South Carolina basketball: Coaches make preseason All-SEC selections

South Carolina basketball has the attention of SEC coaches.

Late Thursday morning, the Southeastern Conference revealed preseason selections made by the league’s 14 coaches. These selections project first- and second-team all-conference performers for the upcoming 2020-21 season.

Both the first- and second-teams consist of at least eight players, with a total of 17 players garnering preseason selections. South Carolina was one of six squads to see multiple team members selected for all-conference honors, joining Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, and Tennessee. Only Tennessee and LSU had more than one player on the first-team.

SEC coaches must view South Carolina as having one of the stronger backcourts in the league, as the two Gamecocks to make the cut were junior shooting guard AJ Lawson and sophomore point guard Jermaine Couisnard.

Lawson was viewed as an NBA Draft pick prior to the 2019-20 season, but struggled with consistency at times. Still, he led the team in scoring (13.4 pts/gm) and elected to try his luck with the draft process. After training and meeting with NBA management, he ultimately opted to return for his third season in Columbia.

Couisnard was maybe South Carolina’s best player in conference play last season, averaging just under 15 points a contest against league foes. He didn’t earn his first start until the season’s 15th game, but did not disappoint. In that inaugural start, he scored a team high 26 points in an upset win versus Kentucky, including this buzzer-beater to seal the deal.

Couisnard’s performance was good enough to earn All-freshman team honors last season, and he’ll try to build on that in 2020-21.

Below are the full first- and second-team selections as voted on by Southeastern Conference coaches.

First Team All-SEC

• John Petty Jr. – Alabama
• Keyontae Johnson – Florida
• Brandon Boston Jr. – Kentucky
• Javonte Smart – LSU
• Trendon Watford – LSU
• AJ Lawson – South Carolina
• John Fulkerson – Tennessee
• Yves Pons – Tennessee

Second Team All-SEC

• Herbert Jones – Alabama
• Desi Sills – Arkansas
• Scottie Lewis – Florida
• Olivier Sarr – Kentucky
• Devontae Shuler – Ole Miss
• Dru Smith – Missouri
• Jermaine Couisnard – South Carolina
• Savion Flagg – Texas A&M
• Scotty Pippen, Jr. – Vanderbilt