AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) – The Southeastern Conference gave out its final Freshman of the Week Award of the season to Auburn Forward Jabari Smith on Monday. This makes it Smith’s sixth Conference Freshman of the Week honor.
This wasn’t his only accolade this week, though. Smith also earned The Sporting News All-America Second Team honors. He is the second player in Auburn basketball history to receive this honor next to Chuck Person’s Second Team nod in the 1984-85 season.
In two games last week, Smith averaged 24.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. He helped the No. 5 ranked Tigers beat Mississippi State 81-68 in Starkville in overtime on March 2, and then led his squad to beat South Carolina 82-71 in the final regular season game of the year at Neville Arena.
In the road win at Mississippi State, Smith totaled 27 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field, which was a team high. Along with the scoring outpour, he recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 10 rebounds.
On Saturday against the Gamecocks, Smith scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half, which he had done in his last three SEC contests. He has been scoring at an elite level, marking Saturday’s game as his 26th game in double digits, and his 13th game scoring 20-plus points.
With last week’s wins, Auburn won its first outright regular-season SEC championship since 1999. The Tigers also set a new program record with their 15th SEC win and their first ever undefeated season (16-0) at home.
Auburn enters this week’s SEC tournament as the top seed in the bracket, facing off on Friday, March 11 at 11:00 am CST on ESPN against the winner of Florida and Texas A&M.
