KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Three members of the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team collected All-SEC plaudits from the league’s head coaches, as announced Monday afternoon by the conference office.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie garnered First Team All-SEC status, while Nate Ament picked up Second Team All-SEC and SEC All-Freshman Team honors. Additionally, Felix Okpara received SEC All-Defensive Team plaudits.
Tennessee and Florida were the only schools with a first- and second-team selection, as Gillespie and Ament joined the Gators’ duo of Thomas Haugh (first) and Rueben Chinyelu (second).
This is the fifth year in a row the Volunteers have a First Team All-SEC performer on the coaches’ list, as Gillespie follows Santiago Vescovi (2022, 2023), Dalton Knecht (2024) and Zakai Zeigler (2024, 2025). This is also the fifth consecutive season Tennessee has multiple first- and/or second-team designees.
Ament is the seventh Volunteer to tally SEC All-Freshman Team designation under head coach Rick Barnes, including the first since Julian Phillips in 2022-23. Okpara gives Tennessee an SEC All-Defensive Team choice for the seventh season in a row, a stretch that dates to 2019-20, while no other school has even a two-year streak.
Gillespie finished the regular season averaging 18.0 points, 5.6 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 2.1 steals in 34.3 minutes per game. He is second in the league in assists, steals and minutes average, fourth in 3-point makes per game (2.74), seventh in scoring average and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.44), and No. 11 in free-throw percentage (81.8). In league-only action, he paced the conference in steals (2.7) and minutes (36.5) per game.
A senior guard in his first campaign at Tennessee, Gillespie is the lone Volunteer to start every game this season. He scored in double figures in 29 of 31 contests, with 20-plus in 12 and 32-plus in two. Gillespie also owns 20 outings with five-plus assists, including six with at least eight, as well as 18 multiple-steal performances.
Gillespie recorded two of the only three eight-steal showings by an SEC competitor this season, setting and then tying the Tennessee single-game record, as well as becoming the first player in league history to hit that mark multiple times in league play. The 6-foot-1,188-pounder is a member of the Naismith Trophy Late Season Team.
Ament produced 17.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.0 steal per game during the regular season, placing No. 10 in the league in scoring, No. 10 in defensive rebounding (4.7) and No. 15 in total rebounding. He was even better in SEC play, putting up 19.0 points per game to rank ninth in the league, while shooting 36.8 percent from 3-point range and 80.2 percent at the line.
The 6-foot-10, 207-pound forward became the fourth freshman in the last 20 seasons (2006-26) to score 28-plus points four times in SEC play. Those four outings came during a 10-game stretch from Jan. 13 to Feb. 18 amidst which he averaged 23.4 points per game, while shooting 45.2 percent overall, 38.1 percent from deep and 84.4 percent at the line.
A native of Manassas, Va., Ament is on the Naismith Trophy Late Season Team alongside Gillespie, as well as on the Wayman Tisdale Award Midseason Watch List and the Julius Erving Award Midseason Watch List. He racked up seven SEC weekly nods this season—six SEC Freshman of the Week recognitions and one SEC Player of the Week distinction—to tally the second-highest total ever by a freshman.
Okpara excelled defensively once again for the Volunteers, serving as the anchor for a team that allowed just 69.42 points per game during the regular season, the best mark in the conference. Tennessee conceded 75-plus points just twice—one was in an overtime affair—across its last 13 conference outings.
The 6-foot-11, 243-pounder averaged 1.4 blocks per game in the regular season, while also routinely switching on to guards and wings to defend on the perimeter. He blocked multiple shots in 12 contests, with three-plus in six and four in three. Five of his six appearances with at least a trio of blocks came against Power Five competition. He owns 105 blocks in his two years at Tennessee, good for No. 20 in program history.
This season, Okpara ranks in the 98th percentile in rim efficiency defense, per Synergy, as teams shoot 27.0 percent against him at the rim and he has not allowed a dunk. Also according to Synergy, he has allowed only eight points all season to ball-screen handlers, just five to screeners and only 15 on post-ups.
Gillespie, Ament, Okpara and fifth-seeded Tennessee (21-10, 11-7 SEC) open SEC Tournament play Thursday at 3 p.m. ET, live on SEC Network from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., against either No. 12-seeded Auburn or No. 13-seeded Mississippi State.
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.
2025-26 SEC MEN’S BASKETBALL HONORS
Coach of the Year: Todd Golden, Florida
Player of the Year: Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Rueben Chinyelu, Florida
Newcomer of the Year: Dailyn Swain, Texas
Freshman of the Year: Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
Sixth Man of the Year: Urban Klavžar, Florida
Defensive Player of the Year: Rueben Chinyelu, Florida
FIRST TEAM
Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Tennessee
Thomas Haugh, Florida
Labaron Philon Jr., Alabama
Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
SECOND TEAM
Nate Ament, Tennessee
Rueben Chinyelu, Florida
Mark Mitchell, Missouri
Otega Oweh, Kentucky
Dailyn Swain, Texas
THIRD TEAM
Rashaun Agee, Texas A&M
Alex Condon, Florida
Keyshawn Hall, Auburn
Aden Holloway, Alabama
Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Rueben Chinyelu, Florida
Somto Cyril, Georgia
Felix Okpara, Tennessee
Billy Richmond III, Arkansas
Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
Amari Allen, Alabama
Nate Ament, Tennessee
Malachi Moreno, Kentucky
Meleek Thomas, Arkansas
