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Tennessee basketball: Vols have SEC coach, player, 6th man of the year

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - FEBRUARY 21: Grant Williams #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers looks to the basket against Deaundrae Ballard #24 of the Florida Gators in the second half of a game at Thompson-Boling Arena on February 21, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won 62-57. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - FEBRUARY 21: Grant Williams #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers looks to the basket against Deaundrae Ballard #24 of the Florida Gators in the second half of a game at Thompson-Boling Arena on February 21, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won 62-57. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee basketball’s Rick Barnes is Southeastern Conference coach of the year, Grant Williams is player of the year, and two Volunteers made All-SEC.

Talk about postseason recognition! Tennessee basketball dominated the SEC postseason awards like never before. The Vols had the coach of the year, player of the year, sixth man of the year and two All-SEC players for the 2017-2018 season.

You can see the full details of the awards here. Rick Barnes was SEC Coach of the Year after taking a team picked to finish 13th in the league and finishing tied for first while scoring a No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament.

It was a well-deserved recognition for Barnes, who has worked magic for Tennessee basketball in three seasons. But he’s not the only guy who got lots of love.

Sophomore forward Grant Williams received SEC Player of the Year. Williams was only 11th in the league in scoring, averaging 15.6 points per game. He also had just under six rebounds a game to reach the Top 20 in that category, and he was fifth in field goal percentage at 47.4 percent.

It’s a bit controversial that Williams won this award over Yante Maten of the Georgia Bulldogs. But he still deserves credit for the award, and Tennessee basketball was significantly better than the Dawgs this year.

Williams also made first-team All-SEC. Meanwhile, junior forward Admiral Schofield made second-team All-SEC. Schofield averaged 13 and a half points a game in the regular season while collecting just over six rebounds a game.

Tennessee basketball’s final bit of postseason recognition came in the form of sixth-man of the year. That award went to Lamonte Turner, who could start anywhere else.

Turner averaged over 10 and a half points a game off the bench while shooting 91 percent from the free throw line and nearly 41 percent from the three-point line. He also averaged two assists and over three rebounds a game.

This was a very impressive regular season for the Vols. All three players earned their recognition. Barnes earned his as well. The scary part is everybody representing the Vols should be back next year. So they could be even better and more dominant then.

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