BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Tennessee women’s basketball standout Rickea Jackson has repeated as an All-SEC First Team selection by the league’s coaches, the conference office announced on Tuesday morning.
Jackson, a 6-foot-2 forward, became only the fifth Lady Vol since 2012 to do that in back-to-back campaigns. The previous repeat first-teamers during that stretch were Meighan Simmons (2013, 2014), Isabelle Harrison (2014, 2015), Rennia Davis (2020, 2021) and Jordan Horston (2022, 2023).
The SEC’s active career scoring leader, who is in her second season at UT after beginning her career at Mississippi State, collected the third all-conference recognition of her career. She also was the recipient of second-team acclaim in 2019-20 while with the Bulldogs.
Jackson leads Tennessee and ranks second in the SEC this season in scoring at 19.7 points per game (19.9 in SEC play) and contributes a team-high 7.9 rebounds per contest while adding 2.2 assists per outing. She is shooting 46.7 percent from the field and 76.1 percent from the free throw line after overcoming an early-season injury that sidelined her for eight games. Jackson also is tied for the team lead in charges taken with five.
In match-ups against ranked teams, Jackson has elevated her play even more, putting up 23.8 ppg. and 10.3 rpg. in those contests. Over UT’s last five outings, which have included a pair of meetings with No. 1 South Carolina and one with No. 9 LSU, the Big Orange star has averaged 23.0 ppg. and 7.4 rpg. while shooting 50 percent from the field and 75 percent from the charity stripe.
A native of Detroit, Jackson has recorded three double-doubles this season and nine games with 20 or more points scored. The latter number has increased her two-year total on Rocky Top to 25, which ranks as the fifth-best ever by a Lady Vol behind only program legends Chamique Holdsclaw, Bridgette Gordon, Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings.
Also reflective of her scoring prowess, Jackson has tallied 1,065 points in only 55 games at Tennessee, ranking No. 46 on a list that primarily features players who spent three or four seasons in Knoxville. For career point production, she has generated 2,150 in 122 career contests, ranking sixth among anyone who has played at UT, including transfers. In recent games, she passed Tamika Catchings (2,113) and Candace Parker (2,137) and ranks behind only Cindy Brogdon (3,204), Chamique Holdsclaw (3,025), Jill Rankin (2,851), Bridgette Gordon (2,462) and Patricia Roberts (2,447).
Jackson and her teammates finished the regular season at 17-11 overall and 10-6 in league play, grabbing a tie for fourth place. They’ll be in Greenville, S.C., this week, where they will open play in the SEC Tournament as the No. 5 seed on Thursday vs. the winner of Wednesday’s game between No. 12 seed Kentucky and No. 13 Georgia. Tip-off on Thursday will be at approximately 2:15 p.m. ET, with SEC Network televising and the Lady Vol Network broadcast available on radio stations statewide and via live stream on UTSports.com.
