All-SEC Teams Announced, Auburn Dominates Major Awards

John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

The Tigers get most of the big awards for the 2021-2022 season!

Today we got a watershed announcement, and the truth from some of the league’s coaches when they finally told everyone who deserved what in this conference.

The All-SEC teams and major awards — as voted on by the coaches of the Southeastern Conference — were announced today and Auburn was highlighted all across the news!

Of the major awards — Player, Coach, Defensive Player, and Freshman of the Year — Auburn received three of the four as they won the regular season championship and head into the Tournament in Tampa as the top overall seed.

Bruce Pearl won the SEC Coach of the Year honor, his first award on the Plains, after he won the award twice while at Tennessee in 2006 and 2008. After taking the worst team in the league upon his hiring, and winning two SEC titles (regular season 2018, tournament 2019), it’s a well-deserved and long-awaited accolade for the head coach. To be perfectly frank, the first time he got Auburn in any sort of championship discussion, he should’ve catapulted into the lead for this honor, but the love affair with Rick Barnes let him win the title in 2018 instead of Bruce.

Jabari Smith won the SEC Freshman of the Year, tacking onto the award spilling in this week for the presumptuous first overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft. Earlier this week, he earned the 2nd-team All-American honors from Sporting News, and 1st-team honors from Sports Illustrated. After going on an absolute tear over the last few weeks, he’s poised to lead the Tigers into the postseason. Since the Texas A&M game, where he scored just 9 points, he’s gone for 31, 28, 15, 27, 27, and 21 points and is shooting 23-37 from three during that span as well.

Walker Kessler took home the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, and I would wager that he’s not done yet in terms of similar awards. The transfer center came in from North Carolina and racked up 140 blocks on his way to becoming the most feared big man in the SEC. He set the Auburn single-season blocks record, and recorded the program’s second and third triple-doubles in school history. He allowed the Tigers to lead the nation in blocked shots by a large margin, and his block total alone would have been good for 37th nationally if he was a team on his own.

The All-SEC teams look this way:

FIRST TEAM

JD Notae, Arkansas

Jaylin Williams, Arkansas

Walker Kessler, Auburn

Jabari Smith, Auburn

Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky

Tari Eason, LSU

Iverson Molinar, Mississippi State

Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee

Scotty Pippen Jr., Vanderbilt

SECOND TEAM

Jaden Shackelford, Alabama

Colin Castleton, Florida

TyTy Washington Jr., Kentucky

Sahvir Wheeler, Kentucky

Darius Days, LSU

Kobe Brown, Missouri

Kennedy Chandler, Tennessee

Quenton Jackson, Texas A&M

ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM

Charles Bediako, Alabama

JD Davison, Alabama

Jabari Smith, Auburn

TyTy Washington Jr., Kentucky

Brandon Murray, LSU

Devin Carter, South Carolina

Kennedy Chandler, Tennessee

Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee

ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM

Keon Ellis, Alabama

Jaylin Williams, Arkansas

Walker Kessler, Auburn

Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky

Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee

MAJOR AWARDS

Coach of the Year: Bruce Pearl, Auburn

Player of the Year: Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky

Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Jordan Wright, Vanderbilt

Freshman of the Year: Jabari Smith, Auburn

Sixth-Man of the Year: Tari Eason, LSU

Defensive Player of the Year: Walker Kessler, Auburn

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2022/3/8/22967514/all-sec-teams-announced-auburn-dominates-major-awards