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SEC lands 3 stars as first-team AP All-American selections
By Paul Harvey
Published:
SEC basketball was the marquee league in the entire country this season. Headlined by No. 1 overall seed Auburn and 4 teams as a 1 or 2-seed in March Madness, the SEC was the place to be.
That was punctuated on Tuesday with the AP officially revealing its full list of All-America selections. The honors were voted on by the 61-member panel which also voted on the AP Poll throughout the season which ended with Duke as the No. 1 team entering the NCAA Tournament.
The AP confirmed 2 players received unanimous first-team honors: Auburn big man Johni Broome and Duke Sensation Cooper Flagg. Both players have been instrumental to their team’s success this year in punching outright conference titles and grabbing a 1-seed in the tournament.
Broome was joined on the first team by 2 other stars from the SEC: Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. and Alabama guard Mark Sears. Those 2 players led their teams to a 1-seed and a 2-seed, respectively, while Clayton’s Gators won the SEC Tournament in Nashville.
Behind Clayton’s performance and a deep roster, Florida is tied with Duke for the best odds to win the national championship at BetMGM with +350 odds. Auburn is right behind at +425 while Alabama checks in at +1600, and fans can track the top Final Four odds throughout the tournament.
The other member to grab AP First-Team All-America honors is Purdue guard Braden Smith, giving the Boilermakers a 3rd straight year with a first-team recipient. (Zach Edey, 2023 and 2024.)
In spite of dominating the first-team honors, the SEC only had 2 other players mentioned in the rest of the All-America honors. Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler was named a 3rd-team All-American while Vols teammate Chaz Lanier was an honorable mention.
Now that the All-America honors are out, we’ll see which of these players is able to lead their team on a deep run starting this week.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
