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MEDIA DAY PRESEASON POLL

1. Kentucky
2. Florida
3. LSU
4. Auburn
5. Tennessee
6. Alabama
7. Mississippi State
8. Ole Miss
9. Georgia
10. South Carolina
11. Arkansas
12. Texas A&M
13. Missouri
14. Vanderbilt

MEDIA DAY SEC PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Kerry Blackshear – Florida

MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-SEC 1ST TEAM

Kerry Blackshear – Florida
Anthony Edwards – Georgia
Ashton Hagans – Kentucky
Breein Tyree – Ole Miss
Reggie Perry – Mississippi State

MEDIA DAY PRESEASON ALL-SEC 2ND TEAM

Kira Lewis Jr. – Alabama
Isaiah Joe – Arkansas
Andrew Nembhard – Florida
Tyrese Maxey – Kentucky
EJ Montgomery – Kentucky
Skylar Mays – LSU
Lamonte Turner – Tennessee

COMMENTS FROM DAVID.  Last year (if I counted correctly) the SEC put 7 teams into the NCAA Tournament, 7 teams on the top five lines, two into the Elite Eight, and one into the Final Four.  That’s not a bad year!!  As for this year, the SEC is once again looking like one of the best conferences in the country.

Kentucky is the preseason favorite, which seems to be becoming a birthright for the Wildcats, but one that they’ve certainly earned.  Stop me if you’ve heard this before.  They lost a ton of talent from last year’s team with four starters gone, but they replace it with a ton of talent that’s coming in and a monster recruiting class!  Next year when we write up Kentucky, that will once again be the case.  Ashton Hagans returns at point guard, and he’s joined by Tyrese Maxey, who was a highly recruited freshmen, as well as some guys who saw quality minutes last year like EJ Montgomery and others.  Now, something to keep in mind about Kentucky is that they are rarely playing their best basketball at the beginning of the year.  That was certainly the case last year when Duke blew their doors off.  But, they seem to improve throughout the year and are really firing on all cylinders by the time March rolls around.  They will probably start off in the top-five, and if they lose a game then people will freak out, even though we’ve seen it happen before.

Florida has three starters back from a team that made the NCAA Tournament a year ago, and a lot of people are high on them as well.  I certainly think the Gators can be good, but I may be in the minority when I say this: I’m not ready to put them into the top-ten just yet.  They do have one of the best players in the conference in Kerry Blackshear, and he’s joined by a good mix of experienced returners and a strong recruiting class.  The Gators will be much improved, and have a great chance of ending up as a protected seed.

LSU had a big year last year despite some off-court distractions late in the season.  The coaches and media seem to like them again despite the fact that they lost three starters and that some of the allegations from last year are still hanging over the program.  They do have a strong recruiting class coming in, and if they can set aside the distractions they should once again have a strong team.

If you followed us last year, you know I was rough on Auburn all year long.  The truth was, they weren’t winning games against tournament-caliber teams away from home, and until they showed they could do that I wasn’t ready to crown them a top-20 caliber team.  Well, starting with the SEC Tournament, and then continuing all the way to the Final Four, they certainly started doing that.  It was an amazing March for the Tigers that ended controversially in the Final Four against the eventual national champions.  Only two starters are back, and the possibility of a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA is hanging over them, but with some strong incoming freshmen the expectations are high once again.  If this team does struggle at the beginning of the year and doesn’t seem to get those big wins away from home, I’ll remind myself of last season and how much they improved as the season went along.

Tennessee is also coming off a magical year where they reached #1 in the polls at one point, and had a run to the Sweet Sixteen that ended in exciting fashion against Purdue.  Rick Barnes has done an amazing job with this program.  In the past we liked to pick on him a little bit, but his overall body of work at Clemson, Texas, and now Tennessee is nothing short of outstanding.  The problem is the Vols have lost a ton.  Just one starter is back, so they’ll have to rely heavily on some of the incoming freshman, and guys who came off the bench last year will need to play a bigger role this year.

The Nate Oats era is underway at Alabama!  He did a fantastic job at Buffalo, and he takes over an Alabama program that actually has some things going for it.  Three starters are back, and they have an outstanding freshman in Jaden Shackelford who joins the roster.

Mississippi State was a tournament team a year ago, and four starters are back.  They did lose Quinndary Weatherspoon, but return pretty much everyone else.  I’m a little surprised the media and coaches didn’t pick them higher.  I think I like them more than Alabama, and perhaps even LSU.

Kermit Davis took over an Ole Miss team that everyone was picking to finish at the bottom.  He won 20 games, and took them to the NCAA Tournament.  It’s not hyperbole when I say this, but that was one of the best coaching jobs in the nation.  With three starters back and some much needed added depth, Ole Miss should be even better this year.

Tom Crean enters his second year at Georgia.  The Bulldogs won just 11 games last year, and with four starters gone are in the process of rebooting this year.  They do appear to have some talented young players coming in, and the pieces could be in place for this team to improve over time, but I think this year is going to be another building year.

Angry Frank has won huge at South Carolina.  He took them to the Final Four.  The one thing is that it’s hard to win year after year after year at South Carolina, and right now they seem to be at the bottom of their talent cycle with four starters gone from a year ago.  They should get a lot out of their guards, but it may be another year before they’re once again a solid NCAA Tournament caliber team.

Eric Musselman takes over at Arkansas after a fantastic run at Nevada.  He has four starters back from a team that went 8-10 in SEC play a year ago.  It may take a little bit of time, and Arkansas needs to give him that time, but I think he can get this program going in the next few years.

Missouri has had issues staying healthy in the last few years.  I like Cuonzo Martin as a coach, and with some of the experience they’ve got coming back they could do a little better than expected this year IF they can stay healthy.

UNCLE BUZZ!!!!!  He takes over at Texas A&M after a phenomenal run at Virginia Tech.  He took them from being very-sub-NIT-caliber to a Sweet Sixteen.  It was fun watching them improve under his guidance.  Can he do the same thing at Texas A&M?  I don’t foresee them being very good this year, but there should still be some noticeable improvement.

Vanderbilt returns four players from a really bad team, and is being coached by a guy who was a great player for North Carolina, but has no real pedigree as a head coach.  We shall see…