Ole Miss’ Sebastian Saiz earns first-team All-SEC honors

Published 2:00 pm Tuesday, March 7, 2017

The postseason honors continue to roll in for Sebastian Saiz.

Ole Miss’ senior forward was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection Tuesday as voted on by The Associated Press. Saiz was also voted first-team All-SEC by the league’s coaches.

Saiz, the only player in the league averaging a double-double with 15.1 points and 10.9 rebounds, was the lone Ole Miss representative on the teams. The accolades come a day after the 6-foot-9 Spaniard  won the Howell Trophy as the best men’s college basketball player in Mississippi.

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The SEC’s career active rebounding leader, Saiz recorded his league-leading 19th double-double of the season Saturday with 21 points and 15 boards in the Rebels’ 75-70 win over South Carolina, helping Ole Miss (19-12) clinch the No. 6 seed in this week’s SEC Tournament. Ole Miss will play late Thursday night against either Auburn or Missouri at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.

Saiz has 28 double-doubles for his career and is one of only two players in Ole Miss history to tally 1,000 points and 900 rebounds in a career.

Joining Saiz on the AP first team are Kentucky guard Malik Monk, South Carolina guard Sinardius Thornwell — both unanimous selections — Georgia point guard J.J. Frazier and Kentucky guard De’Aaron Fox. Florida guard KeVaughn Allen, Arkansas forward Moses Kingsley, Georgia forward Yante Maten, Texas A&M forward Robert Williams and Kentucky freshman big Bam Adebayo made up the second team.

Monk, one of Kentucky’s latest freshman phenoms, was also voted SEC Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year. He and Thornwell lead the league in scoring at 21.2 points a game while Monk’s 41-percent clip from 3-point range is also tops in the conference.

Florida’s Mike White took Coach of the Year honors after spearheading the Gators’ turnaround. Florida finished runner-up to Kentucky in the SEC’s regular season with a 24-7 record and will end its two-year NCAA Tournament drought under the former Ole Miss assistant, who’s in his second season at the helm.