By CHRIS DORTCH
With the regular season down to one game, it’s an appropriate time to trot out our All-SEC awards.
FIRST-TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
G-Darius, Acuff, Jr., Arkansas
Acuff is pulling off the rare double-double of leading the league in scoring and assists. Here’s how special that is. Southeastern Conference stats date back only to the 1990-91 season, but it’s believed the only other player in SEC history to do that was LSU legend Pete Maravich. Like Pistol Pete, Acuff is a rare talent — a scorer from all three levels; a crisp, canny passer; and a big-time competitor. He scored 49 points in a double-overtime loss to Alabama, the most in the country this season. On Wednesday night in an easy home court win over Texas, he became the only player in Division I this season to score at least 28 points and hand out at least 13 assists. Already the school’s freshman leader in scoring, Acuff is 26 assists short of Kareem Reid’s freshman record of 219 set in 1995-96. He’s the only player in the NCAA to average at least 20 points and six assists and the only one to average at least 16 points with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.0 or better.
G-Labaron Philon, Alabama
Philon, who after the 2024-25 season resisted the urge to enter the NBA Draft, will certainly be gone once the Crimson Tide ends its NCAA Tournament run. He was leading the SEC in scoring until Acuff went on an absolute heater but still has a chance to overtake Acuff if the latter would ever cool down, even a little bit. Philon is fourth in the SEC in field-goal percentage and has made dramatic improvement from three. Last season he shot 31.5%; this season he’s at 39.4 with an impressive number of makes (63) and attempts (160). The dude is tough to guard.
G-Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
To say this guy came out of nowhere wouldn’t be fair; as a freshman last season he played in 30 games and posted a ridiculous assist-to-turnover ratio of 4.2-1. But this year, he’s emerged as a star and is likely to leave for the NBA Draft. He’s showing up as a first-round pick in numerous mock drafts. After averaging 5.7 points last season, he’s at 19.0 now, and like Philon, he’s a much-improved 3-point shooter (26.6% last year, 36.8% this season). Tanner leads the SEC in steals, is third in assists, and fifth in scoring.
G-Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Tennessee
For the third consecutive season, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes and his staff struck gold in the transfer portal. In 2023-24, it was Dalton Knecht, who led the league in scoring, earned Player of the Year honors, and was voted the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year winner. Last season, Chaz Lanier broke Chris Lofton’s record for 3s in a season and earned the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year award. Gillespie — who began his career at Belmont and last year played for Maryland — isn’t likely to win the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year award, but few players in the SEC have meant more to their teams. He’s sixth in the league in scoring, second in assists and steals, 12th in free-throw percentage, and fifth in 3-point percentage. There’s no way the Vols would be within reach of securing a double bye in the SEC tournament — they’ll have to beat Vanderbilt on Saturday to do it — without Gillespie.
C-Rueben Chinyelu, Florida
We could have easily picked the league champion Gators’ Thomas Haugh or Alex Condon, but Chinyelu is averaging a double-double, leads the league in rebounding by a wide margin, and transformed his game to the point where he’s being counted on for scoring, not just doing the blue-collar tasks like grabbing boards and setting screens. Chinyelu’s improvement helped Florida overcome the loss of the three starting guards — Walter Clayton, Jr., Will Richard, and Alijah Martin — who last season helped the Gators win the national championship. No, he doesn’t play in the backcourt, but he rebounded the misses of new starting guards Boogie Fland and Xavian Lee until both began finding the range a lot more often.
SECOND TEAM ALL-CONFERENCE
G-Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State.
G-Otega Oweh, Kentucky.
F-Thomas Haugh, Florida.
F-Nate Ament, Tennessee
F-Mark Mitchell, Missouri.
Honorable Mention: Keyshawn Hall, Auburn; Dailyn Swain, Texas; Jeremiah Wilkinson, Georgia; Aden Holloway, Alabama; Alex Condon, Florida; Tyler Nickel, Vanderbilt; Nijel Pack, Oklahoma; Ruben Dominguez, Texas A&M; Blue Cain, Georgia; Duke Miles, Vanderbilt.
All-Freshman Team
G-Darius Acuff, Jr., Arkansas
G-Meleek Thomas, Arkansas
F-Nate Ament, Tennessee
F-Amari Allen, Alabama
C-Malachi Moreno, Kentucky
Player of the Year: Darius, Acuff, Jr., Arkansas — See above.
Freshman of the Year: Darius, Acuff, Jr., Arkansas — This is the easiest selection on this list. At this point, we’ve just started cutting and pasting Acuff’s name. If he wins both these awards, he’ll become just the third player in league history to do so after Kentucky’s Anthony Davis (2012) and Alabama’s Brandon Miller (2023).
Newcomer of the Year: Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Tennessee — The SEC began handing out this honor last season in an obvious reaction to the times. With the advent of NIL and unlimited transfers, new players entering the league didn’t have a chance to win any kind of award, unless they went bonkers like Tennessee’s Knecht did. Now, a transfer can be recognized without having to lead the league in scoring or become its player of the year. We could have chosen Auburn’s Keyshawn Hall here, but he’s playing for a team that’s 7-10 in the league, and Gillespie has been the leader for the Vols, who are 11-6 but are two turnovers and two failed defensive stops from being 14-3.
Defensive Player of the Year: Felix Okpara, Tennessee — Most people who put these kinds of lists together would look at who’s leading the league in steals or blocked shots and choose their guy. Some of us like to go with defenders who don’t necessarily specialize but are versatile. This year, Okpara’s block numbers are way down — he turned back 83 while playing for Ohio State in 2023-24 and 64 last season at Tennessee but is at 37 now — because he’s become a multifaceted defender who can guard all five positions. A lot of players say that about their players, but the 6-11, 225-pound Okpara really can check every position. That’s the reason his blocks are down. Barnes has taken him away from the basket because Okpara can either start out guarding smaller players, or switch onto them and chase them around the court. With his length (7-3 wingspan) and athleticism, he’s a problem.
Coach of the Year: Bucky McMillan, Texas A&M — Some would just matter-of-factly hand this to Todd Golden of Florida. His team did run roughshod through the league —15-2 at this writing with a game at Kentucky to close out the season. But no one predicted Texas A&M, left in shambles after the basketball mercenary Buzz Williams left for Maryland, would win 20 games, including a possible 12 in SEC play. McMillan, who came from Samford but before that was hired out of a high school job in Alabama, is a young and gifted coach. He didn’t get the A&M job until April, which left him sifting through a depleted transfer portal. But somehow, he managed to find enough players to fit together and run his “Bucky Ball,” system of pressing and jacking up 3s.
Coaches on the Hot Seat
Matt McMahon, LSU; Lamont Paris, South Carolina; Porter Moser, Oklahoma.
We’ve heard South Carolina is committed to helping give Paris more money to shop the portal. It’s hard to believe Moser would be in trouble because he’s an excellent coach whose team fell victim this season to a top-heavy league. McMahon is an excellent coach, but the guy who calls the shots at LSU is Louisiana’s governor, a real kook who forced the firing of football coach Brian Kelly so they can get the football version of Buzz Williams, the ultimate mercenary Lane Kiffin.