With the regular season in the rearview, the SEC released its two Coaches All-SEC teams Monday afternoon. A pair of Tennessee players landed on the two All-SEC teams.
Point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie landed on the five-player first team while freshman wing Nate Ament landed on the five-player second team.
Gillespie led Tennessee in scoring and assists in the regular season, averaging 18 points, 5.6 assists and 2.1 steals per game. The transfer point guard finished second in the SEC in steals, second in assists and sixth in steals.
The senior point guard was also suburb in SEC play where he averaged 18.1 points, 5.4 assists and 2.7 steals per game.
For the first time since the award was invented three years ago, a Tennessee player did not win SEC Newcomer of the Year. Texas’ Dailyn Swain, who averaged 19.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game in SEC play, beat out Gillespie for the honor despite landing on the second team.
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Ament landed on the All-SEC Second Team and the All-Freshman team after averaging 19 points, six rebounds and 2.3 assists in his 16 conference games played. The 6-foot-10 wing totaled 20-plus points seven times in SEC play including three separate 29-point performances in SEC play.
Arkansas’ point guard Darius Acuff won both SEC Freshman and SEC Player of the Year, averaging 24.8 points, 6.7 assists and three rebounds per game during conference play.
Both Gillespie and Ament carried a major offensive burden for Tennessee this season. The Vols’ next leading scorer in SEC play was JP Estrella who averaged just 10 points per game. Besides that trio, no one else even averaged eight points per game.
Tennessee center Felix Okpara was the Vols’ lone selection on the SEC All-Defensive Team for his play during his senior season.
The Vols’ posted an 11-7 SEC record which was good enough to earn the five-seed in this week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville. Tennessee begins play on Thursday afternoon when they’ll face the winner of Auburn-Mississippi State.
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