Tennessee’s men’s basketball team is receiving a great deal of recognition heading into the 2018-19 basketball season coming off a surprisingly good season last year. A day after the Vols were picked to finish second in the SEC by the SEC media, one of Tennessee’s players was added to a prestigious award watch list.
Junior forward Grant Williams was named to the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year preseason watch list, and earlier this week senior forward Admiral Schofield was named to the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year watch list. At the beginning of this week, junior point guard Jordan Bone was named to the Bob Cousy Award watch list, the annual award that recognizes the top guard in all of college basketball.
Both Williams and Schofield picked up All-SEC honors on Wednesday with Williams being named to the First Team All-SEC squad and Schofield being picked for the Second Team All-SEC team. Williams was also voted the preseason SEC Player of the Year.
Last season, Williams won the SEC Player of the Year award, and both he and Schofield were voted to the First Team All-SEC team at the end of the regular season.
The Vols’ two most talked about players enjoyed breakout campaigns last year during Tennessee’s 2017-18 season. Williams averaged 15.2 points, six rebounds, and 1.9 assists while shooting 47.3 percent from the floor as a sophomore for the Vols. He started in all 35 games for Tennessee and is just 67 points away from earning 1,000 career points as a Vol. Schofield averaged 13.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists while making 44.7 percent of his shots and a career-high 39.5 percent of his threes in 34 starts and 35 overall appearances as a junior. Schofield needs only 40 points to earn 1,000 career point in his UT career.
Schofield totaled four double-doubles last season for the Vols, and Williams totaled 20 or more points in eight of his 35 total games.
The Vols open up their 2018-19 season on November 6th when they host Lenoir-Rhyne in Thompson-Boling Arena. Tennessee will play an exhibition game against Tusculum on October 31st as well.
