SEC announces Co-Player of the Week, Freshman of the Week following upset-filled weekend
The SEC on Monday announced that Vanderbilt guard Scotty Pippen Jr. and Arkansas forward Jaylin Williams shared Co-Player of the Week honors, while Auburn forward Jabari Smith was named SEC Freshman of the Week.
Pippen Jr. led Vanderbilt to a 1-1 record this week, as the Commodores lost on the road to then-No. 2 Auburn, then on Saturday defeated Texas A&M at home. Pippen stuffed the stat sheet in both games — against Auburn, he poured in 29 points on 7-of-18 from the field, along with five rebounds, six assists and five steals, and against Texas A&M, Pippen registered 24 points on 8-of-16 from the field, along with six rebounds, an assist and two steals. Pippen leads the SEC with 19.5 points per game, while averaging 3.7 rebounds and 3.8 assists to go along with his total.
Williams, who shared the honor with Pippen, had himself a productive week as he lead the Arkansas Razorbacks to two wins against Missouri and then-No. 16 Tennessee. He went for 13 points on 4-of-109 from the field against Missouri, while adding on 11 points, four assists and two blocks, while scoring another 13 against Tennessee — this time on 6-of-13 from the field — along with 16 rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal. Williams is averaging nearly a double-double with 10.3 points and 9.6 rebounds per contest.
Lastly, Smith led Auburn to a 1-1 record, as the Tigers beat Vanderbilt but lost to Florida, falling in the AP top 25 poll down to No. 3. Smith had a night to remember against the Commodores, scoring 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting, including a remarkable 7-of-10 from three-point range, and also notched four rebounds, three assists and a block. Against Florida, Smith nearly had another 30-point performance, as he scored 28 on 7-of-16 from the field, with seven rebounds, an assist and a block.
Bruce Pearl wanted more from supporting cast around Jabari Smith in loss to Florida
It was Jabari Smith against the world Saturday afternoon en route to Auburn dropping their third game of the season 63-62 on the road at Florida. Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl knows that if he doesn’t get more production out of his players, they could be in for an early exit come postseason.
“We didn’t play well enough to win tonight. Give Florida credit; they made really big shots at the end,” Pearl said after the game. “Our kids really battled. I thought we played hard defensively, I thought we did a lot of good things on the defensive end. But we struggled on the offensive end. Our second-half defense wasn’t as good as the first-half defense. We’re best when everybody contributes, and we relied too much on Jabari tonight — not that it wasn’t smart continuing to go to him because he was able to make plays. But we’re best when everybody contributes. That wasn’t the case tonight.”
Smith dropped a team-high 28 points, but he didn’t have much help. KD Johnson‘s 12 points as well as Walker Kessler‘s 11 to help Smith out, but both also combined for seven turnovers. No one else on Auburn’s roster scored more than five points. The Tigers also committed an uncharacteristic 17 turnovers as a team in the effort.
“Yeah, it was bad. I mean, we just didn’t pass it very well. Sloppy. We didn’t execute. And if we don’t execute in our half-court offense better, it’ll just limit how far we can go,” Pearl said. “You know, just too many balls thrown out of bounds, just crazy stuff. You’ve got to be able to take care of the basketball.”
Some would say it may be beneficial for the Tigers to experience losing before tournament time. Pearl disagrees — winning is winning.
“No. Nope. I don’t see that. I just don’t — I don’t know who said that,” he said. “I mean, if we were undefeated or something, maybe, Okay. But no. I don’t buy into it. Florida played well, especially the second half. Give Florida the credit for us not playing well. Florida forced us into not playing well. So Florida gets all the credit.”