BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Kentucky Wildcats no longer preside quite so comfortably over the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball scene, which is simply harder to do these days.
Instead, it is Tennessee, with a preseason ranking of No. 9 in the AP Top 25, that is favored to win the SEC title this winter, and No. 24 Alabama was the league champion and the NCAA tournament’s No. 1 overall seed last year. No. 15 Texas A&M has the league’s best returning player in Wade Taylor IV. No. 14 Arkansas has made the Sweet 16 three years running.
And yes, the Wildcats are as always right in the mix, but they have plenty of company at the top of a deep league. They are leaning heavily on the nation’s top freshman class, and other contenders need multiple transfers to deliver, but Tennessee and Texas A&M have their top players back.
“It’s so hard right now to project,” said Kentucky coach John Calipari, whose team is ranked 16th nationally and was picked to finish fourth in the SEC. “It’s never been this hard. So you can project anybody you want.”
That’s a nod to both the league’s depth and the heavy roster turnover that includes replacing six first-round NBA draft picks.
The coaches made their annual hard pitch Wednesday at the SEC’s media day that it is the best league in men’s college basketball — or at least among the top two — and just maybe better than ever. It’s certainly more balanced, with programs that aren’t traditional powers getting plenty of preseason and postseason love alongside Kentucky.
A record-tying eight SEC teams made the NCAA’s 68-team field last season, winning nine games. Five are currently in the national rankings, and four of the 14 teams are receiving votes going into the season.
“It makes every game a hard game,” Calipari said. “I mean, arenas are packed. Players are getting drafted, and it’s not just our players. Now you’ve got other schools having draft picks. So it’s an exciting time in the SEC.”
Alabama and Arkansas both have to replace a pair of first-round NBA draft picks who were freshmen last season. The Crimson Tide lost No. 2 pick Brandon Miller and No. 21 selection Noah Clowney after their lone college seasons included a sweep of the SEC’s regular-season and tournament titles.
The Razorbacks must replace Anthony Black (No. 6) and Nick Smith Jr. (27th).
Still, despite the league’s sizable presence in the NCAA fields, no SEC team has made the Final Four since Auburn in 2019, and the conference has had only two representatives in the final weekend since 2016, so there is definitely room to grow whatever the coaches say in the optimistic glow leading up to the season.
The Razorbacks have made the biggest postseason runs in recent years under coach Eric Musselman. Arkansas made the Elite Eight in 2021 and 2022 and advanced again to the second weekend last season.
Arkansas guard Davonte Davis, the only player back from the last two tourney runs, is determined to make the logical next step and end the SEC’s mini-drought in the Final Four. He thinks the Razorbacks have the team to do it.
“I think about the Final Four every day,” Davis said. “I wake up like, ‘We’ve got to make it.’ That’s the next step.”
The SEC as a whole could say the same.
Even if the preseason picks are just best guesses, the Wildcats are deriving motivation from their (relatively speaking) underdog status.
“I feel like people are sleeping on us,” said guard Antonio Reeves, who is entering his fifth season. “We’re going to overcome that and show the world what we can do.”
Coaches touting their own teams and the league as a whole with the season still a few weeks way is as much an October ritual as those preseason predictions.
“I think this will be the best year in the history of the league, and we might be saying the same thing here next year,” said Georgia coach Mike White, entering his second season with the Bulldogs after seven leading the Florida Gators. “We probably will be. The depth of this league is incredible right now.”
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl started his SEC tenure in Tennessee in 2005 when football was not only king but there was no close second.
“Kentucky was the dominant program and Billy Donovan had Florida right there,” said Pearl, entering his 10th season with the Tigers. “And then everybody else was just everybody else.”
Times have changed.
AP photo by Mike Stewart / Alabama’s Aaron Estrada speaks during SEC men’s basketball media day Wednesday in Birmingham, Ala.Portal pitch
Calipari relies on high school recruits more than transfers, but he has his ideas of how the NCAA transfer portal should work. That would mean an absolute rule of having five years to use four seasons of eligibility.
“If you want to transfer without penalty, you can one time,” Calipari said. “If you had any other issues — family stuff, mental health — you take the year off to get yourself together and then you play. But you have five years.”
The COVID-19 pandemic led to the NCAA granting a blanket waiver giving an extra year of eligibility to athletes, helping create a wave of older players.
“We don’t want to have 28-year-olds playing against 18-year-olds,” Calipari said. “In high school, you get so many semesters and you’re done. You can’t have a 15-year-old playing against a 21-year-old. It’s the same thing.”
Calipari signed the nation’s No. 1 high school class in the most recent recruiting cycle and added West Virginia transfer Tre Mitchell.
Meet the new guy
Chris Beard of Ole Miss is the SEC’s lone new head coach a year after six programs made changes at the top. It’s a splashy hire for the Rebels, who languished near the bottom of the standings last season, but it was also notable for another reason.
Ole Miss hired Beard in March, just more than two months after his firing from Texas in the wake of a domestic violence arrest. Nearly a month before the Rebels made the move, the charges were dismissed after a prosecutor said his office determined the charge of assault by strangulation/suffocation-family violence could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Beard, who was the AP national coach of the year in 2019 at Texas Tech — he was there from 2016 to 2021 before being hired by the Longhorns — was asked at SEC media day how he approaches the topic with recruits and their parents.
“One way: the truth. I just talk about the truth,” he said. “Not only what’s happened the last couple of months, what’s happened in my whole career. I also think as human beings, as coaches, as players, we all go through adversity. We all go through tough times. And I’ve always thought that’s an opportunity to respond.”
Tennessee’s Rick Barnes, another former Longhorns coach, feels confident Beard will succeed in Oxford.
“He was building that program and putting his footprint there in what he wanted to get done,” Barnes said. “I don’t care where he’s coaching, he will do an outstanding job.”
Paris doubts prediction
Lamont Paris had a lot to say about his South Carolina team getting picked to finish last in the SEC. The former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach is preparing for his second season leading the Gamecocks.
First, he pointed out that “zero” teams finished last season exactly where they were forecast in preseason voting and offered details on the different disparities. Second, he pointed out his team has four times as much starting experience now from then — and didn’t finish last in the 14-team league last season. Paris cited “the audacity” it takes for his team to get picked at the bottom given all that.
“It just doesn’t make that much sense to me,” Paris said. “Hopefully to my team it will be a source of inspiration and disrespect honestly. They’re not playing to not be last. What a low goal that would be.
“We’re significantly more skilled, we’re significantly more experienced, and we did not finish last last year.”
For the record, South Carolina’s 4-14 SEC record last season was better than Ole Miss (3-15) and LSU (2-16).
Missouri’s foursome
Of the league’s 14 teams, 13 brought two players to media day. Missouri’s Dennis Gates brought four: Noah Carter, Nick Honor, Cameron Matthews and Shakeel Moore.
“I just would rather them have experiences,” Gates said. “This day is not about me, it’s not about the coaches, it’s about the student-athletes. I wish I could bring my entire team.
“They may not remember every single game, but they’ll remember being at SEC media day.”
Making his way
Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said star forward Tolu Smith is expected to return by mid-January from a foot injury. The preseason All-SEC first-team pick was injured in practice on Oct. 5.
Smith averaged 15.7 points and 8.5 rebounds last season.
“He’s the heart and soul of our team,” Jans said.