My All-SEC basketball ballot

Here’s the ballot I just sent in for the Associated Press all-SEC men’s basketball awards. These are based on the regular season, and are due to be announced Monday.

FIRST TEAM

F-Chandler Parsons, Florida

F-Terrence Jones, Kentucky

F-Trey Thompkins, Georgia

G-John Jenkins, Vanderbilt

G-Scotty Hopson, Tennessee

SECOND TEAM

F-JaMychal Green, Alabama

F-Jeffery Taylor, Vanderbilt

G-Erving Walker, Florida

G-Brandon Knight, Kentucky

G-Chris Warren, Ole Miss


PLAYER OF THE YEAR-John Jenkins, Vanderbilt

COACH OF THE YEAR-Billy Donovan, Florida

NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR-Terrence Jones, Kentucky

A few notes:

- Thompkins may not have had a great year, at least compared to expectations, but I still ended up giving him the edge over Green for the final spot on the first team. Their numbers were very similar, but I took into account Thompkins playing through a ton of injuries. Honestly, it could have gone either way.

- Why Jenkins over Parsons for POY? I have a general rule when I vote for these things: If the award says MVP, then I lean more towards how important a player is to his team. If it says player of the year, then I pick the best player. In my mind that was Jenkins.

- Donovan got my vote even though most people, including me, picked the Gators to win the East because of everyone coming back. Anthony Grant would have been my other choice, but given how weak the West was, and that Florida ran away with the East – I expected a closer battle for first – I went with Donovan.

- I wanted to find room on my second team for Georgia’s Travis Leslie and South Carolina’s Sam Muldrow, but I just couldn’t. Leslie didn’t really have a bad year, but there were a few games where he just disappeared. Muldrow was probably the league’s best defensive player and South Carolina might have gone winless without him. But I couldn’t find anyone to take off the second five. Erving Walker was the 10th guy on my team: While his stats weren't eye-popping, he was vitally important to Florida and hit a number of big shots, as Georgia can attest.