Arkansas’ Marshawn Powell was named to the Southeastern Conference’s all-Freshman team, and teammate Courtney Fortson was selected as a member of the all-SEC second team by the conference’s coaches today.
Arkansas sophomore guard Rotnei Clarke was an SEC Community Service team selection, the league announced Monday.
Fortson was suspended the first 14 games of the season, but has averaged 18.1 points a game in his 17 games back as a starter.
UPDATE (2:35 p.m.): “Courtney obviously gave our basketball team a big shot in the arm when he was able to get back,” Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey said. “He has earned the respect of other coaches in the league and is certainly a big part of us having a chance to win a couple of games.”
Powell, the only Razorback to start in all 31 games this season, averages 15.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocked shots. Only two Razorbacks (George Kok and Scotty Thurman) have averaged more points as a freshman in the school’s history.
The all-SEC teams, each with eight-player squads, were announced via a live blog event on the SEC Web site on Tuesday. Kentucky ruled the first, second and all-freshman teams as expected.
Kentucky’s John Wall was selected as the SEC’s player of the year and was joined by teammate DeMarcus Cousins as freshman of the year. Kentucky didn’t rule the day completely, however, as Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings was named the coach of the year.
Mississippi State’s Jarvis Varnado won the defensive player of the year award for the third consecutive year.
I’ll have reaction from Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey later on the blog today.
Make sure to check out WholeHogSports.com and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more coverage. You can also follow us on Twitter for breaking news updates with @bmarcello and @wholehogsports.
