Brewer voted SEC's preseason player of year

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) Forwards Chuck Davis of Alabama and Glen Davis of LSU got the most votes for the preseason All-Southeastern Conference team while Arkansas&#39; Ronnie Brewer was picked to win player of the year honors.<br> <br> The team, selected by league media, was released Thursday at media days.<br> <br> Glen Davis and Chuck Davis received 32 votes apiece for All-SEC honors while Brewer received 30. Brewer is the only returning first-team Associated Press All-SEC pick from last season.<br> <br> Point guards Rajon Rondo of Kentucky (27) and Ron Steele of Alabama (16) also made the preseason team.<br> <br> Brewer received 12 votes for player of the year, followed by Glen Davis (11), Chuck Davis (6), Rondo (5) and Mario Moore of Vanderbilt (1).<br> <br> The second-teamers were Florida&#39;s Corey Brewer and Al Horford, Moore, Tennessee&#39;s C.J. Watson and Alabama&#39;s Jermareo Davidson.<br> <br> CURTIS&#39; CHANGE: Mississippi coach Rod Barnes is expecting a big impact from sophomore center Dwayne Curtis, who sat out last season after transferring from Auburn.<br> <br> ``We hope that he can get us 16, 17, 18 points a game,&#39;&#39; Barnes said. ``That&#39;s going to depend a lot on his conditioning. He&#39;s talented enough.<br> <br> ``He&#39;s definitely a double-figure guy, no question about that. Unless he gets hurt, he&#39;s going to average double figures.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> Curtis played 10 minutes a game as a freshman at Auburn but transferred after coach Cliff Ellis was fired. New coach Jeff Lebo granted him a release to switch to another SEC school, and Curtis sat out last season under NCAA transfer rules.<br> <br> ``I came to Auburn to play for Cliff Ellis,&#39;&#39; Curtis said. ``When that changed, it wasn&#39;t what I was looking for.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> VOLS COACH: Bruce Pearl isn&#39;t about to change his fast-paced style of play just because Tennessee has only nine scholarship players.<br> <br> The Volunteers&#39; new coach said switching to a plodding style would send his players ``a big, fat message that, &#39;Fellas, we&#39;re not good enough to compete in the SEC. So let&#39;s just hold the ball and hang in there,&#39;&#39;&#39; Pearl said.<br> <br> ``That&#39;s not how I want to build this program,&#39;&#39; he said. ``We are going to be the aggressor. We are going to be up-tempo. We will press 94 feet for 40 minutes.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> Pearl expects to play about nine players in double-digits in minutes per game.<br> <br> He replaced the fired Buzz Peterson after leading Wisconsin-Milwaukee to a pair of NCAA tournament wins last season, including an opening upset of Alabama.<br> <br> The players didn&#39;t immediately warm up to him because of loyalty to their former coach, guard C.J. Watson said.<br> <br> ``It took a little while because we liked Coach Peterson. A lot of us kind of resisted Coach Pearl,&#39;&#39; Watson said. ``It was nothing against him, we were just kind of mad about the coaching change. Now, we&#39;re getting used to the system and it&#39;s working out for everybody.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> Crimson Tide coach Mark Gottfried would have preferred Pearl boost his resume against a different team in the tournament. He said he told Pearl before their game that he would ``get an opportunity to coach at our level.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> ``I didn&#39;t realize it was going to be at our expense,&#39;&#39; Gottfried said.<br> <br> BIG BABY: There&#39;s less of ``Big Baby&#39;&#39; to love. LSU&#39;s 6-foot-9 LSU forward Glen Davis has slimmed down from about 340 pounds last season to 310 this season after earning SEC freshman of the year honors.<br> <br> It hasn&#39;t been easy, though.<br> <br> ``That sensation of a chocolate chip cookie burns,&#39;&#39; said Davis, nicknamed Big Baby. ``It&#39;s just like you&#39;ve got to have one and you can&#39;t just have one. You&#39;ve got to have three or four or five or the whole roll.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> He&#39;s taken on a different role for the team with SEC player of the year Brandon Bass gone. Davis&#39;s mother had encouraged him to embrace the position of team leader just before his coach did the same thing.<br> <br> ``The next thing I know I get a phone call from John Brady: &#39;Are you ready? It&#39;s your team now,&#39;&#39;&#39; said Davis, who averaged 13.5 points and 8.8 rebounds as a freshman. ``From that day on, I took the responsibility and the role as leader and trying to make my team better.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> Brady said Davis is in the best shape of his life and thinks it will show up on the court.<br> <br> ``I don&#39;t have any doubts in my mind that he&#39;s going to meet every expectation that people have of him,&#39;&#39; Brady said.<br> <br> There&#39;s other benefits to the slimmer body, too.<br> <br> ``You feel better about yourself. That&#39;s anybody,&#39;&#39; Davis said. ``You lose a little weight, you want to the girls to say, &#39;God, Big Baby.&#39; Show off those biceps a little.&#39;&#39;<br> <br> (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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