For the second straight year, Purdue's Zach Edey is the unanimous headliner for The Associated Press men's college basketball All-America team.
The 7-foot-4, 300-pound senior from Toronto topped all 62 ballots from voters in results released Tuesday. The reigning AP national player of the year .
Tennessee's Dalton Knecht and North Carolina's RJ Davis joined Edey (310 points) in a clear top trio. Knecht (298) was a first-team pick on 56 ballots, Davis (296) on 55 and both appeared among the top 10 players on every ballot.
Houston's Jamal Shead and Tristen Newton of reigning NCAA champion Connecticut rounded out the first team.
Edey leads the country in scoring at 24.4 points and ranks third in rebounding (11.7). Edey has the chance to be the first player to repeat as AP national player of the year since another 7-4 star: Virginia's Ralph Sampson in 1981, 1982 and 1983.
during a loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament.
鈥淭he thing here is, at the end of the day, he won鈥檛 take credit for himself,鈥� teammate Braden Smith said. 鈥淗e鈥檒l always point to us and say he got here because of us and we were helping him. Awesome accomplishment for him.鈥�
Knecht, a 6-6 transfer from Northern Colorado, is the . He is only the fourth Volunteer to earn first-team honors, joining Grant Williams (2019), Dale Ellis (1983) and Bernard King (1977) after averaging 21.1 points to help the Volunteers win .
鈥淗is journey is one that you kind of read about, like fairy-tale type deals,鈥� Vols associate head coach Justin Gainey said. 鈥淛ust to see him get to this point and achieve what he's achieved, it's amazing. But it goes to his hard work, his work ethic, his mindset, his confidence and belief in himself.鈥�
Davis, a 6-0 guard, led was named the after averaging a league-best 21.4 points. He is UNC's first first-team AP All-American since 2017.
鈥淩J has been our closer, and in (close games) it's a huge luxury to know you can put the ball in our guard's hands and he'll either make the right shot or make the right play,鈥� big man Armando Bacot said of Davis during the ACC Tournament.
Shead, a 6-1 senior, has been the floor leader for a Houston team that won The honor for Shead, , follows the Cougars having a first-team selection last year with guard Marcus Sasser.
Newton, a 6-5 graduate, has elevated his game to give UConn the look of a team that could become college basketball's first repeat champion since Florida in 2006 and 2007. With the departures of Final Four most outstanding player Adama Sanogo and Jordan Hawkins, Newton increased his scoring from 10.1 points last year to 15.2 points on the way to becoming the for .
Newton is UConn's first first-team AP All-American since Shabazz Napier in 2014.
SECOND TEAM
Marquette's Tyler Kolek headlined the second team and was the only other player to earn at least 10 first-team votes. The guard was .
Alabama鈥檚 Mark Sears joined Kolek in the backcourt of that second quintet, which boasts an imposing front line with Dayton's DaRon Holmes II (6-10), Duke's Kyle Filipowski (7-0) and Kansas' Hunter Dickinson (7-2) 鈥� when he was at Michigan.
THIRD TEAM
San Diego State's Jaedon LeDee led the third-team selections, joined by Auburn's Johni Broome, and Creighton's Baylor Scheierman.聽
The final spot went to Illinois' Terrence Shannon Jr. (54 points), the nation's No. 3 scorer at 23 points per game.
HONORABLE MENTION
Kentucky's Antonio Reeves and Kansas' Kevin McCullar Jr. finished right behind Shannon to stand as the leading vote-getters among players who didn't make the All-America teams.聽
Players earned honorable-mention status if they appeared on multiple voters' ballots. While 21 players qualified, Reeves (52), McCullar (52) and Providence's Devin Carter (36) were the only players to get more than 15 points in voting from that group.
The honorable-mention list also included Bacot, a preseason All-American pick who was a third-team All-American last year.
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AP March Madness bracket: and coverage:
Aaron Beard, The Associated Press
