This time last year, Dalton Knecht was a member of a Northern Colorado basketball team that finished 12-20.
On Monday afternoon, Knecht was named Southeastern Conference player of the year after guiding the Tennessee Volunteers to the league's regular-season championship. The 6-foot-6, 213-pound graduate transfer led the league with 21.4 points per game, but that average jumped to 25.5 in conference contests.
Knecht also averaged 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while shooting 47.4% from the floor and 40.5% from 3-point range.
"I've always wanted to be player of the year and how that would be really cool," Knecht said Monday during a news conference, "but I also knew it was a lot of hard work. I'm really happy I got it, and just a big shout out to my teammates and coaching staff."
Tennessee finished the regular season with a 24-7 record and a 14-4 SEC mark. The No. 5 Vols are the top-seeded team at this week's league tournament in Nashville and will open Friday afternoon at 1 Eastern against the winner of Thursday afternoon's matchup between eighth-seeded LSU and ninth-seeded Mississippi State.
Zakai Zeigler joined Knecht on the All-SEC first team that contained eight members as voted on by league coaches, with the Tennessee junior point guard also claiming the SEC defensive player of the year. Zeigler is just the second Tennessee player to win the league's premier defensive honor in the past 20 years, joining Yves Pons, who claimed it in 2019-20.
Vols junior forward Jonas Aidoo earned second-team league honors and joined Zeigler among the five defensive team selections.
"I am thrilled for Dalton, Zakai and Jonas," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "Each of them contributed significantly to our team winning the regular-season championship in the best league in the country. All three are so deserving of these honors based off their excellent play throughout the year."
Knecht and Zeigler were joined on the SEC's first team by Alabama's Mark Sears, Auburn's Johni Broome, Florida's Zyon Pullin, Kentucky's Antonio Reeves, Mississippi State's Tolu Smith and Texas A&M's Wade Taylor IV. The league's coach of the year went to South Carolina's Lamont Paris, who guided the Gamecocks to a 25-6 record two years after leading UTC to a 27-8 mark.
It took no time for Knecht to make an impact in the SEC, as he tallied 28 points, seven rebounds and four assists during Tennessee's thrilling 89-88 exhibition win at Michigan State on Oct. 29.
"I always knew I could do that," Knecht said, "and that finally just put me on the map."
Knecht, who played two seasons at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado, before transferring and playing two seasons at Northern Colorado, led the Big Sky last year with 20.2 points per game. Yet 20 points quickly became an off night for him at Tennessee, as he eclipsed 35 points five times.
The only other Vols player to accomplish that feat in a single season was Ernie Grunfeld, who did it as a junior in 1975-76.
"It's amazing, and I'm super excited and super proud of him," Tennessee assistant coach Justin Gainey said. "His journey is one like you read about in fairy tales, and just to see him get to this point and achieve what he has achieved is amazing. It goes to his hard work and his mindset and to his confidence and his belief in himself.
"He's not a guy who wants to be patted on the back or told how great he is. He wants it real, and he wants to get better."
Knecht won SEC player of the week four times and set a career-high in points with 40 in last Saturday's 85-81 loss to Kentucky inside the Food City Center. He matched a Dean Dome record for a visiting player with 37 points in a 100-92 loss at North Carolina on Nov. 29, but his most memorable performance — at least to this point — was his 39-point outing in the 92-84 victory over visiting Auburn on Feb. 28.
In the final 12 minutes and one second, Knecht outscored Bruce Pearl's Tigers by himself 25-21.
When asked Monday to name his favorite play this season, Knecht smiled and said, "Probably something in the Auburn game." Knecht also smiled when asked if he could have envisioned averaging more points in an SEC that's now annually packed with NBA draft prospects than in the Big Sky.
"It is wild to think about that," he said, "but when you play with one of the best point guards in the nation and one of the best centers with Jonas and 'Z', they make it a lot easier for me to just go out and go hoop."
This is the 13th season in which Tennessee has produced the SEC player of the year and the first since 2019, when Grant Williams won for a second straight season. Before Williams won twice, Chris Lofton claimed the honor in 2007 and Ron Slay the time before that in 2003.
Only Kentucky has had more seasons with the top SEC player with 18.
"We knew he was good," Gainey said. "You watched the videos and the highlight clips, but never did you think this. I hope everybody appreciates it as much as we do.
"He was magnificent this year."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.
Tennessee Athletics photo / Dalton Knecht shoots over Auburn's Jaylin Williams during a 39-point performance in Tennessee's 92-84 win over the Tigers on Feb. 28 in Knoxville.