University of Tennessee Athletics
Richardson Earns SEC Weekly Honors for 1st Time
December 15, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Tennessee men's basketball senior Josh Richardson was named SEC Player of the Week for the first time in his career Monday after leading the Vols to a victory over 15th-ranked Butler.
Richardson scored a season-high 20 points -- 18 of them in the second half -- as the Vols rallied from 12 points down to defeat the Bulldogs 67-55 at Thompson-Boling Arena on Sunday.
The Edmond, Okla., native also was named co-winner of the Lute Olson Award National Player of the Week award Monday. He shares the weekly honor with Notre Dame's Zach Auguste.
After scoring only two points on 1-of-3 shooting in the first half, Richardson went on a personal 8-0 run with UT facing a dozen-point deficit early in the second half. He finished the game 9 of 13 from the floor (69.2 percent).
He totaled a career-high six steals, just one away from the school record and the most by a Vol since 2010. He also had three rebounds and three assists. Though point guard is not his natural position, he committed no turnovers while playing a game-high 37 minutes.
This season, Richardson leads Tennessee in scoring (fourth in the SEC), steals (fifth in the SEC), minutes (third in the SEC) and 3-point shooting (.360).
Tennessee (4-3) plays its first true road game of the season Wednesday against North Carolina State in Raleigh, N.C. The game will be televised on ESPN2 at 7 p.m.
