Davis sweeps SEC player honors; Calipari wins, too
The Kentucky basketball team's sweep of the Southeastern Conference season has carried over to the league's postseason awards, with UK's Anthony Davis and John Calipari as major winners.
Davis, a 6-foot-10 forward who leads the nation in blocked shots, was voted by league coaches as the SEC Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
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Calipari, in his third season at Kentucky, was voted SEC Coach of the Year for the first time after leading the No. 1 Cats (30-1) to a 16-0 run through SEC play and a 22-game winning streak.
It's just the third time a team has finished 16-0 in SEC play; UK also did it in the 1995-96 and 2002-03 seasons.
Davis is joined on the coaches' eight-player All-SEC first team, five-player SEC All-Defensive team and the eight-player SEC All-freshman team by UK wing Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
UK senior forward Darius Miller, who averages 10 points, was voted as SEC Sixth Man of the Year by the coaches, and UK sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb are on the eight-man All-SEC second team.
Miller, who came off the bench 21 times this season, is the first Kentucky player to win the Sixth Man award since its inception in 2004.
Davis is the seventh UK player to win SEC Player of the Year honors and the first since John Wall in 2010.
The Chicago native leads UK in scoring (14.4 points per game) and rebounding (9.8 pg) and holds the school's single-season blocks record with 146 (4.7 pg). He's second in NCAA Division I in field-goal percentage (.663).
He's the first player to sweep the SEC coaches' awards for Player of the Year (first awarded in 1987), Defensive Player of the Year (2004) and Freshman of the Year (2001).
He joins Chuck Hayes in 2005 as the only UK players to win the defensive award, and he's the third consecutive Cat - and fourth in five years - to be named Freshman of the Year by the coaches (Jones, 2011; DeMarcus Cousins 2010, co-winner Patrick Patterson, 2008).
Earlier in the day, Davis was named the National Player of the Year by Sporting News and the District IV Player of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
USBWA District IV is made up of schools in Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Calipari said he got a brief rundown of UK's postseason honors as he ran on the treadmill prior to Tuesday's practice.
"I'm happy for all the kids," Calipari said. "They deserve all the accolades, but I will remind them it really means nothing. Let's move on. We're on to the next part of our season."
The Wildcats open postseason play on Friday in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament.
A full rundown of the SEC coaches' postseason awards and all-league teams:
First-team All-SEC
Bradley Beal, Florida - G, 6-3, 207, Fr., St. Louis, Mo.
Kenny Boynton, Florida - G, 6-2, 189, Jr., Pompano Beach, Fla.
Anthony Davis, Kentucky - F, 6-10, 220, Fr., Chicago, Ill.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kentucky - F, 6-7, 232, Fr., Somerdale, N.J.
Dee Bost, Mississippi State - G, 6-2, 176, Sr., Concord, N.C.
Arnett Moultrie, Mississippi State - F, 6-11, 249, Jr., Memphis, Tenn.
John Jenkins, Vanderbilt - G, 6-4, 215, Jr., Hendersonville, Tenn.
Jeffery Taylor, Vanderbilt - F, 6-7, 225, Sr., Norkopping, Sweden
Second-team All-SEC
JaMychal Green, Alabama - F, 6-8, 228, Sr., Montgomery, Ala.
^Trevor Releford, Alabama - G, 6-1, 180, So., Kansas City, Mo.
BJ Young, Arkansas - G, 6-3, 175, Fr., St. Louis, Mo.
Erving Walker, Florida - G, 5-8, 177, Sr., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Terrence Jones, Kentucky - F, 6-9, 252, So., Portland, Ore.
Doron Lamb, Kentucky - G, 6-4, 210, So., Queens, N.Y.
Justin Hamilton, LSU - C, 7-0, 260, Jr., Alpine, Utah
^Terrance Henry, Ole Miss - F, 6-9, 210, Sr., Monroe, La.
Jeronne Maymon, Tennessee - F, 6-7, 265, Jr., Madison, Wis.
SEC All-Freshman Team
BJ Young, Arkansas - G, 6-3, 175, Fr., St. Louis, Mo.
Bradley Beal, Florida - G, 6-3, 207, Fr., St. Louis, Mo.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia - G, 6-5, 200, Fr., Greenville, Ga.
Anthony Davis, Kentucky - F, 6-10, 220, Fr., Chicago, Ill.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kentucky - F, 6-7, 232, Fr., Somerdale, N.J.
Anthony Hickey, LSU - G, 5-11, 182, Fr., Hopkinsville, Ky.
Rodney Hood, Mississippi State - G, 6-8, 204, Fr., Meridian, Miss.
Jarnell Stokes, Tennessee - F, 6-8, 250, Fr., Memphis, Tenn.
SEC All-Defensive Team
Anthony Davis, Kentucky - F, 6-10, 220, Fr., Chicago, Ill.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kentucky - F, 6-7, 232, Fr., Somerdale, N.J.
Reginald Buckner, Ole Miss - F, 6-9, 225, Jr., Memphis, Tenn.
Damontre Harris, South Carolina - F, 6-9, 214, So., Fayetteville, N.C.
Jeffery Taylor, Vanderbilt - F, 6-7, Sr., 225, Norrkoping, Sweden
SEC Coach of the Year: John Calipari, Kentucky
SEC Player of the Year: Anthony Davis, Kentucky
SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Patric Young, Florida
SEC Freshman of the Year: Anthony Davis, Kentucky
SEC Sixth-Man of the Year: Darius Miller, Kentucky
SEC Defensive Player of the Year: Anthony Davis, Kentucky
^-Ties are not broken