Editor’s note: This article was originally published by the Knoxville News Sentinel and has been republished in its entirety below.
SEC women’s basketball coaches have picked South Carolina as the favorite to win the 2021 SEC Championship.
This comes after the Gamecocks were tabbed as the No. 1 team in the nation in the Associated Press preseason rankings, their 11th-straight week at the top dating back to the abbreviated 2019-20 season.
South Carolina won both the SEC Regular Season and Tournament Championships in 2020, with tournament crowns in five of the past six seasons. Kentucky was picked second in the poll, followed by Texas A&M, Arkansas and Mississippi State.
Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard was voted as the SEC Women’s Basketball Preseason Player of the Year. South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston also received votes.
Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team or player, and ties were not broken in any way.
The full preseason All-SEC teams and projected order of finish can be seen below.
First Team All-SEC
Chelsea Dungee, Arkansas
Unique Thompson, Auburn
Rhyne Howard, Kentucky
Khayla Pointer, LSU
Rickea Jackson, Mississippi State
Aliyah Boston, South Carolina
Rennia Davis, Tennessee
N’dea Jones, Texas A&M
Second Team All-SEC
Jasmine Walker, Alabama
Destiny Slocum, Arkansas
Lavender Briggs, Florida
Shakira Austin, Ole Miss
Jessika Carter, Mississippi State
Aijha Blackwell, Missouri
Zia Cooke, South Carolina
Kayla Wells, Texas A&M
Order of Finish
1. South Carolina
2. Kentucky
3. Texas A&M
4. Arkansas
5. Mississippi State
6. Tennessee
7. LSU
8. Alabama
9. Georgia
10. Missouri
11. Ole Miss
12. Florida
13. Vanderbilt
14. Auburn
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