SEC lands 2 players among 10 semifinalists for Naismith Player of the Year

A pair of household names in the SEC were named among 10 semifinalists for the Naismith Trophy Player of the Year, the organization announced on Friday.

Auburn’s Jabari Smith and Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe joined Ochai Agbaji (Kansas), Kofi Cockburn (Illinois), Johnny Davis (Wisconsin), Chet Holmgren (Gonzaga), E.J. Liddell (Ohio State), Bennedict Mathurin (Arizona), Keegan Murray (Iowa) and Drew Timme (Gonzaga) who are also up for the award, which is put on by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

Tshiebwe averages a team-best 17.3 points and a nation-leading 15.3 rebounds per game. He is looking to become the first Division I player to average at least 15.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds per game since Drake’s Lewis Lloyd and Alcorn State’s Larry Smith each did during the 1979-80 season, and the first major-conference player to average at least 16.0 points and at least 15.0 rebounds for a season since Bill Walton at UCLA in 1972-73. He would be the first Wildcat to do it since Bob Burrow tallied 19.1 points and 17.7 rebounds per game in 1954-55, per Cats Pause.

Smith has had a strong rookie campaign and also became the first Auburn player in program history since 1999 to be named an All-American. He was also named to the All-SEC First Team and SEC All-Freshman Team. Smith was a six-time freshman of the week honoree averaging a team-leading 17.1 points per game in all 31 games he played and started in the regular season, per Auburn.

And then there were 🔟…

Announcing the 2022 @jerseymikes Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year Semifinalists📢

Our 4️⃣ finalist will be announced on March 21st.

🤳: https://t.co/zA4EQiS7OC pic.twitter.com/GFdi2Oynwp

— The Naismith Trophy (@NaismithTrophy) March 11, 2022

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.