SEC announces Player and Freshman of the Week for second week of February

We are smack-dab in the middle of SEC play, which means exciting matchups and sheer chaos all around the league. Following yet another week of unpredictable yet compelling basketball, the SEC has awarded its Freshman and Player of the Week.

Let’s start with the latter, where Vanderbilt big man Liam Robbins was awarded the conference Player of the Week award for his efforts in leading Vandy to its best week of SEC play since…the Stallings era? Seriously. The ‘Dores have been in the dumps for so long but have taken massive strides this season under Jerry Stackhouse. This week was perhaps his most encouraging since taking over the job as Vanderbilt slayed Tennessee at the buzzer in Memorial Gymnasium during the week and then picked up a win at Florida this past weekend to make it a pair of Quad 1 wins in the span of four days.

Of course, Robbins was a catalyst for such results. He missed some time in the second half of January but has been a monster since returning. Against Tennessee, the senior big fella only scored 14 points but grabbed nine rebounds and foiled the Volunteers’ physicality down low, holding the UT bigs in check while grabbing nine rebounds and blocking three shots.

Then, vs. Florida, Robbins poured in 32 points to go along with 10 rebounds and four blocks. Just all-star type performances from the best two-way player in the SEC of late. Vandy may not make the NCAA Tournament, but this is a far more respectable outfit than typical down in Nashville.

As for Freshman of the Week honors: take a wild guess. If you answered the obvious…Brandon Miller…then you’d be correct. He’s probably lost count of Player of the Week awards at this point, because he’s seemingly either been named the Freshman or Player of the Week every Monday since the start of conference play.

Performances of 24 points and nine rebounds vs. Florida, and 13 and six vs. rival Auburn earned him the nod this week. Frankly, it was a light week of production for the uber talented Alabama wing, which means he was still far and away the best rookie performer of the last seven days. His efforts also helped lead the Crimson Tide back to the top of the AP Poll as well.

Two deserving performers whose teams had terrific weeks on the basketball court.