Grant Williams Repeats As SEC Player of the Year

Another regular season, another year of awards and honors for the Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball program.

For the second straight season , Grant Williams has been named the SEC Player of the Year.

Williams played in 31 games, averaging 19.3 points per game while leading the Vols to a 27-4 (15-3) overall record in the regular season. Tennessee was ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation for a month and barley missed an opportunity to repeat as back-to-back SEC regular season champs for the first time in program history.

He set a career-high in minutes (31.9), points per game (19.3), field goal percentage (56.9 percent), rebounds (7.7), and free-throw percentage (83.3 percent). The 19.3 points per game led the SEC and he was second in field goal percentage.

And he is the first player to win back-to-back SEC player of the year awards since Arkansas’ Corliss Williamson did so in the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons

But that’s not all.

Admiral Schofield and Jordan Bone finished as second-team All-SEC selections. For Schofield, it’s a great ending to a career all Volunteer fans will remember. For Bone, it’s a sign that he is now on everyone’s radar as one of the premier point guards in the conference.

Both Bone and Schofield hit career marks this season as well. Schofield set new highs in minutes (31.5), points per game (16.3), field-goal (47.6) and three-point percentage (40.4), and assists (2.0). Bone on the other hand, absolutely took off this year and set career-high marks in almost every offensive category.

Head coach Rick Barnes is likely to repeat as the SEC Coach of the Year next week when votes are cast. To see him win again would be a fitting end to a great regular season.

It’s nice to see this team get rewarded for all of their hard work, but the ultimate reward would be a NCAA championship at season’s end.