Four Alabama Basketball Players Earn All-SEC Honors

Jaden Shackelford was named second team All-SEC, JD Davison and Charles Bediako All-Freshman and Keon Ellis to the All-Defensive team.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A total of four Alabama basketball players earned 2022 SEC Men's Basketball All-Conference honors, the Southeastern Conference announced on Tuesday morning.

Crimson Tide junior guard Jaden Shackelford was named second-team All-SEC, marking the second year in a row that Shackelford was given the honor. Freshmen guard JD Davison and center Charles Bediako were named to the All-Freshman team, while senior guard Keon Ellis was named to the league's All-Defensive team.

Regarding individual honors, no Alabama players were named this season. Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe was named SEC Player of the Year, while Auburn's Jabari Smith was named the Conference's Freshman of the Year. Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl was named the SEC's Coach of the Year, while Auburn forward/center Walker Kessler was named the league's Defensive Player of the Year.

Vanderbilt's Jordan Wright is the Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while the SEC's Sixth-Man of the Year is Tari Eason of LSU.

Here's the full list of SEC All-Conference teams and individual honors:

2022 SEC Men's Basketball All-Conference Honors

First Team

JD Notae, Arkansas
Jaylin Williams, Arkansas
Walker Kessler, Auburn
Jabari Smith, Auburn
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
Tari Eason, LSU
Iverson Molinar, Mississippi State
Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee
Scotty Pippen Jr., Vanderbilt

Second Team

Jaden Shackelford, Alabama
Colin Castleton, Florida
TyTy Washington Jr., Kentucky
Sahvir Wheeler, Kentucky
Darius Days, LSU
Kobe Brown, Missouri
Kennedy Chandler, Tennessee
Quenton Jackson, Texas A&M

All-Freshman Team

Charles Bediako, Alabama
JD Davison, Alabama
Jabari Smith, Auburn
TyTy Washington Jr., Kentucky
Brandon Murray, LSU
Devin Carter, South Carolina
Kennedy Chandler, Tennessee
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee

All-Defensive Team

Keon Ellis, Alabama
Jaylin Williams, Arkansas
Walker Kessler, Auburn
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee

Coach of the Year: Bruce Pearl, Auburn

Player of the Year: Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky

Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Jordan Wright, Vanderbilt

Freshman of the Year: Jabari Smith, Auburn

Sixth-Man of the Year: Tari Eason, LSU

Defensive Player of the Year: Walker Kessler, Auburn

Here's the full press release regarding Alabama's All-SEC players:

Four Alabama Men’s Basketball Players Earn SEC All-Conference Honors

Shackelford named to second team and Ellis tabbed to all-defensive team, while Davison and Bediako earn all-freshman honors

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Southeastern Conference announced the league’s 2022 men’s basketball postseason honors Tuesday, as Jaden Shackelford led four Alabama players who picked up league recognition. Shackelford earned second team honors for a second consecutive year, while JD Davison and Charles Bediako were voted to the all-freshman team. Senior Keon Ellis also earned a spot on the SEC All-Defensive Team.

It’s the third straight year that Alabama has had four different players earn All-SEC honors in the same year. In addition, it marks the sixth consecutive season a Tide rookie earned a spot on the all-freshman team, joining Joshua Primo (2021), Jaden Shackelford (2020), Kira Lewis Jr. (2019), Collin Sexton (2018) and Braxton Key (2017).

Meanwhile, Ellis represents Alabama as one of the SEC’s top defenders as a UA player picked up the honor for the fifth straight year after Donta Hall (2018, 2019) and Herbert Jones (2020, 2021) were each honored in back-to-back seasons, with Jones also earned the program’s lone SEC Defensive Player of the Year last season.

• Picks up second team all-conference honors for the second straight year and third straight year receiving recognition after being named all-freshman team in his rookie campaign
• Earned SEC Player of the Week and NCAA National Player of the Week for Dec. 6 after defeating then-No. 3 Gonzaga
• Tops the Crimson Tide with 16.6 points per game, which ranks seventh in the SEC
• Leads Alabama in threes attempted (262), minutes (34.0 mpg) and 20-point scoring games (10), while ranking second on the team in rebounds (168) and threes made (93)
• Surpassed 1,000 career points in a 20-point effort against. Oakland, becoming the 53rd player in Alabama history to reach the milestone
• Scored a career-high 30 points with a career-high tying eight three-pointers in the Tide’s win against Ole Miss, shooting 8-of-13 from beyond the arc

JD DAVISON – ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM

• Two-time SEC Freshman of the Week, picking up the honor for the weeks of Dec. 6 and Feb. 14
• In 31 contests, the Letohatchee, Ala., native started five games, ranking second on the team in assists (126) and steals (29), while third on the team in rebounds (147)
• Scored a career-high 20 points in the Tide’s win over then-No. 3 Gonzaga, also adding five rebounds and three assists
• Recorded first career double-double against Miami at the ESPN Events Invitational with 13 points, 10 assists and six rebounds
• Also had 10 points and 10 rebounds in the win at Vanderbilt

CHARLES BEDIAKO – ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM

• Leads the team in blocks (51) while sitting third in the SEC with 1.6 blocks per game
• Tops the Crimson Tide in field goal percentage, making 69.1 percent of his shots’ and dunks (38)
• Led the Tide in scoring and rebounding against then No.5 Kentucky, matching his career high in both points with 12 and rebounds with eight
• Recorded a career-high six blocks in the Tide’s win over then-No. 3 Gonzaga, while also adding eight rebounds – the first Tide player to swat 5+ shots in a game since Donta Hall

KEON ELLIS – ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM

• Continues to showcase his defensive prowess earning 1.9 steals per game, good for seventh in the SEC
• Considered one of the top two-way players in the nation
• Ranks seventh in the SEC in steals (1.9 spg) and 13th in rebounding (6.0 rpg), while also averaging 12.1 ppg
• He's stepped up his play on defense in league action, recording 2.3 steals per game in league action
• For the year, he tops the team in total +/- numbers (+99) and ranks sixth in the conference with an average of +9.9 per 40 minutes
• Ranks 27th in the nation and leads the SEC in free throw percentage (88.5%), while topping the team in rebounds (185), and three-point percentage (36.4%)

Sixth-seeded Alabama competes Thursday night when it takes on the winner of No. 11 seed Vanderbilt and No.14 seed Georgia in the 2022 SEC Tournament. The game will tip off 25 minutes after Game 5 (5 p.m. CT/6 p.m. ET) and will be televised on SEC Network.