SEC names Players of the Week after first full week of conference play

The first full week of conference play is now in the books, and boy, did it bring some chaos. But as the dust settles from a hectic weekend of college hoops as a whole, the SEC named its Players of the Week.

With some tremendous individual performers from the last seven days worth of games, the SEC decided to name a pair of Co-Players of the Week for their efforts. Alabama’s Mark Sears and Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht were the honorees this week. Meanwhile, Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard edged out the Kentucky boys to win Freshman of the Week yet again.

Sears and Alabama has a particularly strong week, picking up two quality wins their resume desperately needed. In the mid-week matchup, ‘Bama welcomed a 13-1 South Carolina squad and absolutely suffocated the Gamecocks to just 47 total points with their best defensive performance of the season by a country mile. Offensively, though, Sears led the way with 31 points.

Then, in the weekend road trip to Mississippi State, the Crimson Tide picked up their best win of the season and a surefire quad one victory against an MSU team that’s just gotten their best player back. Sears again led the way, pouring in 22 as Alabama appears to have found a groove.

Those are tough numbers to match, but Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht earned Co-Player of the Week honors for good reason. He and Zakai Zeigler were the Volunteers’ only sign of a pulse in their Tuesday evening loss at Mississippi State as Knecht poured in 28. Then on Saturday, in a comeback win over Georgia, he amassed 36 to break whatever mini-slump he may have been in prior to this week.

Josh Hubbard earned his recognition with some strong performances against those Tennessee and Alabama teams this past week. MSU had to go at least 1-1 in the two high-profile home games last week and got it done, earning the win over Tennessee earlier in the week thanks to a 25-point outing from the sub-six-foot rookie.

His performance vs. the Tide was nothing to scoff at, either, as he notched 14 points. However, he and the Bulldog perimeter didn’t do their best job keeping the Alabama guards under wraps, as evidenced by Sears’ own nomination as Co-Player of the Week.