As the Southeastern Conference regular season winds down, it’s time to present my league superlatives.
All-SEC Team
Johni Broome, 6-foot-10 senior forward, Auburn. In his fifth college season, Broome has been dominant, averaging a double-double and leading the Tigers in scoring, rebounding, assists and blocked shots. He impacts the game more than any player in the league and along with Duke freshman Cooper Flagg, is a top candidate for national player-of-the-year honors.
Mark Sears, 6-foot-1 senior guard, Alabama. Sears has been a handful for opponents most of the season, but after Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats benched him during the second half of a late-January game against LSU, he has been dominant on both ends of the floor. The 20-minute banishment was meant to encourage Sears to exert more energy on defense and he has. He has been a tough cover on the other end, recently becoming the first player in Division I this season to produce consecutive 30-point games. He also hit the biggest shot of the season on Saturday when his mid-range floater at the buzzer delivered the Tide an overtime win at Auburn.
Walter Clayton, 6-foot-3 senior guard, Florida. On a team loaded with quality guards, Clayton stands out because of his toughness, leadership and willingness to do whatever it takes to win. Clayton, who leads the Gators in scoring, three-point field goals made and assists, is also a finalist for the Cousy Award.
Zakai Zeigler, 5-foot-9 senior guard, Tennessee. Zeigler has elevated his game after being encouraged by the Tennessee staff to attack the rim more often. Consequently, he has become a late-game scoring weapon who is also a threat to find an open teammate; he’s leading the SEC in assists for the third consecutive season. Zeigler is the third SEC player to make the Cousy Award finalist list.
Chaz Lanier, 6-foot-5 senior guard, Tennessee. Lanier was signed to replace the irreplaceable — Dalton Knecht, last season’s SEC Player of the Year. Lanier — a finalist for the Jerry West Award (top shooting guard) has come close to matching Knecht’s role. Lanier has been named SEC player of the week three times and has had Knecht-like scoring barrages: 30 points against Texas A&M, 29 against Arkansas, 26 versus Virginia and 25 against Baylor. Lanier is just the third Vol to make 100 or more three-pointers in a season (something Knecht failed to accomplish) and is just the third Tennessee player to surpass the century mark.
Player of the Year
This goes to Broome and it’s not close. The postseason could determine whether Broome also bags National Player of the Year honors. Some pundits think he’s the guy; others think it’s Duke’s Flagg. Duke handed Auburn a loss in December’s ACC-SEC Challenge, but behind Broome, the Tigers have lost only three more games since.
Freshman of the Year
Tre Johnson, 6-foot-6 guard, Texas. This is another easy pick. He leads the SEC in scoring after reaching double figures in 26 of 28 games. He has scored 20 or more points 13 times and 30 or more three times. Johnson has also had a stranglehold on the SEC Freshman of the Week award, winning it five times. Like Lanier, he’s a finalist for the Jerry West Award.
Transfer of the Year
There are so many good transfers in this league, but the Volunteers’ Lanier gets the nod because he was recruited to fill a specific need and has done it as well as coach Rick Barnes could have hoped. Lanier, who transferred from North Florida, has grown into the role; though he’s a great shooter, he’s not as temperamentally inclined to impose his will on opponents as Knecht was. But the Vols wouldn’t be ranked fourth in the country without Lanier.
Sixth Man of the Year
Kobe Brea, 6-foot-7 senior forward, Kentucky. This award has become a rite of spring for Brea. Because of injuries in Kentucky’s backcourt Brea has had to start recently, but for most of the season came off the bench. While playing for Dayton, he was one of the nation’s best three-point shooters and twice won the Atlantic-10 Sixth Man of the Year award. Brea has one of the purest shooting strokes in the country. After leading the nation in three-point percentage last season, he’s eighth this season despite playing against tougher competition in the SEC.
Defensive Player of the Year
Jahmai Mashack, 6-foot-4 senior guard, Tennessee.
If this were decided by statistics, Mashack probably wouldn’t be considered. But Mashack’s value is best appreciated by watching him play live or studying him on tape. Aided by a 6-foot-10 wingspan, Mashack is willing to guard anyone. Most often, he’s assigned to the other team’s leading scorer – and that player is typically in for a long night. There aren’t enough official metrics to record all Mashack does, but he has a knack for making winning plays, even with the ball. His 35-foot, walk-off three-pointer gave Tennessee a 79-76 victory over Alabama on March 1.
Team of the Year
Forget those losses to Texas A&M and Alabama. It’s Auburn, by a mile. This is the best team coach Bruce Pearl has put together in his 11 seasons on The Plains, even better than the 2019 Final Four team. The Tigers dominated the nation’s toughest league. The only stumbles were a home loss to Florida (which might be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament) a team desperate to end a four-game losing streak. The Tigers — who clinched the SEC regular-season title on March 1 with their first win at Kentucky since 1988 — have been ranked No. 1 in the country most of the season.
Coach of the Year
Mark Byington, Vanderbilt. Though Pearl has the best team in the league and the country, Auburn’s success has been no surprise. Conversely, the media picked Vanderbilt to finish last in the SEC. In his first season, Byington’s Commodores are currently tied for ninth in the league. More importantly, at 20-10 (8-9 in the SEC), they are poised to claim their first NCAA Tournament ticket since 2017.
Vanderbilt Hasn’t Made the Tournament in 7 Years. Coach Mark Byington Says He’s Not Rebuilding.
The new coach is making changes at Vanderbilt, with 11 new players and one clear focusMissouri’s Dennis Gates deserves serious consideration as well. The Tigers finished 0-18 in the SEC last year but have recovered well enough to play in the NCAA Tournament. We’re giving Byington a slight edge because he’s in his first season and inherited just one scholarship player.
An Overlooked But Important Piece
Auburn signed Miles Kelly out of the portal relatively late in the process. Kelly didn’t make it official until June, so it’s understandable his addition might have been a bit overlooked. But Kelly, the 6-foot-5 transfer from Georgia Tech, has made people pay attention. Teaming with 6-foot-7 senior Chad Baker-Mazzara and 6-foot-4 senior Denver Jones to give the Tigers a plus-sized backcourt, Kelly is the best shooter on a team loaded with them.
Kelly proved that with a 30-point outburst at Kentucky on March 1 that included nine three-pointers. He made a three for Auburn’s first basket and scored 14 of the Tigers’ first 19 points. Before Pearl pulled him for a bit of a rest, he was 4 of 5 from behind the arc.
“Rupp rims; I love them,” Kelly told the media after the game. “It felt good. Every time I shot the ball, I thought it was going in.”
The nine threes were a career-high and one shy of Lance Weems’ school record set in 1996. Kelly’s 30 points were his Auburn high, but below his career high of 36 set last season against Louisville.
Kelly’s success has surprised no one. He played high school basketball in the talent-rich Atlanta area and was a consensus four-star recruit. But his shooting percentages are higher than in any of his three seasons at Georgia Tech because Pearl’s flex offense often gets Kelly wide-open looks. Through the Kentucky game he had taken 168 threes and made 69 of them (41.1 percent).
AROUND THE RIM
• A practice confrontation between teammates Matt Murrell and Jaemyn Brakefield could have inspired Ole Miss’ 78-76 upset of No. 4 Tennessee last Wednesday. The players called it “getting on the same page.” Coach Chris Beard called it a “moment.”
“These two guys had a moment with each other,” Beard said after the game. “An aggressive moment. I felt really good about that. When you’ve got your best players, your best leaders, two guys who have a real relationship and friendship that have the ability to communicate like that. There was no fluff about that conversation. It inspired our practice. It inspired our game day preparations.”
Brakefield’s inspiration was exhibited in the second half. He scored all 19 of his points in an 11-minute span as the Vols had no answer. Center Felix Okpara, normally a reliable defender and rim protector, had little success. Tennessee coach Rick Barnes then put his best defender, Jahmai Mashack, on Brakefield. He, too, got toasted by Brakefield, who began his career at Duke.
“I don’t know if we win today if Matt and Brake didn’t have the courage yesterday in practice to confront each other,” Beard said. “Both said what they had to say. Both listened. It’s one of the top 10 memories in my coaching career in practice. I felt pretty good about tonight’s game because of that.”
Beard also feels good about the Rebels’ postseason chances. Their 21 victories include five over AP Top 25 teams from three power conferences (ACC, Big 12, SEC).
• As post man Danny Wolf, Michigan’s second-leading scorer (12.7 points per game) and leading rebounder (9.6 per game) has proven that Ivy League players can thrive in a power conference, Vanderbilt’s Chris Manon is supporting that theory. A former Cornell player, he’s one of 12 transfers rounded up by Byington and his staff after they took over the program last spring.
A 6-foot-5 senior, Manon has been an important piece on a team that is about to break a long NCAA Tournament dry spell. Manon, who has started 22 games, had a 16-point, seven-rebound, four-steal, three-block performance against Ole Miss. He was even better in a March 1 win over Missouri that likely clinched the Commodores’ NCAA bid, erupting for 23 points 11 boards, two assists, two steals and two blocks.
While not an efficient three-point shooter, he’s making 53.6 percent of his shots from the field. His experience and a motor that’s stuck on high are two big reasons for his production.
“He has found his niche on how to impact the game,” Byington said. “Teams are playing him one way; they’re sagging off of him. It was good he’s had a couple of games where he’s made some threes. But at the same time, he’s finding his area. Him playing hard and him finding openings in the defense, it’s been big for us. It gives us another scorer, and it’s high-percentage shots. So, Chris has figured out how to get better along the way.”
