SEC names Players of the Week following last weekend of the regular season

After the final week of the regular season, the Southeastern Conference has announced its Week 18 Players of the Week before everyone heads to Nashville for the SEC tourney.

Leading off as Co-Player of the Week is a guy who’s a primary candidate for SEC Player of the Year in Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves. By the time he takes the court in Friday’s SEC Tournament opener, he’ll have gone an entire month without scoring less than 20 points in a game.

This past week, Reeves totaled 20 points, six rebounds and four assists in a humdrum Senior Day win over Vanderbilt and then tied his second-highest scoring mark of the season with 27 points on 11 shot attempts in a massive win at Tennessee this weekend. We’ll have more on that contest in a second, though.

The other Co-Player of the Week was Texas A&M’s Manny Obaseki, a reserve guard who popped for some huge performances this week in a sweep of Mississippi schools to help the Aggies’ NCAA Tournament chances immensely.

First, A&M took care of Mississippi State on their home court with 17 points coming from Obaseki in a strong Quad 2 win for his team. Then, in the weekend road trip to Oxford, Texas A&M enjoyed their best 3-point shooting day of the year, making 13 of 26 from beyond the arc as Obaseki cashed in with five of his own and 25 total points to lead the victory.

Lastly, the Freshman of the Week went to — no surprise — a Kentucky player. Six different Wildcats won the Rookie of the Week this season, including Reed Sheppard, who’s already won multiple times before put picked up the award one more time after one heck of a week, especially in Knoxville.

Sheppard took just six shots and scored eight points against Vanderbilt, but just like Reeves, he exploded for 27 in the win over Tennessee. Frankly, Sheppard’s were a little more impressive, as he knocked in six of seven 3-point tries in the second half, mostly contested, to slay the Volunteers in Thompson-Boling Arena. Legend stuff for Laurel County’s finest.

For Kentucky, the win means a No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament and current projections as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament while Tennessee’s hold on the final 1-seed was broken on Saturday.

For A&M, at 18-13 with and a 14th loss coming if they don’t grab the auto-bid, they may need to rack up another quality win or two in Nashville to feel remotely hopeful about their chances next Sunday.