Tahaad Pettiford decided to return for his sophomore season at Auburn following a freshman year in which he came off the bench, scoring 11.6 points and dishing out three assists per game as the Tigers won the SEC regular-season title and advanced to the Final Four.
The only key returnee for what is now Steven Pearl's team, Pettiford earned a couple of honors on Thursday, including being named to the First Team All-SEC in the preseason coaches' poll. The New Jersey native is joined by Alabama's Labaron Philon Jr., Florida's Alex Condon, Kentucky's Otega Oweh and Mississippi State's Josh Hubbard on the first team.
Pettiford was also a first-team selection by the media during the SEC Tipoff earlier this month.
The guard was also tabbed on the NABC Division I Player of the Year List, which came out on Thursday.
That list includes:
Nate Ament, Tennessee
Cameron Boozer, Duke
Alex Condon, Florida
Donovan Dent, UCLA
AJ Dybantsa, BYU
Zuby Ejiofor, St. John's
PJ Haggerty, Kansas State
Graham Ike, Gonzaga
Alex Karaban, Connecticut
Trey Kaufman-Renn, Purdue
Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan
Otega Oweh, Kentucky
Darryn Peterson, Kansas
Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn
Labaron Philon, Alabama
Braden Smith, Purdue
Bennett Stirtz, Iowa
JT Toppin, Texas Tech
Milos Uzan, Houston
Darrion Williams, North Carolina State
No. 20 Auburn opens its regular season on Monday against Bethune-Cookman in Neville Arena.