Thrills Keep Coming For Tide’s Releford

One can’t help but wonder which provided the biggest thrill for junior Alabama guard Trevor Releford. Last Saturday he made a 55-foot buzzer-beater to defeat Georgia in the Crimson Tide’s final home game of the year. Today he was named to the All=Southeastern Conference Team as selected by the league coaches.

Trevor Releford, a three-year starter for Alabama, was one of eight players named to the All-SEC first team by the coaches. In addition, the Kansas City, Mo., native was named to the league’s All-Defensive Team.

Releford was the only player selected by the coaches for first or second team All-SEC or the defensive squad and no Bama player was named to the freshman honor team.

Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel, who was SEC Freshman of the Year, was the only player other than Releford to make both first team All-SEC and the defensive team. Noel suffered a season-ending injury late in the season.

Releford has been a regular earning All-SEC honors. He was on the league’s all-freshman team in 2011 and was second team last year.

Kennedy Winston, a freshman pick in 1992 and All-SEC in 1993 and 1994, was the last Alabama player to achieve the trifecta in three seasons.

Releford is the fourth Alabama player to be named to the defensive team in the eight years it has been picked. (The team was selected in 1991 and 1992 with Bama’s Gary Watis, Latrell Sprewell, and Robert Horry selected), then reinstated in 2008.

Releford will lead Coach Anthony Grant’s Bama team into the SEC Tournament in Nashville with the fourth-seeded Tide having its first game at 2:30 p.m. CDT Friday. The opponent will be either Tennessee or the winner of the South Carolina-Mississippi State game. The Gamecocks and Bulldogs play Wednesday with the winner meeting Tennessee for the right to play Bama.

Releford enters the tournament ranked second in the league in steals per game (2.1) and fifth in scoring (15.6 points per game), field goal percentage (.490), and free throw percentage (.820). He leads the Tide in three-point field goal percentage (.436 on 44-101) and is second in assists (2.7 per game).

His top scoring game this year was his 36-point effort on 14-18 field goals (including all four of his three-point shots) in a losing effort at LSU on Feb. 23. In that game he had three steals that made him the all-time leader in Alabama history in that category. He now has 185 career steals.

Releford was joined on the first team by Erik Murphy of Florida, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope of Georgia, Johnny O’;Bryant III of LSU, Phil Pressey of Missouri, Jordan McRae of Tennessee, Elston Turner of Texas A&M, and Noel.

The coaches selected Billy Donovan of Florida as Coach of the Year, Caldwell-Pope as Player of the Year, Patric Young of Florida as Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Kyle Wiltjer of Kentucky as Sixth Man of the Year, and Noel as Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.