NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The LSU men’s basketball team begins its portion of the Southeastern Conference Media Days shortly after 9 a.m. CT Wednesday at the downtown Bridgestone Arena as all 14 men’s basketball teams will be visiting with the media during the day-long session.
LSU, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee will be featured in the two-hour opening session. Coverage of the event begins on the SEC Network with “SEC Now” from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. CT followed by continuing coverage from Nashville on “The Paul Finebaum Show” from 2-6 p.m. CT.
Coach Johnny Jones will be joined by sophomores Antonio Blakeney and Brandon Sampson at this year’s event behind held for the first time at the site of the Southeastern Conference men’s tournament.
The media has already selected their All-SEC preseason team and Blakeney, a member of the All-SEC Freshman team a year ago, is one of 12 players selected on the preseason teams. Blakeney is a second team selection. The Sarasota, Florida native averaged 12.6 points a game last night, starting 24-of-the-33 games, hitting 52 three-pointers.
Blakeney was one of the most effective players in the league over the final 11 games, averaging over 18 points a game including two games scoring over 30 points (31 versus Mississippi State and 32 against Florida). Blakeney averaged 14.2 points a game in the SEC.
The media also voted for their picks in the final league standings: 1. Kentucky, 2. Florida, 3, Texas A&M, 4. Georgia, 5. Arkansas, 6. Vanderbilt, 7. Alabama, 8. South Carolina, 9. Ole Miss, 10. Mississippi State, 11. Auburn, 12. LSU, 13. Tennessee, 14. Missouri.
LSU opens the 2016-17 season with a free exhibition game on Nov. 7 against Reinhardt before opening the season on Nov. 12 against Wofford.
Updates from Nashville will be added to this page later on Wednesday.
Here is the media preseason All-SEC team:
First Team All-SEC
Moses Kingsley – Arkansas, F, 6-10, 230, Sr., Abuja, Nigeria
J.J. Frazier – Georgia, G, 5-10, 155, Sr., Glennville, Ga.
Edrice “Bam” Adebayo – Kentucky, F, 6-10, 260, Fr., Little Washington, N.C.
De’Aaron Fox – Kentucky, G, 6-3, 187, Fr., Houston, Texas
Tyler Davis – Texas A&M, C, 6-10, 270, So., Plano, Texas
Second Team All-SEC
KeVaughn Allen – Florida, G, 6-2, 183, So., Little Rock, Ark.
Yante Maten – Georgia, F, 6-8, 240, Jr., Pontiac, Mich.
Isaiah Briscoe – Kentucky, G, 6-3, 210, So., Newark, N.J.
Malik Monk – Kentucky, G, 6-3, 200, Fr., Lepanto, Ark.
Antonio Blakeney – LSU, G, 6-4, 190, So., Sarasota, Fla.
Quinndary Weatherspoon – Mississippi State, G, 6-4, 202, So., Canton, Miss.
Luke Kornet – Vanderbilt, F, 7-1, 250, Sr., Lantana, Texas
SEC Player of the Year: Moses Kingsley, Arkansas