All the reigning champs did this off season was retain four of their top five frontcourt scorers, rejuvenate the backcourt with three transfers who all averaged over 13 points at previous stops and bring in two four-star freshmen. Florida <\/strong>will again be in contention for the top overall seed come March.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mark Pope replaced four starters this spring with hopes of rebuilding Kentucky<\/strong> on a bedrock of defense. It\u2019s frontcourt, which now contains NBA prospects Denzel Aberdeen, Mouhamed Dioubate, Jayden Quaintance and Malachi Moreno (among many others) should help with that. Jaland Lowe is an elite playmaker, and he\u2019s running the show on the backend.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Rick Barnes\u2019 ever-so-steady sideline presence will keep Tennessee <\/strong>in SEC contention until he retires. The Vols retooled the backcourt with a pair of senior transfers in Ja\u2019Kobi Gillespie and Amaree Abram, welcomed in blue-chip freshman Nate Ament and returned two valuable frontcourt pieces in Cade Phillips and Felix Okpara. That\u2019s a solid starting lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n Arkansas <\/strong>welcomes five-star freshman Darius Acuff to the starting lineup to replace Boogie Fland (who left for Florida) and run the show in Fayetteville. He\u2019ll be joined by three returning players who all averaged over 20 minutes per game last season, including the score-first DJ Wagner at the two. The Hogs ended last season red-hot and are primed for much of the same in 2025-26. Shooting the three efficiently may spell the difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Second Tier (Auburn, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Yes, Steve Pearl learned under the tutelage of his father for over a decade on the Plains and yes, Steve Peal retained every player on the roster following his father\u2019s abrupt retirement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n But it\u2019s still Bruce Pearl that Auburn<\/strong> lost. Perhaps it\u2019s for the better that four starters and almost 90% of the minutes from last year went with him. There may be some growing pains for the Tigers in the early going.\u00a0<\/p>\n Texas<\/strong> is a tough job to keep. Just ask Chris Beard, or Rodney Terry \u2014 actually, don\u2019t ask them. Sean Miller will try his hand in 2025-26, and he\u2019ll do it with two returning, experienced backcourt pieces and a revamped frontcourt that features SEC-caliber size and strength. He\u2019ll need to find a scorer to replace Tre Johnson, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nate Oats has upgraded the pedigree of Alabama<\/strong> basketball to the point where a No. 4 seed is a \u201clet down\u201d year. Not letting the Crimson faithful down in 2025-26 will rely on the health and consistency of his backcourt, which heads the Tide\u2019s breakneck pace. The starting five is legit, but the Tide will need to form more credible depth for a shot at a title.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Oklahoma<\/strong>\u2019s blistering 13-0 start was washed away by a 7-14 record down the stretch and a first-round exit from the NCAA Tournament. Porter Moser lost Jeremiah Fears to the NBA but went hard in the portal to replace him, landing Xzayvier Brown and Nijel Pack to run the show on the backend. The Sooners should contend for an at-large again in 2025-26.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Bubble (Mississippi State, Mississippi)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Josh Hubbard\u2019s aura of invincibility as a scorer will keep the \u2018Dogs in games come February. But what Chris Jans did in April, landing the duo of Achor Achor and Quincy Ballard from the portal, has Mississippi State<\/strong> fans excited for 2025-26. If the frontcourt additions pan out, look for the Bulldogs to etch another 20-plus win season in Starkville.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Chris Beard has tremendously elevated the standard of the Mississippi<\/strong> program. He\u2019ll now face his largest challenge as head coach of the Rebels; replacing four starters and 85% of the minutes from last year. Ole Miss will play small, something that some consider to be a cardinal sin in the SEC.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Fringe March Teams (Missouri, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, Georgia)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Dennis Gates\u2019 highly efficient offenses will need to be matched by an equally salty defense for Missouri<\/strong> to have a fighter\u2019s chance in the SEC. Upgrading the size of the roster is a good place to start, which Gates did with the addition of Shawn Phillips Jr. from Arizona State.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Bucky McMillan will be the vanguard of a 180 in tempo, playstyle and roster construction for Texas A&M<\/strong>, which returns zero minutes from last season. Mackenzie Mgbako and Federiko Federiko are two solid building blocks down low.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Vanderbilt <\/strong>returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in eight years in year one of the Mark Byington era. He\u2019ll hope to lead the Commodores to a second consecutive tournament appearance for the first time in as many years behind the well-rounded roster he\u2019s constructed in Nashville.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Georgia<\/strong>\u2019s roster reconstruction focused primarily on its backcourt, which will start a pair of transfers (Jordan Ross and Jeremiah Wilkinson) who combined to average north of 23 points per game last season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Basement (LSU, South Carolina)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s bound to be a sacrificial lamb (or two) in every conference. LSU and South Carolina were involuntarily forced into that role by the rest of the SEC last year, bullied to a 5-31 combined record in conference play.\u00a0<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t look so good this year, either. South Carolina lost most of its frontcourt scoring while LSU resets the roster \u2014 again \u2014 under Matt McMahon. Both teams are inexperienced down low and will rely on transfers to head the scoring in the backcourt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The SEC was pretty good last season. Like, really good \u2014 historically good.\u00a0\u00a0 A record-breaking 14 NCAA Tournament…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":281547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1317,1337,1338,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-281546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115326871590359529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-96.png\")
\u00a0Darius Acuff Jr., a five-star basketball recruit for the 2025 class. Acuff is committed to play for the Arkansas Razorbacks. Photo by Flickr<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-97.png\")
Mark Pope, the head coach for the University of Kentucky\u2019s men basketball team. Pope replaced four starters this past spring. Photo by Flickr<\/p>\n