SEC Wrap-Up

Player of the Year

Tyler Ulis – Kentucky

For much of the first half of the season, the SEC was known as the Ben Simmons show. Night in and night out he was the talk of the conference. ESPN lived and died by what he was doing on the court and what his stat line ended up being. All the while, Ulis was quietly putting together one of the more impressive all around performances of anyone in the conference. With all due respect to Providence’s Kris Dunn, I would argue that Ulis is the best PG in the country. Ulis played behind the Harrison twins last season but was given the reigns to this Wildcat team from day one headed into this season and he didn’t disappoint. He was 6th in the league in scoring at 17.2 points per game and led the league in assists at 7.2 per contest.  He had a few rough outings early in the season, but he did what all players should strive to do throughout the season and that is get better.  He and Jamal Murray were a two man wrecking crew as soon as the calendar changed to 2016 and Kentucky was rewarded with yet another SEC Championship. Ulis has developed big time between years one and two under Coach Cal and is a big reason why UK is poised for another deep run in the Tourney.  He’s a two way player and a great leader on the court. He gives 110% every single night and doesn’t shy away from big time spots or shots for that matter.

Runner Up

Jamal Murray – Kentucky

I know some are starting to get really upset that Simmons didn’t even make my runner up for POY, but his team didn’t even make the NCAAT this season and that really does hurt his stock in this type of scenario.  Fortunately for him, it won’t affect his actual draft stock in any way.  Kentucky seems to be peaking at the right time and Murray is a big reason for that.  Until the SEC Championship game, Murray had a streak of 12 straight 20+ point contests with a couple of 30+ point games sprinkled in for good measure.  If it wasn’t for the overall stat line of Simmons, Murray would likely be the SEC Freshman of the Year.  Simmons will likely take that award in a landslide, but Murray was the guy who helped lead his team to a League Title and an NCAA Tournament berth.  He’s a knock down shooter and a guy who has improved on being able to create for himself and get to the free throw line.  He will likely be Kentucky’s lone lottery pick this Summer and has made the most of his time in Lexington.  He, like the aforementioned Ulis, seemed to just get better with every game and was all but unstoppable down the stretch for the Wildcats.

Freshman of the Year

Ben Simmons – LSU

19.2/11.8/4.8

Let that sink in.  Then add in the fact that he added two steals and a block per game along with that and you can easily see why Simmons is the pick for Freshman of the Year.  It seems kind of odd that another freshman (Murray) could be ahead of him in the POY race, but would lose out for the Freshman award.  That’s because I think POY awards are more than just about individual stats and these types of awards are more geared towards a flashy stat line, which is something that Simmons put up on a nightly basis.  The consensus #1 pick in the draft from the time he stepped foot on LSU’s campus, Simmons showed the type of skill set that would make any NBA team salivate considering his age and upside.  He can literally do it all and when he gets a little more consistency with his jump shot and cuts down on the TO’s then the sky is the limit.  The biggest knock on him is the fact that he couldn’t lead his team to an NCAA Tournament berth with a roster full of talent and in a league that was, by all accounts, in a down year.  The injury to sharpshooter Keith Hornsby didn’t help but Simmons is the type of player that you expect to take over, put a team on his back and carry them to where they need to be.  You would see flashes of that but never the consistency that I wanted.  The stats were there, but just not the wins and on a team that had plenty of talent, that burden falls on the shoulders of its best player.  We’ve seen the last of him in an LSU uniform as the team has decided against any type of Postseason play.  That’s probably a good thing for Simmons based on the fact that he can only hurt his draft stock at this point (injury) but you do have to wonder how the rest of the team feels about that decision.

Draft Sleeper

Cinmeon Bowers – Auburn

Bowers is not a draft candidate at the moment and he likely won’t hear his name called in June, but I believe that if some team would take a flier on him and stash him in the D-League for a year or two to work on becoming more of a wing than an undersized four then he could really become an asset.  Last year he was an undersized four man with very little prospects of playing basketball in the League.  After transforming his body and his game during the offseason, Bruce Pearl had Bowers on the wing and at point guard at times during the season for the Tigers.  Some of that was due to necessity based on injuries and the mid-season departure of Kareem Canty, but it opened my eyes nonetheless to the fact that he has more skill than I thought he did.  And that is a testament to him and his ability to put in the work necessary to develop and evolve his game into whatever the team needed at that time.  He still has some character questions that will follow him for a while, but he would be a true "sleeper" in this year’s draft since he is and will likely continue to be an afterthought for most scouts.

Team of the Year

Texas A&M

If you would have told me that the Aggies would end up tied with Kentucky for the best record in the conference back in October, I would have laughed at you.  Not that I thought that the team was particularly bad, but they just hadn’t shown me anything that would lead me to believe that they would come together like this.  Hats off to Jalen Jones and Danuel House for the work they put in this year and for the way they carried the team offensively.  Both players really improved from last season to this one and thus the reason for the surprising 26-8 record.  I doubt there was anyone in the country who believed that would happen.  And I’m including those of you who are in College Station, so let’s not all come out of the woodwork and say that you knew this team would reach Top 10 status and play for both the regular season and Tournament Championships.  They now head to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011 after they saw a run of six straight appearances snapped in 2012.  Head Coach Billy Kennedy should be commended for the job that he has done since taking over what was a program in decline when he took over back in 2011.  The administration stuck with the former Murray State Head Coach and they look to be turning the corner and getting back to the SEC Powerhouse that they were in the late 2000’s.

Coach of the Year

Frank Martin – South Carolina

Hear me out.  I know that the Gamecocks didn’t make the NCAA Tournament and that it was one of the more epic collapses in recent memory, but I truly believe they should have been in the field of 64 so I’m not going to hold that against them.  They are a better team than Tulsa and no one can tell me different.  It is very doubtful that anyone had South Carolina finishing in the top 8 or so in the SEC, much less being tied for 3rd in the League and climbing into the Top 25 for the first time in years.  Martin being my choice here is more about what he’s been able to do for a program that was an afterthought when it came to basketball in the SEC and one that was more of a laughing stock than anything.  He took a team, devoid of talent and has turned them into a Conference contender in just a few short years.  Outside of Sindarious Thornwell, very few people could name one other player on their roster.  I always thought he got a raw deal at Kansas State so I’m glad to see that he has found success elsewhere.  This is a team and program that is on the rise and will be back next year to try and right what they did wrong down the stretch this season.

Biggest Surprise

Auburn

I’m listing the Tigers here, not because of a positive surprise, but because of a negative one.  I had the Tigers down as one of my sleeper teams in the SEC this season.  As I mentioned above, Bowers had slimmed down and with the addition of Providence transfer Tyler Harris along with the team not losing anyone of note from last season, I thought that this would be the year that Bruce Pearl and this program took the next step in their rebuilding process.  And after a home win in January against Kentucky things seemed to be on the upswing for this group, but the early season injuries and lack of depth really hurt this team down the stretch.  The suspension and then parting of ways between the school and Kareem Canty was odd and left the team without its leading scorer for the second half of conference play. The team only won two of their final 14 games and finished the season 11-20, a far cry from where I had this group pegged in the Fall.  But as has been the case on more than one occasion this season, I was wrong and it is back to the drawing board for Bruce Pearl and his staff.  They do have a decent class coming in next year, but they are going to lose over 50% of their offense to graduation and early entry candidates so it might be another season or so before Auburn starts sniffing an NCAA Tournament berth.

Biggest Disappointment

LSU

Ben Simmons, Tim Quarterman, Josh Gray, Keith Hornsby, Antonio Blakeney, Craig Victor II.  The combination of that group of players should have been enough to get LSU back to the NCAA Tournament.  I know they lost a lot from last years’ roster, but there is zero excuse for this team to not make the NCAA Tournament during a year in which their own conference was extremely weak.  The fact that this team didn’t make the tournament and had losses to teams like Charleston, NC State and Wake Forest is unacceptable.  Inconsistency was the Achilles heel of this team and it showed in that they never had a winning streak of more than three games all season long.  The team just couldn’t put it all together on the floor for more than a game or two.  Maybe it was the influx of big time talent or maybe it was just the fact that this team was young.  Whatever it was, this team being done early in March has to be the biggest disappointment of the season with regards to the SEC.

First Team All Conference

G – Tyler Ulis – Kentucky
G – Kevin Punter – Tennessee
G – Jamal Murray – Kentucky
F – Ben Simmons – LSU
F – Moses Kingsley – Arkansas

Second Team All Conference

G – Stefan Moody – Ole Miss
G – Retin Obasohan – Alabama
G – Danuel House – Texas A&M
F – Jalen Jones – Texas A&M
C/F – Damian Jones – Vanderbilt

Third Team All Conference

G – J.J. Frazier – Georgia
G – Wayne Baldwin IV – Vanderbilt
G – Sindarious Thornwell – South Carolina
F – Gavin Ware – Mississippi State
F – Yante Maten – Georgia

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