NASHVILLE – Freed-Hardeman’s Drew Stutts and Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht were voted the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Men’s Basketball Coach and Player of the Year, respectively, for the 2023-24 season, as announced this week by the organization.
Stutts led the Lions to the school’s first men’s basketball national championship in his fifth year at the helm of the program. FHU posted a 32-4 mark during the season, winning the Mid-South Conference regular season (co-champions) and tournament titles. In the NAIA National Tournament, the Lions won home games in the first two rounds before recording four victories by a combined 19 points en route to the championship.
Freed-Hardeman has played in the NAIA National Tournament in each of the last three seasons, reaching the Round of 16 in 2022-23 before winning the title this year. In five seasons as head coach, Stutts has amassed a 109-45 and was named the NAIA’s National Coach of the Year in 2023-24.
Knecht earned SEC Player of the Year honors and was a consensus First Team All-American. He was a finalist for the Naismith Trophy and the Wooden Award and won the Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award and the Riley Wallace Transfer of the Year Award.
The Thornton, Colo., native averaged 21.67 points per game, leading the SEC in scoring and ranking eighth nationally. He posted six games with 35-plus points, the most of any Division I player in the nation and a UT single-season record, and ranked third nationally with eight 30-point performances.
Knecht registered 25.5 points per game in SEC play, the second-best mark of the last 22 years and the highest league-only scoring figure in Division I. The Vols won the outright SEC regular season championship, reaching the Elite Eight for the second time in program history and ending the year ranked fifth nationally, the best final ranking in program annals.