The Gators finished their best regular season in school history on Saturday, and on Tuesday, they received the hardware to prove it.
Of the Southeastern Conference’s six major individual awards, the league awarded all but one to Florida.
The SEC’s coaches voted Billy Donovan as Coach of the Year, Scottie Wilbekin as Player of the Year, Patric Young as Defensive Player of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Dorian Finney-Smith as Sixth Man of the Year.
Kentucky’s Julius Randle, who was named Freshman of the Year, was the only non-Gator to win an individual award.
The 2012 national champion Wildcats were the only other team to claim five of the six awards in a single year. Young played spoiler that year for Kentucky by capturing his first of three Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.
“Any individual honor, to me, is just a reflection on your team,” Donovan said.
“And whatever awards are given out or whatever honors are given out to any of our guys, I think they would be the first one to say, ‘Without my teammates, this would not have been possible.’ Even though one individual is being honored, I think everybody shares in that.”
Donovan earned the award for the second straight year and third time in four seasons. The 18th-year coach became just the fourth coach in SEC history to earn the honor in back-to-back seasons.
Wilbekin joins Chandler Parsons as the only Gators to have won the league’s highest prize for players.
Averaging 12.9 points per game, the senior point guard had his best scoring season of his career while remaining true to his defensive skillset.
Despite the honor, Wilbekin said he doesn’t even see himself as Florida’s best player.
“I would say we’re all equal, especially the five starters,” Wilbekin said.
“You throw any of our players into a different role, I think you would see the same outcome. I think this award could’ve went to Pat and Casey (Prather) as well. I don’t take too much credit.”
Young became the only player in SEC history to have won Scholar-Athlete of the Year three times. The senior center also became the second Gator to earn Defensive Player of the Year. Corey Brewer split the award with LSU’s Tyrus Thomas in 2006.
Although Young finished the year 20th in the SEC in defensive rebounds and tied for 18th in blocks, his presence in the paint has always caused tough shots for opponents. According to Sports-Reference.com, the 6-foot-9 center has a 91.6 defensive rating, which estimates the number of points allowed against a player in 100 possessions.
Only Will Yeguete’s 90.0 rating ranks higher on the team.
“I’m usually in the right place so I don’t have to be a shot blocker,” Young said. “I’m not an Anthony Davis-type guy or a Nerlens Noel. It’s just nice to be recognized for doing the right things by all the coaches on the committee and the people that voted me to win this award.”
Finney-Smith, who started 30 games as a freshman for Virginia Tech during the 2011-2012 season, started only two games this year under Donovan. However, as the first player off the bench, the 6-foot-8 forward led the team with 6.9 rebounds per game.
He was also a threat on the perimeter, knocking down 37.8 percent of his three-point attempts.
In addition to the five individual awards, Wilbekin and Prather were named to the All-SEC First Team while Young was named to the Second Team.
“There’s not a drop-off from a guy here on this team,” Young said.
“Everyone just gets along and really wants to love each other and do whatever it takes to win. Just that alone, I think that puts us in a better position to accomplish things we haven’t done before.”
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn
Scottie Wilbekin drives down the court during Florida’s 84-65 win against Kentucky on Saturday in the O’Connell Center.
