Thornwell named preseason All-SEC by league coaches

The Southeastern Conference unveiled its 13th annual men’s basketball coaches preseason All-SEC teams on Thursday, and it was announced that South Carolina senior guard Sindarius Thornwell was named to the First Team. It marks the third-straight season that Thornwell has garnered preseason honors, as he was named to the second team prior to his sophomore and junior campaigns.

Thornwell is Carolina’s top returning scorer this season after posting 13.4 points per game as a junior. He is also the SEC’s leader in scoring among active players with 1,278 career points. Thornwell has never missed a game during his career in the Garnet and Black, starting all 101 contests. He has six career double-doubles entering his senior season, and has led or shared the team lead in scoring 33 times during his career. Following the 2016 campaign, Thornwell was named to the SEC’s All-Defensive Team, while he was also named to his third SEC Academic Honor Roll.

Ten different schools are represented on the two preseason teams with Kentucky having four selections while Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Vanderbilt have two selections each. In all, 31 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 head men’s basketball coaches. No ties were broken and no predicted order of finish was made.

First Team All-SEC

Moses Kingsley – Arkansas, F, 6-10, 230, Sr., Abuja, Nigeria

J.J. Frazier – Georgia, G, 5-10, 155, Sr., Glennville, Ga.

Yante Maten – Georgia, F, 6-8, 240, Jr., Pontiac, Mich.

Edrice “Bam” Adebayo – Kentucky, F, 6-10, 260, Fr., Little Washington, N.C.

De’Aaron Fox – Kentucky, G, 6-3, 187, Fr., Houston, Texas

Quinndary Weatherspoon – Mississippi State, G, 6-4, 202, So., Canton, Miss.

Sindarius Thornwell – South Carolina, G, 6-5, 211, Sr., Lancaster, S.C.

Tyler Davis – Texas A&M, C, 6-10, 270, So., Plano, Texas

Second Team All-SEC

Dusty Hannahs – Arkansas, G, 6-3, 210, R-Sr., Little Rock, Ark.

KeVaughn Allen – Florida, G, 6-2, 183, So., Little Rock, Ark.

John Egbunu – Florida, C, 6-11, 255, R-Jr., Bauchi, Nigeria

Isaiah Briscoe – Kentucky, G, 6-3, 210, So., Newark, N.J.

Malik Monk – Kentucky, G, 6-3, 200, Fr., Lepanto, Ark.

Antonio Blakeney – LSU, G, 6-4, 190, So., Sarasota, Fla.

Sebastian Saiz – Ole Miss, F, 6-9, 240, Sr., Madrid, Spain

Matthew Fisher-Davis – Vanderbilt, G/F, 6-5, 185, Jr., Charlotte, N.C.

Luke Kornet – Vanderbilt, F, 7-1, 250, Sr., Lantana, Texas

This story was originally published November 10, 2016 at 2:54 PM.