By Nate Allen
Special to the News-Times
FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas Razorbacks senior center Moses Kingsley was voted the SEC’s Preseason Player of the Year and of course also preseason first-team All-SEC while the Razorbacks were picked to finish fifth in the SEC by media assembled in Nashville, Tenn., for the Wednesday and Thursday SEC basketball media days.
Kingsley posted 16 double-doubles last season while averaging 16 points and nine rebounds.
Kentucky was voted the SEC men’s basketball preseason favorite with Florida, Texas A&M and Georgia picked second through fourth.
After coach Mike Anderson’s Razorbacks, the sixth through 14th SEC team projections were Vanderbilt, Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee and Missouri.
Joining Kingsley on the media’s SEC Preseason first team are Georgia's J.J. Frazier, Texas A&M's Tyler Davis and Kentucky's De’Aaron Fox and Bam Adebayo.
Malik Monk, the Bentonville High graduate who is a freshman at Kentucky, was on the preseason All-SEC second team.
Also on the second team is Little Rock’s KeVaughn Allen, a guard for Florida, as well as LSU's Antonio Blakeney, Kentucky's Isaiah Briscoe, Mississippi State's Quinndary Weatherspoon, Georgia's Yante Maten and Vanderbilt's Luke Kornet.
The Razorbacks at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Walton Arena play their annual Red-White intrasquad game. Admission is free with fans urged to bring a can of food for the Jane B. Gearhart Food Pantry benefiting those in need in Northwest Arkansas.
The White team, with former Razorback and current SEC Network basketball analyst Pat Bradley as its celebrity coach, features Kingsley and returning junior guard Anton Beard along with newcomers Daryl Macon and Arlando Cook and freshmen Adrio Bailey and C.J. Jones.
The Red team, nominally coached by talk show host Bo Mattingly, includes senior shooting guard Dusty Hannahs, veteran letterman Manuale Watkins, junior forward Trey Thompson, junior forward Dustin Thomas, junior college transfer guard Jaylen Barford and freshman forward Brachen Hazen.
A shoulder injury has temporarily sidelined freshman walk-on guard RJ Glasper.
ALLEN PLACED ON MAXWELL LIST
Leading the SEC in passing has propelled Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback Austin Allen to be among nine midseason additions for watch list consideration for the Maxwell Award, it was announced Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Named since 1937 for Robert “Tiny” Maxwell, a football star at the University of Chicago and coach at Swarthmore College and also a professional player from 1906-08 and finally a fabled Philadelphia sports editor, the Maxwell is voted in December to the outstanding player in college football.
A fourth-year junior but a first-year starter, Allen has passed from 200 to 400 yards in six games for the Razorbacks (5-2) going into Saturday night’s SEC game at Auburn.
Allen’s SEC leading 1,861 passing yards are achieved from completing 138-of-219 with 18 touchdowns against six interceptions.
During last Saturday’s 34-30 SEC West victory over Ole Miss, Allen completed 19-of-32 passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns against one interception.
He passed for 400 yards on Oct. 8 in a 49-30 loss to nationally No. 1 Alabama.