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With the SEC basketball season recently drawing to a close and the start of the SEC Tournament on the horizon, the conference revealed its 2017 award winners on Tuesday afternoon.
Bringing home the SEC Player of the Year hardware was Sindarius Thornwell, the South Carolina guard who averaged 21.2 points and 7.3 rebounds per game this season. This award comes as no surprise to any observer of the Gamecocks, whose performance has been night and day when Thornwell does and does not play.
Mike White, who steered the Florida Gators to a second-place finish in the conference during the regular season, earned the Coach of the Year award. While some arguments could be made for someone like Frank Martin or John Calipari, one cannot be angered at White receiving the award.
Freshman phenom Malik Monk took home the SEC’s Freshman of the Year award. This season, Monk averaged roughly 21 points per game for the Wildcats, helping provide a large bulk of the offense that has led to them winning their 48th SEC regular season title. Monk is the 8th Kentucky player to win the award in the past 11 seasons.
The Defensive Player of the Year in the SEC was freshman Robert Williams, the Texas A&M big man who is currently projected to be a lottery pick in this year’s draft. Averaging roughly 8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, it’s easy to see why Williams earned the award.
Rounding out the individual awards are Vanderbilt’s Luke Kornet, the 2017 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and Canyon Barry, the Florida guard named the SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year.
Below are the SEC Basketball team awards, courtesy of SECSports.com:
First Team All-SEC
KeVaughn Allen, Florida
J.J. Frazier, Georgia
Yante Maten, Georgia
De'Aaron Fox, Kentucky
Malik Monk, Kentucky
Sebastian Saiz, Ole Miss
Sindarius Thornwell, South Carolina
Luke Kornet, Vanderbilt
Second Team All-SEC
Moses Kingsley, Arkansas
Kasey Hill, Florida
Bam Adebayo, Kentucky
Antonio Blakeney, LSU
Quinndary Weatherspoon, Miss State
Robert Hubbs III, Tennessee
Tyler Davis, Texas A&M
Robert Williams, Texas A&M
All-Freshman Team
Braxton Key, Alabama
Mustapha Heron, Auburn
Bam Adebayo, Kentucky
De'Aaron Fox, Kentucky
Malik Monk, Kentucky
Lamar Peters, Mississippi St.
Grant Williams, Tennessee
Robert Williams, Texas A&M
All-Defensive Team
Moses Kingsley, Arkansas
Kasey Hill, Florida
Sindarius Thornwell, South Carolina
Robert Williams, Texas A&M
Luke Kornet, Vanderbilt