Honors season

Voting will not begin until next week, but the top honors in the SEC are starting to take shape with two weeks remaining in the regular season.

Auburn’s Bruce Pearl might be tough to beat for SEC Coach of the Year, with his top competition coming from first-year Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin, and third-year coaches Rick Barnes and Tennessee and Avery Johnson at Alabama.

The SEC Player of the Year vote likely will be split among several players, with strong contenders such as Georgia’s Yante Maten; Auburn guards Bryce Brown and Mustapha Heron; Arkansas guards Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon; Missouri guard Kassius Robertson; Alabama guard Collin Sexton; and big men such as Tennessee’s Grant Williams, Kentucky’s Kevin Knox, and Texas A&M’s Tyler Davis and Robert Williams.

The vote for SEC Freshman of the Year should be competitive, with talent such as Arkansas’ Daniel Gafford, LSU’s Tremont Waters, Alabama’s Sexton and Kentucky’s Knox and guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Maten is the league scoring leader with 19.5 points per game, followed by Barford (18.6), Sexton (18.1), Macon (17.0) and Vanderbilt’s Jeff Roberson (16.6) in the top five.

A&M’s Williams (9.7) and Davis (8.7) are the SEC’s top rebounders, followed by Maten (8.6), South Carolina’s Chris Silva (7.7) and Roberson (7.2).

The top three assist men in the league are Florida’s Chris Chiozza (5.9), Auburn’s Jared Harper (5.8)

and Waters (5.8).

Pearl