KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee guard Dalton Knecht has put college basketball on notice this season, and in his first and only season at Tennessee, he has been named SEC Player of the Year as well as just the fourth consensus First Team All-American in program history.
Knecht has also gotten the attention of Tennessee basketball legend Tony White, who also left a legacy of being one of the greatest scorers in program history. White still holds the Tennessee record with 51 points in a single game, and he said watching Knecht this season reminds him a bit of his own playing days in the late 1980's.
"I'm just thinking about the days when I was dropping in 30 or 40 a night. I'm just like, '[Knecht] is in a zone, he's in a feeling, I remember that,'" White said. "I can relate to that, and I'm just happy for him."
White also said that Knecht's scoring prowess is something Tennessee has not had for a little while, and the addition of the fifth-year guard could be a key piece in the Vols making a deep NCAA tournament run this postseason.
"We had the chemistry, we just needed a closer. Dalton Knecht came in and he just took Tennessee by storm," White said. "We needed that. That was one of the problems Tennessee was having last year. Now we have that this year and everything is coming together."
