BATON ROUGE – The media has had their say and now the SEC men’s basketball coaches have announced their 12th annual preseason All-SEC first and second teams.
LSU freshman Ben Simmons was named to the first team pre-season squad, while junior Tim Quarterman is on the second team. That was the same selections that the pair earned on the media team that was announced at SEC TipOff in Charlotte in October.
Nine different schools are represented on the two teams with Kentucky having four selections while Georgia, LSU, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt have two selections each. In all, 37 different players received votes for the coaches’ teams.
The coaches’ preseason All-SEC first and second teams consist of a minimum of eight players on each squad, voted on by the SEC Head Men’s Basketball Coaches. No ties were broken and no predicted order of finish was made.
All 14 SEC teams officially tip-off the 2015-16 campaign this weekend, beginning with 13 teams hitting the court Friday night. Conference play is set to begin on January 2 and the 2016 SEC Tournament will be March 9-13 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
A list of the 2016 SEC Men’s Basketball Coaches Preseason All-SEC team follows:
First Team All-SEC
Dorian Finney-Smith – Florida, F, 6-8, 220, Sr., Portsmouth, Va.
Kenny Gaines – Georgia, G, 6-3, 205, Sr., Atlanta, Ga.
Charles Mann – Georgia, G, 6-5, 215, Sr., Alpharetta, Ga.
Skal Labissiere – Kentucky, F, 6-11, 225, Fr., Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Tyler Ulis – Kentucky, G, 5-9, 160, So., Chicago, Ill.
Ben Simmons – LSU, F, 6-10, 225, Fr., Melbourne, Australia,
Stefan Moody – Ole Miss, G, 5-10, 179, Sr., Kissimmee, Fla.
Danuel House – Texas A&M, G, 6-7, 212, Sr., Fresno, Texas,
Damian Jones – Vanderbilt, C, 7-0, 245, Jr., Baton Rouge, La.
Second Team All-SEC
Jamal Murray – Kentucky, G, 6-4, 207, Fr., Kitchener, Ontario
Alex Poythress – Kentucky, F, 6-8, 230, Sr., Clarksville, Tenn.
Tim Quarterman – LSU, G, 6-6, 190, Jr., Savannah, Ga.
Malik Newman – Mississippi State, G, 6-3, 178, Fr., Jackson, Miss.
Craig Sword – Mississippi State, G, 6-3, 196, Sr., Montgomery, Ala.
Sindarius Thornwell – South Carolina, G, 6-5, 215, Jr., Lancaster, S.C.
Alex Caruso – Texas A&M, G, 6-5, 186, Sr., College Station, Texas
Riley LaChance – Vanderbilt, G, 6-2, 182, So., Brookfield, Wis.