Tennessee guard Dalton Knecht is officially the SEC Player of the Year.
The SEC’s coaches voted Knecht as the conference’s top player after his dominant super senior season in Knoxville.
Knecht was a deserving candidate to earn the honor, averaging 21.4 points and 4.8 rebounds over the course of the season. But Knecht was even better in SEC play where he averaged 25.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. In 18 conference games, Knecht totaled 40 points once, 35-plus points four times, 30-plus points six times and 25-plus points 10 times.
Knecht provided the missing piece for Tennessee basketball this season. The Vols had been elite defensively in recent seasons but had struggled to score consistently. The Northern Colorado transfer immediately addressed that issue with what he brought to Tennessee basketball.
The 6-foot-6 guard is the first Tennessee player to earn SEC Player of the Year honors since Grant Williams won the award back-to-back in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Tennessee knew that Knecht was a strong offensive player when they landed him out of the transfer portal and he impressed in preseason practice. But for Vols’ coach Rick Barnes, it wasn’t until Tennessee’s exhibition game that he knew they had something special.
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“We go through preseason and you guys watch a lot of it and see it and I don’t think any of you guys thought he was going to do what he did either,” Barnes said. “And I think the biggest moment was, I set it after the exhibition game against Michigan State. One, he played harder than he’d ever played and practiced defensively. And then when he made that dunk, I’m like, whoa. Because I hadn’t seen that either.”
With Knecht in tow, Tennessee basketball won its second SEC Championship of Barnes’ tenure and the first outright SEC Regular Season Championship since 2008. The Vols went 14-4 in SEC play with losses at Mississippi State and Texas A&M and at home against South Carolina and Kentucky.
Tennessee swept Alabama, won its lone meeting at home against Auburn and Florida and earned road wins at ranked South Carolina and Kentucky teams.
Knecht and Tennessee look to add more memories and strong moments from his lone season in Knoxville as the Vols head into the SEC Tournament and then the NCAA Tournament.
