The SEC just dropped its first team All-Conference, and there were some surprises on there.
Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Tennessee
Labaron Philon, Alabama
Thomas Haugh, Florida
No Nate Ament, no Josh Hubbard? But more importantly for Kentucky basketball, no Otega Oweh? The Preseason Conference Player of the Year was nowhere to be found on the All-SEC 1st team. Why was Oweh snubbed? Because of Kentucky's 9th-place finish in the SEC.
Otega Oweh's absence shouldn't be a surprise
Looking at Otega's raw numbers, this one doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Otega Oweh: 21.1 points, 4.56 rebounds, 2.67 assists,1.83 steals per game.
There are some guys I totally get, really I do. Look at these numbers during conference play:
Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt: 21.5 points, 3.39 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 2.2 steals per game.
Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas: 24.82 points, 3 rebounds, 6.65 assists per game
They deserve it, and I am not knocking Thomas Haugh, Ja'Kobi Gillespie, or Lebaron Philon; they had great seasons. But their numbers simply don't stack up.
Thomas Haugh, Florida: 17.53 points, 5.82 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block per game
Ja'Kobi Gillespie, Tennessee: 18.11 points, 2.94 rebounds, 5.39 assists, 2.67 steals per game
Labaron Philon, Alabama: 21.24 points, 2.88 assists, 4.18 rebounds per game.
Oweh had better scoring numbers than Haugh and Gillespie, better rebounding than Gillispie and Philon, and was close to Haugh. Defensively, he had just as much impact as Gillespie and way more than Philon. And he was an equal passer to Philon.
But the one place that matters a lot in these types of awards is order of finish.
Kentucky basketball's 9th place finish cost Otega Oweh an award slot
The Cats struggled to close out SEC play, losing 5 of 7, resulting in a historically bad 9th place finish. That, in my opinion, cost Otega a 1st team slot. Look at where the first team players' teams finished in the final SEC standings
Florida (Thomas Haugh)- 1
Alabama (Labaron Philon)- 2
Arkansas (Darius Acuff, Jr.)- 3
Vanderbilt (Tyler Tanner)- 4
Tennessee (Ja'Kobi Gillespie)- 5
Seems odd that each team that finished in the top 5 had 1 player selected to the All-SEC team. It's like the voters just looked at the order of finish and said let's just go with one player from each, the problem is, they didn't even get the best player from Tennessee.
Nate Ament was statistically better than Ja'Kobi Gillespie
19 points, 6 rebounds, 2.25 assists on the season for Ament, and having watched Tennessee a lot this year, he was much more impactful than Gillespie was. Without Ament, the Vols looked like a different team; without Gillespie, they still functioned well.
Look at the Vanderbilt game to close the season out; without Nate Ament, they lost to the Commodores at home. With Ament, they beat Vandy in Nashville
I really don't know what the voters were looking at or looking for, but they really messed this one up.