Now that the college hoops regular season is over, the postseason honors are flowing in for the Kentucky Wildcats.
The two Cats who figure to get most of the hardware are freshman shooting guard Jamal Murray and sophomore point guard Tyler Ulis. Perhaps the biggest of which is both guys getting All-American honors from USA Today Sports.
Ulis earned first-team honors after guiding the Cats to a 23-8 record and a share of the school's 47th SEC regular-season crown. He's currently averaging 16.6 points and 7.4 assists per game.
Murray has been one of the nation’s best scorers in college hoops this year while leading the Wildcats in scoring at 20.0 points per game, which, if the season ended today, would be the highest scoring average at Kentucky in the John Calipari era. He earned second-team honors on USA Today's AA team.
Together, the Wildcat duo averaged an astounding 40.8 points per game in SEC play, more than any other tandem in the country in the major conferences (Power 5 plus the American and the Big East).
Here's the full USA Today AA team:
First Team
- Tyler Ulis, So., G, Kentucky
- Buddy Hield, Sr., G, Oklahoma
- Denzel Valentine, Sr., G, Michigan State
- Brice Johnson, Sr., F, North Carolina
- Jakob Poeltl, So., F, Utah
Second Team
- Jamal Murray, Fr., G, Kentucky
- Malcolm Brogdon, Sr., G, Virginia
- Grayson Allen, So., G, Duke
- Yogi Ferrell, Sr., G, Indiana
- Perry Ellis, Sr., F, Kansas
Third Team
- Kris Dunn, Sr., G, Providence
- Trevon Bluiett, So., G, Xavier
- Ben Simmons, Fr., F, LSU
- Georges Niang, Sr., F, Iowa State
- Jarrod Uthoff, Sr., F, Iowa
But that's not all for these Cats. Ulis has been named one of five finalists for the 2016 Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year Award by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Named after Hall of Fame guard Bob Cousy, the annual honor recognizes the top point guard in college hoops.
Ulis’ competition includes Yogi Ferrell of Indiana, Monte Morris from Iowa State, Oakland’s Kahlil Felder and Kris Dunn of Providence. You can help vote for Ulis to earn the award, which, all due respect to the aforementioned guys, has no business going to anyone other than Ulis.
Beginning March 11 through March 25, fans can vote for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year at https://t.co/zTBG1FTjrh. Hint: go with Tyler
— Kentucky Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) March 7, 2016
Elsewhere, the CBS Sports crew is handing out season awards, and Ulis was named Player of the Year and First Team All-SEC as a unanimous selection. Murray was also a First-Team All-SEC selection. John Calipari was named their SEC Coach of the Year.
Here is the full CBS Sports All-SEC Team:
First Team
- Tyler Ulis, Kentucky
- Jamal Murray, Kentucky
- Stefan Moody, Mississippi
- Ben Simmons, LSU
- Damian Jones, Vanderbilt
Second Team
- Wade Baldwin, Vanderbilt
- Kevin Punter, Tennessee
- Michael Carrera, South Carolina
- Jalen Jones, Texas A&M
- Moses Kingsley, Arkansas