Knecht Earns USBWA First Team All-America Honors

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Dalton Knecht of the University of Tennessee men's basketball team is a USBWA First Team All-American, as announced Wednesday afternoon.

The AP is the last of the four outlets—alongside the Associated Press, the NABC, The Sporting News—considered for, in aggregate, tabulating the consensus All-America selections. Knecht previously claimed first-team distinction from each of the other three, now giving him the honor across the board.

Knecht is the second Volunteer in the last 42 years (1982-2024) to garner United States Basketball Writers (USBWA) First Team All-America status, joining Grant Williams, who made the cut in 2018-19. The other Tennessee players who have done so all-time are Dale Ellis (1981-82), Bernard King (1975-76) and A.W. Davis (1964-65).

A fifth-year guard, Knecht is averaging 21.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game this season, while posting a 46.5 field-goal percentage and a 39.7 3-point percentage. In SEC play, he recorded 25.5 points per game, the top figure of any player in the nation in league action this year and the second-best figure in the SEC over the past 22 campaigns (2002-24).

Named the SEC Player of the Year by both the league's coaches and the Associated Press, the latter unanimously, Knecht is one of five finalists for the Julius Erving Award. He is also among the 10 Naismith Trophy semifinalists and 15 members of the Wooden Award National Ballot.

A 6-foot-6, 2013-pounder out of Thornton, Colo., Knecht leads the nation in 35-point (five) and 39-point (three) showings, both of which match the Tennessee single-season record. He helped lead the Volunteers to an outright SEC regular season championship, scoring 30-plus points in six conference affairs.

Joining Knecht on the USBWA All-America teams are three other SEC players, as Alabama's Mark Sears (second team), Auburn's Johni Broome (third team) and Kentucky's Antonio Reeves (third team) all finished top-15 in the voting.

Knecht and sixth-ranked, second-seeded Tennessee (24-8, 14-4 SEC) play No. 15-seeded Saint Peter's (19-13, 12-8 MAAC) Thursday at 9:20 p.m. in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64, live on TNT from Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.

To keep up with the University of Tennessee men's basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.

2023-24 USBWA ALL-AMERICANS

First Team
R.J. Davis, North Carolina
Zach Edey, Purdue
Dalton Knecht, Tennessee
Jamal Shead, Houston
Tyler Kolek, Marquette

Second Team
Tristen Newton, Connecticut
Kyle Filipowski, Duke
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas
Caleb Love, Arizona
Mark Sears, Alabama

Third Team
Johni Broome, Auburn
DaRon Holmes II, Dayton
Armando Bacot, North Carolina
Antonio Reeves, Kentucky
Baylor Scheierman, Creighton

Honorable Mention
Jaedeon LeDee, San Diego State
Boo Buie, Northwestern
Kevin McCullar Jr., Kansas
Terrence Shannon Jr., Illinois
L.J. Cryer, Houston

University of Tennessee Athletics

Players Mentioned

Dalton Knecht

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