AP men’s player of the week: Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. pushes Gators to SEC title

The Associated Press national player of the week in men’s college basketball for Week 19 of the season:

Walter Clayton Jr., Florida

The 6-foot-3 senior led the way with MVP honors as No. 3 Florida won the program’s first Southeastern Conference Tournament title since 2014. Clayton averaged 20.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists in the three-game run against ranked teams, including wins against top-10 opponents in Alabama (semifinals) and Tennessee (title game).

Clayton also made 13 of 26 3-pointers to win the tournament for a league that placed a record 14 teams into the NCAA Tournament, with the Gators claiming a 1-seed in the West Region. Clayton was named an AP first-team All-American on Tuesday.

This marks the second consecutive time that a Florida player was named AP player of the week, with Alex Condon winning the honor last week.

Runner-up

Terrence Edwards Jr., Louisville. The 6-6 guard who transferred in after four years at James Madison has been key to the Cardinals’ resurgence in their first year under Pat Kelsey. And he’s been on a tear of late.

Edwards led Louisville’s charge to the program’s first trip to the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title game since joining the league for the 2014-15 season, averaging 25 points through the three-game run. Edwards had 29 points in that loss and is averaging 24.8 points since the start of March.

Honorable mention

PJ Haggerty, Memphis; RJ Luis Jr., St. John’s; Kon Knueppel, Duke.

Season recap

Auburn’s Johni Broome, Duke’s Cooper Flagg and Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner were the only players named AP player of the week multiple times this season.

Broome won the honor a national-best three times and was an honorable-mention selection twice. Flagg won it twice, was runner-up once and three times an honorable-mention pick. Kalkbreenner won it twice. All three were named to the AP All-America teams, with Broome and Flagg being unanimous first-teamers, and Kalkbrenner a third-team pick.

Marquette’s Kam Jones, Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn and Louisville’s Chucky Hepburn were the only other players to earn at least honorable-mention status in three weeks this season.

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