post-season awards this year, the Naismith seemed to be a foregone conclusion. All that remained was the official announcement making K-Smoove the first freshman to ever win the prestigious award. Last night, the Atlanta Tipoff Club finally ended the wait, naming Kevin Durant the Men’s College Player of the Year. KD is only the second Longhorn to win the award, and the third player from a Big 12 school to take home the trophy.

The Naismith can now go on Durant’s trophy shelf along with the AP Player of the Year, National Basketball Coaches POY, the Oscar Robertson Trophy, the Adolph Rupp Trophy, and that Chevrolet POY award he was given during the semifinals on Saturday. Oh, and did I mention he was a consensus first-team All-American?

If you weren’t planning on watching the national championship game tonight, at least try to tune in at halftime. CBS will do their halftime bit with Durant in a locker room where they congratulate him for winning the award. It’s a very weird and contrived setup, what with it being halftime and the real locker rooms being used by the teams playing in the game. But it’s still exposure for the program, and yet even more attention for the young man who deserves truckloads of it.