2016–17 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season

2016–17 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season
2016–17 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	14
TV partner(s)	CBS, ESPN, SEC Network
Regular Season
2017 SEC Champions	Kentucky
Season MVP	Malik Monk, Kentucky and Sindarius Thornwell, South Carolina
Top scorer	Sindarius Thornwell, South Carolina
SEC Tournament
Champions	Kentucky
Finals MVP	De'Aaron Fox, Kentucky
Basketball seasons
	← 2015–16 2017–18 →

2016–17 Southeastern Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 5 Kentucky †	16	–	2	.889	32	–	6	.842
No. 10 Florida	14	–	4	.778	27	–	9	.750
Arkansas	12	–	6	.667	26	–	10	.722
No. 6 South Carolina	12	–	6	.667	26	–	11	.703
Ole Miss	10	–	8	.556	22	–	14	.611
Alabama	10	–	8	.556	19	–	15	.559
Vanderbilt	10	–	8	.556	19	–	16	.543
Georgia	9	–	9	.500	19	–	15	.559
Texas A&M	8	–	10	.444	16	–	15	.516
Tennessee	8	–	10	.444	16	–	16	.500
Auburn	7	–	11	.389	18	–	14	.563
Mississippi State	6	–	12	.333	16	–	16	.500
LSU	2	–	16	.111	10	–	21	.323
Missouri	2	–	16	.111	8	–	24	.250

† 2017 SEC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

The 2016–17 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2016, followed by the start of the 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Conference play started in early January 2017 and concluded in March, after which 14 member teams participated in the 2017 SEC tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, with the tournament champion guaranteed a selection to the 2017 NCAA tournament.

Preseason

SEC recruits at the 2016 McDonald's All-American Boys Game

Malik Monk, Kentucky

Bam Adebayo, Kentucky

De'Aaron Fox, Kentucky

Sacha Killeya-Jones, Kentucky

Media Day Selections

	Media^[1]
1.	Kentucky
2.	Florida
3.	Texas A&M
4.	Georgia
5.	Arkansas
6.	Vanderbilt
7.	Alabama
8.	South Carolina
9.	Ole Miss
10.	Mississippi State
11.	Auburn
12.	LSU
13.	Tennessee
14.	Missouri

() first place votes

Preseason All-SEC teams

Media^[1]
Moses Kingsley Arkansas J. J. Frazier Georgia Edrice Adebayo Kentucky De'Aaron Fox Kentucky Tyler Davis Texas A&M

Coaches select 8 players
Players in bold are choices for SEC Player of the Year

Head coaches

Note: Stats shown are before the beginning of the season. Overall and SEC records are from time at current school.

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Season at school	Overall record	SEC record	NCAA Tournaments	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA Championships
Alabama	Avery Johnson	Brooklyn Nets	2nd	18–15	8–10	0	0	0
Arkansas	Mike Anderson	Missouri	6th	102–54	58–40	1	0	0
Auburn	Bruce Pearl	Tennessee	3rd	26–40	9–27	0	0	0
Florida	Mike White	Louisiana Tech	2nd	21–15	9–9	0	0	0
Georgia	Mark Fox	Nevada	8th	125–102	61–59	2	0	0
Kentucky	John Calipari	Memphis	8th	217–47	95–25	6	4	1
LSU	Johnny Jones	North Texas	5th	80–51	40–32	1	0	0
Mississippi State	Ben Howland	UCLA	2nd	14–17	7–11	0	0	0
Missouri	Kim Anderson	Central Missouri	3rd	19–44	6–30	0	0	0
Ole Miss	Andy Kennedy	Cincinnati	11th	212–126	88–80	2	0	0
South Carolina	Frank Martin	Kansas State	5th	89–65	32–48	0	0	0
Tennessee	Rick Barnes	Texas	2nd	15–19	6–12	0	0	0
Texas A&M	Billy Kennedy	Murray State	6th	99–70	39–34	1	0	0
Vanderbilt	Bryce Drew	Valparaiso	1st	0–0	0–0	0	0	0

Rankings

**Legend**
		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		First ranking

		Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Wk 19	Final
Alabama	AP
Alabama	C
Arkansas	AP								RV									RV	RV
Arkansas	C	RV	RV	RV		RV	RV	RV	RV									RV	RV
Auburn	AP
Auburn	C
Florida	AP	RV	RV	RV	24	21	RV	RV	25	24	23	19	25	24	17	15	13	12	17	20
Florida	C	RV	RV	RV	RV	21	RV	RV	RV	24	23	21	25	23	17	13	12	12	13	17	10
Georgia	AP
Georgia	C	RV
Kentucky	AP	2	2	1	1	6	6	6	8	6	6	5	4	8	15	13	11	9	8	6
Kentucky	C	4	2	1	1	7	7	5	8	6	6	5	4	6	12	11	10	9	8	5	5
LSU	AP
LSU	C
Mississippi State	AP	RV	RV
Mississippi State	C
Missouri	AP
Missouri	C
Ole Miss	AP
Ole Miss	C
South Carolina	AP				20	19	16	22	RV		RV	24	23	19	19	21	RV
South Carolina	C				23	18	15	20	25	RV	RV	24	24	20	16	19	RV	RV	RV
Tennessee	AP
Tennessee	C
Texas A&M	AP	RV	RV
Texas A&M	C	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV
Vanderbilt	AP
Vanderbilt	C

SEC regular season

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

Total	10–8	12–6	7–11	14–4	9–9	16–2	2–16	6–12	2–16	10–8	12–6	8–10	8–10	10–8
	Alabama	Arkansas	Auburn	Florida	Georgia	Kentucky	LSU	Mississippi State	Missouri	Ole Miss	South Carolina	Tennessee	Texas A&M	Vanderbilt
vs. Alabama	–	1–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1
vs. Arkansas	0–1	–	0–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	0–2	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–2	1–1
vs. Auburn	0–2	1–0	–	1–0	2–0	1–0	0–2	0–1	0–2	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0
vs. Florida	0–1	0–2	0–1	–	0–2	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–1	2–0
vs. Georgia	1–1	1–0	0–2	2–0	–	2–0	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1
vs. Kentucky	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	0–2	–	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	0–2	0–2
vs. LSU	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	–	2–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	2–0	1–0
vs. Miss. State	2–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–2	–	0–1	2–0	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–0
vs. Missouri	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	–	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	0–1
vs. Ole Miss	1–0	1–0	0–2	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–2	0–2	–	1–1	1–1	1–0	0–1
vs. South Carolina	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	–	0–2	0–1	1–0
vs. Tennessee	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	2–0	–	0–1	1–1
vs. Texas A&M	0–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	2–0	0–2	1–0	2–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	–	2–0
vs. Vanderbilt	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–2	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	0–2	–

Postseason

SEC Tournament

March, 12 at the Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee. Teams will be seeded by conference record, with ties broken by record between the tied teams followed by record against the regular-season champion, if necessary.

Seed	School	Conf.	Over.	Tiebreaker	First round March 9	Second round March 10	Quarterfinals March 11	Semifinals March 12	Championship March 13
2016 SEC men's basketball tournament seeds and results
1.	‡Kentucky	16–2	26–5		Bye	Bye	vs. #8 Georgia W, 71–60	vs. #5 Alabama W, 79–74	vs. #3 Arkansas W, 82–65
2.	†Florida	14–4	24–7		Bye	Bye	vs. #7 Vanderbilt L, 62–72
3.	†Arkansas	12–6	23–8	1–0 vs. South Carolina	Bye	Bye	vs. #6 Ole Miss W, 73–72	vs. #7 Vanderbilt W, 76–62	vs. #1 Kentucky L, 65–82
4.	†South Carolina	12–5	22–8	0–1 vs. Arkansas	Bye	Bye	vs. #5 Alabama L, 53–64
5.	#Alabama	10–8	17–13	2–0 vs Miss/Van	Bye	vs. #12 Mississippi State W, 75–65	vs. #4 South Carolina W, 64–53	vs. #1 Kentucky L, 74–79
6.	#Ole Miss	10–8	19–12	1–1 vs. Bama/Van	Bye	vs. #14 Missouri W, 86–74	vs. #3 Arkansas L, 72–73
7.	#Vanderbilt	10–8	17–14	0–2 vs. Bama/Miss	Bye	vs. #10 Texas A&M W, 66–41	vs. #2 Florida W, 72–62	vs. #3 Arkansas L, 62–76
8.	#Georgia	9–9	18–13		Bye	vs. #9 Tennessee W, 59–57	vs. #1 Kentucky L, 60–71
9.	#Tennessee	8–10	16–15	1–0 vs. Texas A&M	Bye	vs. #8 Georgia L, 57–59
10.	#Texas A&M	8–10	16–14	0–1 vs Tennessee	Bye	vs. #7 Vanderbilt L, 41–66
11.	#Auburn	7–11	18–13		vs. #14 Missouri L, 83–86
12.	Mississippi State	6–12	15–15		vs. #13 LSU W, 79-52	vs. #5 Alabama L, 55–75
13.	LSU	2–15	10–19		vs. #12 Mississippi State L, 52–79
14.	Missouri	2–16	7–23		vs. #11 Auburn W, 86–83	vs. #6 Ole Miss L, 74–86
‡ – SEC regular season champions, and tournament No. 1 seed. † – Received a double-Bye in the conference tournament. # – Received a single-Bye in the conference tournament. Overall records include all games played in the SEC tournament.

NCAA tournament

Seed	Region	School	Second round	Third round	Sweet 16	Elite Eight	Final Four
2	South	Kentucky	#15 Northern Kentucky W 79–70 – (Indianapolis)	#10 Wichita State W 65–62 – (Indianapolis)	#3 UCLA W 86-75 – (Memphis)	#1 North Carolina L 73-75 – (Memphis)
4	East	Florida	#13 East Tennessee State W 80–65 – (Orlando)	#5 Virginia W 65–39 – (Orlando)	#8 Wisconsin W 84-83 – (New York)	#7 South Carolina L 70-77 – (New York)
7	East	South Carolina	#10 Marquette W 93–73 – (Greenville)	#2 Duke W 88–81 – (Greenville)	#3 Baylor W 70-50 – (New York)	#4 Florida W 77-70 – (New York)	#1 Gonzaga L 73-77 – (Glendale)
8	South	Arkansas	#9 Seton Hall W 77–71 – (Greenville)	#1 North Carolina L 65–72 – (Greenville)
9	West	Vanderbilt	#8 Northwestern L 66–68 – (Salt Lake City)

National Invitation Tournament

College Basketball Invitational

Honors and awards

Players of the Week

Throughout the conference regular season, the SEC offices named one or two players of the week and one or two freshmen of the week each Monday.

Week	Player of the week	Freshman of the week
November 14, 2016^[2]	Duop Reath, LSU	De'Aaron Fox, UK
November 21, 2016^[3]	Sebastian Saiz, MISS	Malik Monk, UK
November 28, 2016^[4]	Sindarius Thornwell, SC	Robert Williams, A&M
December 5, 2016^[5]	PJ Dozier, SC	De'Aaron Fox (2), UK
December 12, 2016^[6]	Tyler Davis, A&M	Jordan Bowden, UT
December 19, 2016^[7]	Malik Monk, UK	De'Aaron Fox (3), UK
December 26, 2016^[8]	Detrick Mostella, UT	Jared Harper, AUB
January 2, 2017^[9]	Yante Maten, UGA	Malik Monk (2), UK
January 2, 2017^[9]	Isaiah Briscoe, UK	Malik Monk (2), UK
January 9, 2017^[10]	KeVaughn Allen, UF	De'Aaron Fox (4), UK
January 16, 2017^[11]	Quinndary Weatherspoon, MSU	Malik Monk (3), UK
January 23, 2017^[12]	Terence Davis, MISS	Austin Wiley, AUB
January 30, 2017^[13]	Robert Hubbs III, UT	Braxton Key, BAMA
February 6, 2017^[14]	Chris Chiozza, UF	Jared Harper (2), AUB
February 13, 2017^[15]	Sindarius Thornwell (2), SC	Grant Williams, UT
February 13, 2017^[15]	Sindarius Thornwell (2), SC	Robert Williams (2), A&M
February 20, 2017^[16]	Daryl Macon, ARK	Robert Williams (3), A&M
February 27, 2017^[17]	J. J. Frazier, UGA	Edrice Adebayo, UK
March 6, 2017^[18]	Luke Kornet, VAN	Bam Adebayo (2), UK

All-SEC Awards

Coaches

Award	Recipient(s)
2017 SEC Men's Basketball Individual Awards ^[19]
Player of the Year	Sindarius Thornwell, South Carolina
Coach of the Year	Mike White, Florida
Defensive Player of the Year	Robert Williams, Texas A&M
Freshman of the Year	Malik Monk, Kentucky
Scholar-Athlete of the Year	Luke Kornet, Vanderbilt
Sixth Man Award	Canyon Barry, Florida

First Team	Second Team	All-Freshman Team	All-Defensive Team
2017 SEC Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams
KeVaughn Allen So., G, Florida J. J. Frazier Sr., G, Georgia De'Aaron Fox Fr., G, Kentucky Luke Kornet Sr., C, Vanderbilt Yante Maten Jr., F, Georgia Malik Monk Fr., G, Kentucky Sebastian Saiz Sr., F, Ole Miss Sindarius Thornwell Sr., G, South Carolina	Bam Adebayo Fr., F, Kentucky Antonio Blakeney So., G, LSU Tyler Davis So., C, Texas A&M Kasey Hill Sr., G, Florida Robert Hubbs Sr., G, Tennessee Moses Kingsley Sr., C, Arkansas Quinndary Weatherspoon So., F, Miss State Robert Williams Fr., F, Texas A&M	Braxton Key Alabama Mustapha Heron Auburn Bam Adebayo Kentucky De'Aaron Fox Kentucky Malik Monk Kentucky Lamar Peters Miss State Grant WilliamsTennessee Robert Williams Texas A&M	Kasey Hill Sr., G, Florida Moses Kingsley Sr., C, Arkansas Luke Kornet Sr., C, Vanderbilt Sindarius Thornwell Sr., G, South Carolina Robert Williams Fr., F, Texas A&M
† - denotes unanimous selection

AP

Award	Recipient(s)
2017 SEC Men's Basketball Individual Awards ^[20]
Player of the Year	Malik Monk, Kentucky
Coach of the Year	Mike White, Florida
Newcomer of the Year	Malik Monk, Kentucky

First Team	Second Team
2017 SEC Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams
J. J. Frazier Sr., G, Georgia De'Aaron Fox Fr., G, Kentucky †Malik Monk Fr., G, Kentucky Sebastian Saiz Sr., F, Ole Miss †Sindarius Thornwell Sr., G, South Carolina	Bam Adebayo Fr., F, Kentucky KeVaughn Allen So., G, Florida Moses Kingsley Sr., C, Arkansas Yante Maten Jr., F, Georgia Robert Williams Fr., F, Texas A&M
† - denotes unanimous selection

SEC Tournament Awards

Award	Recipient(s)
2017 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament Awards ^[21]
SEC Tournament MVP	De'Aaron Fox, Kentucky

First Team
2017 SEC Men's Basketball All-Tournament Team
Bam Adebayo Fr., F, Kentucky †De'Aaron Fox Fr., G, Kentucky Dominique Hawkins Sr., G, Kentucky Riley LaChance Jr., G, Vanderbilt Daryl Macon Jr., G, Arkansas
† - denotes MVP

All-Americans

NBA draft

Rnd.	Pick	Player	Pos.	Team	School
1	5	De'Aaron Fox	PG	Sacramento Kings	Kentucky (Fr.)
1	11	Malik Monk	SG	Charlotte Hornets	Kentucky (Fr.)
1	14	Malik Monk	PF	Miami Heat	Kentucky (Fr.)
2	48	Sindarius Thornwell	SG	Milwaukee Bucks	South Carolina (Jr.)