Skylar Mays and Javonte Smart make coaches All-SEC preseason team
BATON ROUGE – Senior Skylar Mays and sophomore Javonte Smart were named to the 16th annual Southeastern Conference’s basketball coaches preseason All-SEC first and second teams Monday, tipping off the 2019-20 season.
All 14 schools are represented on the two teams with Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss and Tennessee each having multiple selections. In all, 40 different players received votes for the coaches’ teams.
The coaches’ preseason All-SEC first and second teams consist of a minimum of eight players on each squad, voted on by the SEC basketball coaches. No ties were broken and no predicted order of finish was made.
Mays, who is on the first team and already on watch lists for the Jerry West and the Naismith Player of the Year awards, started all 35 games a year ago and is averaging 13.4 points per game, 3.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists a game.
Smart, a second-team preseason selection, averaged 11.1 points per game, 3.3 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
The 2019-20 season officially tips off Tuesday evening with eight SEC teams in action. LSU opens its 2019-20 season on Friday night at 7 p.m. against Bowling Green in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Season tickets, mini-plans and individual non-conference game tickets are on sale at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office and online at LSUTIx.net.
Conference play is set to begin on January 4 and the 2020 SEC Tournament will be March 11-15 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
A list of the 2020 SEC Men’s Basketball Coaches Preseason All-SEC team follows:
First Team All-SEC
Kira Lewis Jr. – Alabama
Kerry Blackshear – Florida
Andrew Nembhard – Florida
Anthony Edwards – Georgia
Ashton Hagans – Kentucky
Skylar Mays – LSU
Breein Tyree – Ole Miss
Reggie Perry – Mississippi State
A.J. Lawson – South Carolina
Second Team All-SEC
Isaiah Joe – Arkansas
Austin Wiley – Auburn
Tyrese Maxey – Kentucky
EJ Montgomery – Kentucky
Javonte Smart – LSU
Devontae Shuler – Ole Miss
Jeremiah Tilmon Jr. – Missouri
Jordan Bowden – Tennessee
Lamonté Turner – Tennessee
Savion Flagg – Texas A&M
Aaron Nesmith – Vanderbilt