8 players who can help their team advance in the SEC Tournament
By Joey Loose
Dalton Knecht (Tennessee)
Who would have thought that this season’s best player in the SEC was buried in the Big Sky at Northern Colorado last season? Knecht transferred to Knoxville in the offseason and has greatly exceeded expectations after two years at Northern Colorado.
He averaged greater than 20 points per game with those Bears last season at the mid-major level and has somehow exceeded that as a fifth-year senior, putting up 21.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game in the SEC with the Volunteers. Knecht has been one of the stories of the sport this season and should be a First Team All-American.
Early in the year, Knecht put up 37 points in a loss to North Carolina and that wouldn’t be his only breakout performance. He had twin 39-point efforts in wins over Auburn and Florida and dropped 40 on Senior Night last week in a tough loss to Kentucky. He’s unquestionably an offensive machine who can go off on any night.
Not only did Knecht spearhead Tennessee to the top seed in the SEC Tournament, he’s also become the missing cog for a Volunteers team that struggled on offense at times in recent years. When Knecht has one of those legendary performances, Tennessee can beat anybody in the nation. They didn’t win the regular season title by accident after all.