After 5 months of basketball, from Feast Week to the grind of league play, it’s finally Championship Week.

The most wonderful time of year in college hoops began last week, and bids are being locked up for March Madness daily until Selection Sunday, now just 6 days away.

Championship Week also means leagues honor their best, with all league teams selected by the media and individual awards handed out at conference tournaments around the country. The SEC Tournament starts Wednesday in Nashville.

SDS had an SEC ballot this season, and we thought we’d share it with our readers.

As the SEC was arguably the nation’s most competitive conference in 2023-2024, narrowing down a list to 5 All-SEC players and a handful of awards was all the more difficult. You may not agree with all our picks, but rest assured — our All-SEC and awards selections are supported by the eye test, coaching input, and analytics alike — and we certainly took the privilege of casting a ballot seriously.

Here’s the SDS All-SEC team and awards ballot, explained.

All-SEC

Dalton Knecht, Tennessee

Tennessee does not win the SEC regular-season championship and stake a legitimately strong claim to a 1 seed without Knecht, who was also our choice for SEC Player of the Year. The Volunteers wing is a Wooden Award finalist thanks to a scintillating offensive skill-set that saw him average 21.4 points per game to lead the SEC.

Knecht’s absurd range, along with his ability to attack off the bounce or post up and score from the post, gave the Vols the versatile scorer the roster lacked prior to his transfer from Northern Colorado this offseason. Rick Barnes has had marvelous teams throughout his tenure at Tennessee, but he’s never had a walking bucket like Knecht entering March Madness — and Knecht’s talent and ability to score in multiple ways is why Tennessee may finally advance to the proud program’s first Final Four.

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Mark Sears, Alabama

Like Knecht, Sears is also a finalist for the Wooden Award, honoring the best college player in America. Sears finished 2nd in the league in scoring at 21.1 points per game while shooting a stupendous 44% from beyond the arc. Sears also dished out 4 assists per night for a Crimson Tide team that boasts one of the most prolific offenses in college hoops history. Alabama’s team offensive rating is 126.1, per KenPom, good for 2nd in the country this season, behind Purdue. But the 126.1 offensive rating ranks 5th in the sport over the past decade, behind only 2023-24 Purdue (126.4), 2021 Gonzaga (126.4), 2018 Villanova (127.8), and 2015 Wisconsin (129). The latter 3 teams all advanced to the Final Four come March. If Alabama makes its first Final Four, Sears will be the driving force.

Johni Broome, Auburn

Auburn was the SEC’s most efficient team, per KenPom (4th) and Broome the sun around which Bruce Pearl’s team orbits. Only Purdue star Zach Edey grades out as a more efficient player than Broome, who does everything well, from scoring (57.9% eFG) to rebounding (39th in the country in defensive rebounding) to protecting the tin (2.4 blocks per game, which shared the SEC lead with Ole Miss big man Jamarion Sharp). Broome’s ability to shoot from distance this season (35% from deep) also helped Auburn space the floor for its guards, who are better suited to drive and attack than bomb away from distance. Broome  also is masterful at finishing through contact, and his 6 fouls drawn per game ranked 3rd in the SEC, behind Sears and Mississippi State’s Tolu Smith.

Broome’s versatility has Auburn well positioned for another high seed in the NCAA Tournament come Selection Sunday, and like Knecht and Sears, Broome has been named a finalist for the Wooden Award as a result.

Antonio Reeves, Kentucky

The SEC’s 4th Wooden Award finalist (there are only 15!), Reeves averaged 20.2 points per contest and shot a staggering 44% from deep on high volume to pace Kentucky to an outstanding 23-8 regular season. Reeves’ effective field goal percentage of 59.6% obliterated his career best, and he was a high usage scorer with a miniscule turnover rate (8.9%). Reeves also provided invaluable leadership on a team that relied heavily on freshman, especially down the stretch, when Kentucky’s primary rotations included 4 freshmen in Reed Sheppard, Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards and Zvonimir Ivišić, with at least 3 on the floor at any given time.

“They don’t do what they did, and turn things around after a tough stretch in league play, without (Reeves),” an SEC head coach told SDS last week. “You talk about a kid with a high basketball IQ. He simply makes the right read over and over again, which is something (UK coach John Calipari) has not had enough of lately. He hits big shots all the time, too. That backcourt is as good as any in the country and Reeves is the heartbeat.”

If a team Cal says was “built for March” makes a deep run, Reeves will be at the center of why.

Zyon Pullin, Florida

Pullin was the SEC’s best orchestrator this season, leading the league and ranking in the top 5 nationally in assist to turnover ratio (5-1) for the resurgent Gators. A transfer from UC Riverside, where he was an all-league player a season ago, Pullin seamlessly made the transition to the SEC this year, blending physicality with a high hoops IQ to help the Gators to their 20th 20-win campaign this century (only Kentucky, Kansas, Gonzaga and Duke have more).

“The Gators are a dangerous team in March, because they have such good guards,” an SEC head coach told SDS last week. “The Pullin kid is as smart a player as we have in our league and he’s a handful. He does everything for (UF  coach Todd Golden). He guards physically, he crashes on the glass, he makes the smart pass, and he’s magnificent off the bounce. A really, really underrated guy.”

While Pullin doesn’t get the acclaim of our other All-SEC selections, the numbers, including his top 5 national assist-to-turnover ratio and a the fact he’s scored in double figures in all but 1 of Florida’s games, simply don’t lie. Pullin is 1 of the SEC’s best 5 players, and earns our final All-SEC spot.

SEC Player of the Year: Knecht

A 2-way race between Knecht and Alabama’s Sears most the season, it’s impossible to ignore Knecht’s explosive games against good-to-great competition, including Saturday’s Senior Night explosion in a defeat to Kentucky, where Knecht posted a season-high 40. The Volunteers star also scored 39 in Tennessee wins over NCAA Tournament locks Auburn and Florida, 36 in a comeback win at Georgia, and 31 and 26 in dates with South Carolina, one of the best teams in the league. When Tennessee needed him, Knecht delivered, which is what league players of the year consistently do. While the same is true of Sears, Knecht raised the ceiling more, helping the Vols capture the SEC championship.

SEC Coach of the Year: Lamont Paris, South Carolina

Paris, the 2nd-year South Carolina head coach, should be national coach of the year for the job he did in turning a Gamecocks squad picked to finish last in the SEC into a SEC title contender. A disciple of Bo Ryan at Wisconsin, Paris’s methodical offensive style and a defense that keeps teams in front were a thorn in the side of the run and gun offenses that dominate the SEC, and Paris used the stylistic differences masterfully in helping South Carolina to its first 25-win regular season in school history. Paris used the portal brilliantly, with 4 of South Carolina’s top 6 scorers coming via transfer, and found a diamond in the rough in 3-star freshman Collin Murray-Boyles (10 points, 6 rebounds, a block per game), whose only SEC offer was from South Carolina. After winning just 11 games in his first season in Columbia, Paris has the Gamecocks positioned to wear white in the first round of the NCAA Tournament next week.

SEC Freshman of the Year: Rob Dillingham, Kentucky

The easiest decision on our ballot, which is stunning when you consider just how good Dillingham’s fellow freshman, Reed Sheppard, has been for Big Blue this season. Dillingham has played himself into the NBA lottery, should he elect to go pro, and he’s done it by being a walking bucket off the bench.

Dillingham’s absurd versatility as a scorer saw him post an offensive rating of 116 this season, a top 10 number in the SEC, and do it on a high volume usage rate (29.6%) that tends to drive offensive rating numbers downward. Dillingham has been at his best over the past month, scoring in double digits in all but 1 game dating to a February loss at Tennessee. With Dillingham’s ability to command help in the paint due to his quickness as a driver, Kentucky’s other scorers and shooters, including Reeves, often get clean looks, a combination that has helped Kentucky rank 4th in the country in effective field goal percentage and 6th nationally in offensive efficiency. While other SEC freshman, such as Murray-Boyles and Mississippi State’s jitterbug scorer Josh Hubbard deserve acclaim, Dillingham is the league’s best freshman in 2023-24.

SEC Sixth Man of the Year: Dillingham

Dillingham earns the rare double, besting a number of other contenders including Tennessee’s Jahmai Mashack, Auburn guard Tre Donaldson, and Texas A&M rebounding machine Andersson Garcia. There’s simply not another player in the SEC who comes off the bench capable of altering a game faster than Dillingham, who helps give this Kentucky team a Final Four ceiling.

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