Tennessee Basketball: Vols G Kevin Punter Named All-SEC

Tennessee basketball guard Kevin Punter Jr. was the only member of the Volunteers to achieve postseason recognition, making second-team men’s All-SEC.

Despite a very up and down year in which the Tennessee Vols went 13-18 in Rick Barnes’s first year as head coach, the basketball team was able to get a bit of postseason recognition.

Senior Kevin Punter Jr. was named to the second-team Men’s Basketball All-SEC team as a guard. Despite missing the last five games due to injury, Punter had clearly already done enough to be mentioned on the All-SEC team, averaging 22 points on 46 percent shooting, including 36.9 percent from the three-point line.

He also helped make his case for his value by missing the last five games, a period in which the Vols went 1-4 and suffered embarrassing blowout losses to Ole Miss, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina.

It is clear that Punter was the heart and soul of the team, and with no help this year, he did enough to show he belongs somewhere in the NBA as a combo guard.

Don’t forget that Punter had to make the transition from off-guard to point guard in Barnes’s new tempo-based system as well. As a junior college transfer, this was clearly not the career the senior imagined when coming to Tennessee, originally committing to play for new head coach Donnie Tyndall before he had his own issues.

But Punter handled all the adversity as well as you could, and he never quit fighting until he got hurt.

He joins J.J. Frazier of Georgia, Alex Caruso and Danuel House of Texas A&M, and Wade Baldwin IV of Vanderbilt as the second-team All-SEC guards. The forwards are Moses Kingsley of Arkansas, Dorian Finney-Smith of Florida, and Yante Maten of Georgia.

Here are the first, and second All-SEC teams along with the SEC Freshman Team, SEC All-Defensive team, and the postseason awards.

First Team All-SEC

C-Damian Jones, Vanderbilt Commodores

F-Michael Carrera, South Carolina Gamecocks

F-Ben Simmons, LSU Tigers

G/F-Jalen Jones, Texas A&M Aggies

G-Stefan Moody, Ole Miss Rebels

G-Jamal Murray, Kentucky Wildcats

G-Retin Obasohan, Alabama Crimson Tide

G-Tyler Ulis, Kentucky Wildcats

Second Team All-SEC

F-Dorian Finney-Smith, Florida Gators

F-Moses Kingsley, Arkansas Razorbacks

F-Yante Maten, Georgia Bulldogs

G-Wade Baldwin IV, Vanderbilt Commodores

G-Alex Caruso, Texas A&M Aggies

G-J.J. Frazier, Georgia Bulldogs

G-Danuel House, Texas A&M Aggies

G-Kevin Punter Jr., Tennessee Volunteers

SEC All-Freshman Team

C-Tyler Davis, Texas A&M Aggies

F-DJ Hogg, Texas A&M Aggies

F-Kevin Puryear, Missouri Tigers

F-Ben Simmons, LSU Tigers

G-KeVaughn Allen, Florida Gators

G-Antonio Blakeney, LSU Tigers

G-Jamal Murray, Kentucky Wildcats

G-Quinndary Weatherspoon, Mississippi State Bulldogs

SEC All-Defensive Team

F-Moses Kingsley, Arkansas Razorbacks

F-Luke Kornet, Vanderbilt Commodores

G-Alex Caruso, Texas A&M Aggies

G-Retin Obasohan, Alabama Crimson Tide

G-Sindarius Thornwell, South Carolina Gamecocks

G-Tyler Ulis, Kentucky Wildcats

More volunteers: Tennessee Football: 5 Vols Who Need a Great Spring Practice

Postseason Awards

SEC Coach of the Year: Billy Kennedy, Texas A&M Aggies

SEC Player of the Year: Tyler Ulis, Kentucky Wildcats

SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Retin Obasohan, Alabama Crimson Tide

SEC Freshman of the Year: Ben Simmons, LSU Tigers

SEC Sixth-Man of the Year: Duane Notice, South Carolina Gamecocks

SEC Defensive Player of the Year: Tyler Ulis, Kentucky Wildcats

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Tennessee Basketball: Vols’ Kevin Punter Named Second-Team Men’s All-SEC Guard

By Caleb Calhoun | Mar 8, 2016

Tennessee basketball guard Kevin Punter Jr. was the only member of the Volunteers to achieve postseason recognition, making second-team men’s All-SEC.