With the regular season ending this past weekend and the Southeastern Conference Tournament tipping off Thursday afternoon, the announcement of the SEC’s postseason awards is fast approaching.
As the announcement approaches, the front-runners for multiple major awards remain open for debate with several deserving candidates worthy of the honors.
Player of the Year: Jamont Gordon, Mississippi State junior guard/forward
Entering the final weekend of play, the top-two candidates for this award seemed to be Gordon and Vanderbilt senior guard/forward Shan Foster.
While Foster may get more attention because he leads the league in scoring, Gordon does a better job of filling out the entire stat sheet and outplayed Foster in the season’s final weekend.
Gordon, who in three years has already climbed to No. 3 on Mississippi State’s all-time assists list, is No. 3 in the SEC with 4.8 assists per game and No. 5 in the league in scoring, averaging 17.5 points per game.
Foster only averages 1.7 assists to go with his 20.6 points per game.
Gordon also grabs 6.3 rebounds per game, No. 15 in the SEC and third-best among guards, while Foster snatches 4.9 rebounds per game.
Gordon is also third among SEC guards in blocked shots, averaging 0.7 per game – a half of a block more than Foster.
Freshman of the Year: Anthony Randolph, LSU forward
The race for Freshman of the Year is even tighter than Player of the Year with Randolph, Vanderbilt center A.J. Ogilvy, Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson, Ole Miss guard Chris Warren and Florida guard Nick Calathes all having great seasons.
Randolph should edge out Ogilvy, Patterson and Warren for the honor by having a more complete game – outperforming them in rebounds, steals and blocks.
Calathes and Randolph’s points and steals numbers are nearly dead even. Randolph outrebounds and outblocks Calathes by more than three boards and two blocks, and Calathes averages five more assists than Randolph.
While both have been vital to their team’s success, Randolph’s continued improvement and numerous Freshman of the Week honors add to his case.
Class level aside, Randolph has left his mark on this season by scoring 15.4 points (No. 11 in the SEC) and being in the top three in both rebounds and blocks per game.
Coach of the Year: Bruce Pearl, Tennessee
Pearl has led the Volunteers to the top of the SEC this season with a 28-3 record (14-2 in the SEC) and has positioned his team for a potential No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
Tennessee held the No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press poll for a week after toppling No. 1 Memphis on Feb. 23, despite only seven points from the Volunteers’ leading scorer, senior guard Chris Lofton.
The success Tennessee has had this season has come even with Lofton playing fewer minutes and scoring fewer points than this past season.
While Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings is a potential candidate, the Volunteers have lost only two SEC games compared to Commodores’ six.
Mississippi State’s Rick Stansbury boasts the conference’s second-best record but without the No. 1 ranking or potential No. 1 tournament seed that Pearl has. Tennessee also defeated Mississippi State, 75-71, on Feb. 2.
Defensive Player of the Year: Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State sophomore forward/ center
While the bigger awards may be closer calls, Varnado should run away with Defensive Player of the Year honors with relative ease.
The young big man leads the nation with 4.8 blocks per game – more than nine SEC teams.
Varnado is the anchor of the conference’s No. 1 field-goal percentage defense, allowing his teammates to take more chances knowing that he can erase their mistakes with a swat of the arm.
While Varnado’s shot blocking gets all the spotlight, the Brownsville, Tenn., native also averages eight rebounds per game, No. 4 in the SEC.
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]