Tennessee's Dalton Knecht named SEC Player of the Year, two Vols make All-SEC First Team

Dalton Knecht is the SEC Player of the Year, the league announced on Monday. The Northern Colorado transfer wing starred for Tennessee, the league’s regular-season champion, by averaging 25.5 points per game in SEC play and 21.4 points per game this season.

Zakai Zeigler was named Defensive Player of the Year and both Knecht and Zeigler were named First Team All-SEC. Tennessee center Jonas Aidoo was named Second Team All-SEC and Zeigler and Aidoo were named to the league’s All-Defensive team. 

Zeigler, less than a year removed from suffering a torn ACL, had a career year, averaging 11.6 points, 6.0 assists and 2.6 rebounds while playing all 31 games this season. He led the SEC in assists (185), was third in assist-turnover ratio (2.8) and was fourth in steals (58) while shooting 40.4% from the field and 35.3% from the 3-point line. 

Aidoo had a breakout junior season, averaging career-highs in scoring (12.1 points per game), rebounding (7.6), defensive rebounds (4.7), offensive rebounds (2.9), blocks (1.9), steals (0.7) and minutes (25.4). He was fourth in the SEC in rebounding and third in the league in blocked shots.

Dalton Knecht averaged 21.4 points per game, 25.5 in SEC games and 24.8 in true road games

Knecht capped an all-time regular season with a career-high 40 points in Tennessee’s 85-81 loss to Kentucky on Saturday afternoon at Thompson-Boling Arena.

He scored 25 or more points 10 time this season, 30 or more points seven times, 35 or more points five times and 39 or more points four times, with three 39-point games to go with the 40 he scored against Kentucky.

Knecht averaged 21.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists for the season while shooting 47.4% from the field and 40.5% from the 3-point line. 

He averaged 24.8 points in true road games, shooting 50.8% from the field and 43.0% from the 3-point line. He had 13 or more points in all 11 road games this season and had 22 or more in eight road games and 32 or more in three road games.

Knecht’s 25.5 points per game in SEC play made him the league’s highest-scoring player over the last 22 seasons. He was also the highest scoring player in conference play for any Division I team this season and was the highest scoring player from any Power 6 conference since 2019-20.

His 36 points at Georgia on January 13 and 39 points against Florida on January 16 made him the first SEC player with back-to-back 35-point games since Shaquille O’Neal in 1991. 

His six straight games with 25 or more points between January 10 and January 30 — 28 at Mississippi State, 36 at Georgia, 39 vs. Florida, 25 vs. Alabama, 32 at Vanderbilt and 31 vs. South Carolina — made him the first player to do so since Devan Downey in 2010. 

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Knecht is only the second SEC player in the last 14 seasons with at least five 35-point games and/or seven 30-point games, alongside Mason Jones in 2019-20.

He exploded onto the scene with 28 points in an exhibition win at Michigan State in October and had 24 more two weeks later in a wire-to-wire road win at Wisconsin in the second game of the season. 

Knecht scored 37 points at North Carolina in November, tying the scoring record for an opposing player against the Tar Heels at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill, and scored 21 in a home win over Illinois on December 9.

Knecht had just eight points in Tennessee’s 90-64 win over Ole Miss in the SEC opener on January 6, but his 28 points at Mississippi State four days later started his run of scoring 13 or more points over rest of the 17 conference games on schedule.