Texas A&M surprised many people this year, winning a share of the SEC regular season title and earning the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament scheduled to begin later this week.

A strong senior class, four of which were starters, was a big reason for the success.

A couple games ago, Alex Caruso set the all-time Aggie assists record but he was also outstanding on defense all year. With the regular season complete, CBSSports named the senior from College Station as its SEC Defensive Player of the Year over Kentucky's Tyler Ulis.

"In the end, it came down to two guys. The aforementioned Ulis does a great job of pressuring the ball at the point of attack and knocking offenses out of their rhythm. But he can get overpowered at times once teams get into their sets and he's forced to struggle through screens at his size or defend bigger players on switches. That's why Caruso wins this award at Texas A&M. The Aggies have the No. 1 defense in the league and a top-20 unit nationally, and he's a major part of that due to his versatility. At 6-5, he can guard just about anyone 1 through 3, and can handle switches onto even bigger players. He's also an excellent help defender who can close gaps quickly and cut off penetration when needed. Throw in the fact that he's in the top-10 nationally in steal rate as well as a solid shot-blocker of jump shots, and Caruso is a worthy winner here."

The site also named its All-SEC teams and, surprisingly, despite winning the title, A&M was shut out of the first team. Senior forward Jalen Jones, who was the leader of the team all year and had a pair of double-doubles, was named to the second team.

Jones averaged 13.7 points and 6.6 rebounds and was also the emotional leader of the team. Expected to take a bit of a back seat to fellow senior Danuel House, a preseason first-team All-SEC selection, Jones was much more consistent all year.

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CBSSPORTS SEC AWARDS

Player of the Year: Tyler Ulis, Kentucky

Defensive Player of the Year: Alex Caruso, Texas A&M

Freshman of the Year: Ben Simmons, LSU

Coach of the Year: John Calipari, Kentucky

First Team:

Tyler Ulis, Kentucky

Jamal Murray, Kentucky

Stefan Moody, Mississippi

Ben Simmons, LSU

Damian Jones, Vanderbilt

Second Team:

Wade Baldwin, Vanderbilt

Kevin Punter, Tennessee

Michael Carrera, South Carolina

Jalen Jones, Texas A&M

Moses Kingsley, Arkansas