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Cam Thomas Named First-Team All-SEC, Freshman of the Year

Trendon Watford, Javonte Smart also recognized as some of the SEC’s best

By Zach Junda
NCAA Basketball: South Carolina at Louisiana State Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

Edit: I misunderstood LSU’s press release. This isn’t the SEC’s awards, these are awards handed out by USA Today. Cam Thomas was officially first-team All-SEC per the SEC but Moses Moody was the freshman of the year as the SEC officially announced this morning.

Now that the regular season has concluded and tournament play looms, the SEC handed out its annual awards and three Tigers were honored as some of the conference’s best basketball players.

Cam Thomas picked up a pair of post season accolades, being named the conference’s Newcomer of the Year and was a unanimous First-Team All-SEC selection. Thomas, the five-star prospect out of Virginia, has been better than advertised, averaging 23.1 points per game, good for fourth in the nation.

Thomas was labeled as a scoring machine coming out of Oak Hill Academy and showed that in his first game wearing the purple and gold, scoring 27 points in the season opener against SIU-Edwardsville. Since then he’s had 18 other games of 20 points or more and had a 32-point effort against Texas A&M in the SEC opener. Thomas has also been one of the best free throw shooters in the entire nation. He leads all players in both free throw makes (163) and attempts (186) and has hit on 88 percent of them.

Joining Thomas on the First-Team is sophomore forward Trendon Watford. In his second stint as a Tiger, Watford averaged 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists while upping his shooting from both three (27 percent as a freshman to 33 percent as a sophomore) and at the line (67 percent to 70 percent).

Javonte Smart’s best season as an LSU Tiger was rewarded with a Second-Team All-SEC selection. Smart is scoring a career-best 15 points a game and his 44 percent three-point shooting leads the SEC.

The complete list of honorees are as follows:

First-Team All-SEC

  • Cam Thomas, LSU
  • Scottie Pippen Jr., Vanderbilt
  • Moses Moody, Arkansas
  • Trendon Watford, LSU
  • Herbert Jones, Alabama

Second-Team All-SEC

  • Javonte Smart, LSU
  • AJ Lawson, South Carolina
  • Sahvir Wheeler, Georgia
  • Dylan Disu, Vanderbilt
  • Justin Smith, Arkansas

Coach of the Year: Nate Oats, Alabama

Player of the Year: Herbert Jones, Alabama

Newcomer of the Year: Cam Thomas, LSU

Defensive Player of the Year: Herbert Jones, Alabama