2026-27 SEC Basketball Preview & Preseason Awards

SEC basketball preview heading into the 2026-27 season.

The Southeastern Conference has won just a single title in the past 13 NCAA tournaments, that being Florida’s comeback against Houston in 2025. However, the SEC has certainly been one of the better conferences in the past several years of college basketball, sending a record 14 teams to the dance in 2025. How do they stack up this year? Can they break that record before the tournament expands to 76 teams in 2027? The answer is almost certainly not, but it’s worth reading below to see why.

It was an uneventful offseason in the South. Just kidding, it never is. For starters, the Bayou Bandit is back in Baton Rouge after the LSU athletic department courted him away from Raleigh while Matt McMahon was still the head man back in Louisiana. As a welcome back gift to the Tigers, he filled his roster with possibly ineligible players and now has just six scholarship players that for sure can take the court. (It’s October 20.)

Speaking of frosty histories with the NCAA, John Calipari might have the best freshman class he’s ever assembled in his 35th year of head coaching. Josh Hubbard returns for his senior year in his quest to break seemingly every Mississippi State program record, Rick Barnes is turning back the clock with a transfer class that includes seven double-digit scorers, and Sean Miller might be putting all that oil money to good use in Austin.

Two hours east in College Station, Bucky Ball is learning from Will Wade, adding a rival in former Longhorn Jordan Pope after he was granted a fifth year of eligibility. Whether he’s allowed to play in November is still in limbo, but that’s a vintage Bayou Bandit move. The Commodores were led by Lionel Richie. But the Vanderbilt Commodores are led by Tyler Tanner, who will almost certainly vie for some hardware by the season’s end. Is this the season that Alabama’s offense finally slows down the pace enough to be a legitimate title contender?

Lexington almost revolted in the offseason, stopping just short of turning Mark Pope into a modern day Louis XVI before he placated Big Blue Nation by bringing in much-needed transfer additions just in time. Speaking of Paris, South Carolina’s head man is going international, employing a frontcourt composed entirely of players born outside of the United States. Perhaps that’s the missing piece for the Gamecocks. And speaking of monarchies, Steven Pearl has a second chance to dispel the nepo-hire label placed upon him after his ascension to the Auburn basketball throne following his father Bruce’s abdication in September 2025.

Florida’s frontcourt has seemingly been playing together at the O’Dome since the Mike White era, and the Gators were rewarded for their continuity by being bestowed the No. 1 ranking in the preseason AP poll. Spoiler alert, but they’re not first in the poll you’re (hopefully) reading right now. Speaking of Mike White, he’s still the head man in Athens after two consecutive tournament appearances. The Bulldogs have a starting backcourt duo named Smurf and Blue. If that’s not reason to feel good about the ‘Dawgs, I don’t know what is.

Doubt Dennis Gates? I would never. Outside of the 8-24 season in 2023-24, which I can only assume was an extensively planned tribute to Kobe Bryant, the Tigers are 67-35 with double-digit conference victories and tournament appearances in three of four seasons with Gates at the helm. In addition to a solid freshman class, they might be getting Mark Mitchell back too.

Oklahoma, who somehow has the third longest-tenured head coach in the conference, is a sneaky pick to return to the NCAA tournament. I say sneaky because the SEC preseason media poll suggests that won’t happen. And Mississippi’s lead guard is 5’10”. Let it be known that is not a dig; our author is simply similar in height and appreciates small guards. I also couldn’t find much else of note that happened in Oxford over the offseason.

Anything could happen within the SEC basketball universe. That’s partially an observation of current Southeastern Conference affairs and partially an absolution of blame in case these predictions are completely off base. Without further ado, welcome to the SEC basketball preview.

SEC Basketball Projected Standings

1. Arkansas Razorbacks

Leading off at the top of the SEC basketball preseason standings is Arkansas. The Razorbacks have just a couple returners, as is now the norm in the portal era, but their newcomers have enough talent to vault Arkansas to the top of the conference. I’ll start off with the obvious: Jordan Smith Jr. is the best freshman not just in the SEC basketball world but across the nation. He could play in the NBA right now and wouldn’t miss a beat. Some call that high praise, but it is grounded in reality. This Arkansas team has the most talent in the conference.

However, it remains to be seen if that talent can pan out into a dominant team effort. Most publications, if not all, have Florida as the top team in the SEC, and it’s inarguable that the Gators have the edge in continuity over the Razorbacks. But you can’t play this beautiful sport on paper. Eventually, these two teams are going to meet, and it’s at least possible to attest that John Calipari’s squad has more natural talent than the bunch down in Gainesville.

Don’t believe me? Look next to Smith in the backcourt at Jeremiah Wilkinson. He just finished a season with Georgia in which he averaged 17.3 PPG against SEC opponents, and he’s still the second-best guard in the starting lineup. Billy Richmond III is back after finishing off last season averaging 15.3 PPG over his last 13 games. Finnish seven-footer Miikka Muurinen can shoot, play defense, and his only real weakness is the fact that he probably needs to eat a little bit more before the season. The starting lineup is rounded out by the only senior on the roster, Furman transfer Cooper Bowser.

Behind that five? There’s two five-star freshmen and two four-stars. Argue against a wall, but this is Coach Cal’s best chance to win a title in quite some time.

2. Florida Gators

As said earlier, most members of the media have the Gators as not just the top team in SEC basketball, but in the country. It’s likely that Florida has the best frontcourt in conference, with its three-headed rebounding machine of Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, and Rueben Chinyelu. But you have to be able to shoot and score, too. Last year, Florida’s 3PT% was 15th. Not in the nation, but in the SEC. The Gators may have paced the nation in offensive rebounds, but the rim had a veritable lid on it whenever they tried to take a shot from the perimeter.

Does 321st of 365 D-I teams sound like a good place to be? That was Florida’s 3PT% ranking last season, and they had just one player (Urban Klavzar) shoot better than 33.0% on at least two attempts from deep per game. The good news is that Klavzar returns, but he’s likely behind Boogie Fland on the depth chart, who shot 24.0% from the perimeter last season.

Denzel Aberdeen has returned, but looked rusty in the team’s latest scrimmage, shooting 3-17 in a loss while missing all 10 of his three-point attempts. AJ Brown could be the answer in terms of shooting from the guard spot, but he missed all of last season and still has to make the jump from the mid-major level.

Ultimately, I can’t look at this offense and pretend it belongs to the top team in the conference. I can, however, assume that the defense is certainly elite, as is the rebounding prowess of the Gators. Having an extra possession almost 16 times a game via an offensive board can turn a mediocre offense into a great one just by sheer volume. A team shooting 30% from deep on 15 attempts will score more than a team shooting 40% on just 10. As long as the big three at Florida stays healthy, they should coast into the second weekend of the tournament.

3. Tennessee Volunteers

Rick Barnes must really want that Final Four appearance. After the Volunteers went out (big) in the Elite Eight for the third straight season, a feat that is both worth celebrating and maddening at the same, time, he went straight to the portal to assure the Knoxville faithful that Tennessee would bow out in the final eight no longer. It starts at point guard with VCU transfer Terrence Hill Jr., architect of a magnificent comeback against UNC in last year’s March Madness.

Hill is a bucket, plain and simple, and the 2025-26 A10 Sixth Man of the Year led the conference in offensive rating and offensive box plus/minus, fancy words for saying that the Rams were quite a lot better on the attacking half of the basket when Hill was on the court.

Two more transfers, Dai Dai Ames (Cal) and Juke Harris (Wake Forest), will also be in the Vols’ starting lineup. I’ll have more on Harris later, but Ames finally found his footing last season after two up-and-down outputs to begin his collegiate career. He’s improved every year he’s been in college, but averaged a career-high 16.9 PPG last season.

In the frontcourt, depth is the name of the game. That’s something that hasn’t always been true over the past few years for Tennessee. Behind Jalen Haralson and DeWayne Brown in the starting lineup are backups that could start elsewhere. As said earlier, seven of Barnes’s transfer class averaged double-digit points last season. This is a well-rounded, veteran squad that can compete for the top spot in the SEC basketball slate.

4. Texas Longhorns

Don’t look now, and don’t tell fans of Xavier, but Sean Miller might be back. The one-time, scratch that, two-time, Musketeers coach jumped to Texas before last season and led them to the Sweet Sixteen as an 11 seed out of the First Four. Gone are three huge pieces in Tramon Mark, Dailyn Swain, and Jordan Pope. However, the Longhorns reloaded with intent, keeping big man Matas Vokietaitis while bringing in two freshmen, Marcus Spears Jr. and Austin Goosby that are too good to keep off the court.

Transfers Isaiah Johnson (point guard), David Punch (power forward), and Elyjah Freeman (small forward) are all projected to start, but Spears could push for Freeman’s job. That leaves Goosby at the shooting guard and Vokietaitis of course down low at center. Currently, the depth of rotation could be strained with Saint Mary’s transfer guard Mikey Lewis injured. There are true holes behind Johnson, Goosby, and Vokietaitis in the rotation, which limits the team’s ceiling. One more injury could cause real problems, though Lewis should return soon.

Texas is one of the better teams in SEC basketball, but they’re just not deep enough to be at the top. Time could prove the author wrong, as it often does, but for now this program is great but not elite.

5. Missouri Tigers

Never doubt Dennis Gates. Missouri’s head man is always one step ahead of the competition, adding Mark Mitchell to the Tigers roster after he had already committed to Kentucky in August. As of now, he’s eligible for his fifth season and will be the team’s MVP. If he was marked eligible by the time I made the SEC preseason teams, he would’ve been on the second-team, but timing was not on his side.

Elsewhere on the roster, star freshman Jason Crowe Jr. will assume lead guard duties as arguably a top-three freshman in the country. He’s joined by Providence transfer Jamier Jones in the backcourt of the team’s starting lineup, while double-digit scorer from last year’s squad Trent Pierce will man the wing. Throw in Kansas (shoutout Dennis Gates for poaching a rival) transfer Bryson Tiller (not the R&B singer, but the Jayhawk) and you’ve got yourself one of the better starting lineups in the conference, yet alone nation.

In terms of depth, the Tigers have plenty of it. Class of 2025 four-star Aaron Rowe is backing up Crowe, which is quite the coincidence. A second highly-rated recruit in this year’s class, Toni Bryant, is backing up Mitchell and is already physically ready to play in the SEC. The Tigers are blessed with a variety of riches in their rotation which also includes Tennessee transfer Jalen Carey down low. Believe in Missouri, but even if you don’t, Dennis Gates doesn’t care. He will win regardless in the Wild West of SEC basketball.

6. Kentucky Wildcats

Is it possible that Kentucky is actually underrated going into this season? At one point in the offseason, the Wildcats were the butt of the joke on college basketball Twitter. (A cesspool of empty thoughts but an entertaining one nonetheless.) But Mark Pope righted the ship, bringing in some much-needed talent to Basketball City, USA. I would’ve feared for his life had he not.

A sizable chunk of that talent came through the transfer portal, notably one of the best shooting wings in the game in Milan Momcilovic. I’m not going to ask how much money his NIL deal is worth because I would get depressed, but for a team that struggled to put the ball through the hoop last season at times, he’s just what the doctor ordered. The Iowa State transfer can straight up ball on offense. He’s joined by four players in the projected starting lineup that are all listed at at least 6’6″ tall.

Two of those are guards Zoom Diallo and Alex Wilkins, and Wilkins especially needs some praise in this section. He was not ranked as a prospect when he signed with Furman as a freshman last season, only to average 17.8 PPG and 4.7 APG en route to earning All-SoCon honors. Throw in returnee Malachi Moreno, who was a bright spot defensively for the Wildcats last season, and the starting lineup is meeting expectations (for now) in northern Kentucky.

7. Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama outside of the top six in the SEC basketball preseason preview may sound like a really unintelligent sentence to type out. Nate Oats very well might make me look like a common fool. But the speed-of-light, no mid-range offense at Alabama really only works if you can make your threes, and outside of Aden Holloway, whose status is a bit up in the air and is suspended for the first two games of the season, and a small sample size of Drew Fielder, the Crimson Tide are counting on an unexperienced backcourt to fulfill their perimeter needs.

Amari Allen looked pretty great as a freshman but needs to bump up his three point rate ever so slightly. Same with London Jemison. Part of the reason this team finished 25-10 last season was the fact that they were inside the top four in the SEC in 3P%. With both Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Labaron Philon Jr. gone, someone needs to step up. This team will rely on five freshmen and three sophomores in their rotation this season, and it’s valid to question if they’re ready for the SEC gauntlet. That being said, having a coach like Nate Oats at the helm makes that kind of situation a little bit easier to weather.

Alabama shouldn’t have issues with making the tournament. But without two of their biggest stars from last season, this is clearly not the same squad. A middle-of-the-road finish in the SEC with a Round of 32 appearance is a perfectly reasonable goal.

8. Vanderbilt Commodores

Tyler Tanner sounds like a country music artist that just moved to Nashville in search of his big break. But in reality, he’s a basketball player in Nashville that is giving Vanderbilt a huge break by returning to Memorial Gymnasium for year three as a Commodore. After breaking out as a sophomore and averaging 19.5 PPG and 5.1 APG, he tested the NBA Draft waters but elected to return to school.

I’ll have more on him later, but ultimately Vanderbilt is headed in a good direction under Mark Byington, who deserves a ton of credit for navigating this program through the NIL era, like a good commodore should behind the wheel of their ship. Washington State transfer Ace Glass will join Tanner in the backcourt, while an intra-conference transfer, T.O. Barrett, figures to start at the wing. Barrett came alive in his last 13 games for Missouri last season, averaging 13.3 PPG and both 3.8 RPG and APG in 13 starts. If that version of Barrett can show up for Vandy, that’s huge.

But returnee Chandler Bing (not the Matthew Perry character from Friends, but the Commodore, and also not the commodore Matthew Perry that opened trade with Japan in the 19th century, but the Commodore Chandler Bing that isn’t actually a commodore) had a freshman season that went above expectations and could push Barrett for the starting wing position. Either is a solid choice. Frontcourt additions Sebastian Williams-Adams and Bangot Dak will be solid covers for the losses of Tyler Nickel and AK Okereke.

This team will go as far as Tyler Tanner can take them. (And there’s one too many Matthew Perry references at this school.)

9. Texas A&M Aggies

Bucky Ball shocked a lot of people when they vaulted themselves into a tie for fourth in the final SEC basketball standings. Sure, they cooled off a bit down the stretch, but the 17-4 start to the season was electric. In a veteran-led team, a solid chunk of the team’s production ran out of eligibility after last season, but Mackenze Mgbako and Zach Clemence are back in the frontcourt, which should ease a bit of the transition.

PJ Haggerty is on his fifth school in five years, and luckily for the Aggies, that school is Texas A&M. He’s averaged at least 21 PPG the past three seasons, including last season at a Power Five institution with Kansas State, where he was third in D-I with a 23.4 PPG average. It didn’t necessarily lead to team success, as the Wildcats flamed out and fired Jerome Tang before the season ended, but Haggerty we know can score the rock.

The question with this team is if LSU transfer Jalen Reece can lead a team from the point guard position. It’s likely him or freshman Neiko Mundey at the one spot, and Reece was solid but a tad inconsistent for the Tigers last season as a freshman. One thing to note is the late-season breakout from Reece.

In his first 24 games, Reece averaged 3.7 PPG and 2.6 APG in 18.2 MPG of action. However, in the final eight games of the season, he made seven starts, averaged 12.0 PPG, and added 6.8 APG for an offense that was struggling to shoot the ball. If that version of Reece plays this season for the Aggies, they could certainly end up in the top five of the conference.

10. Georgia Bulldogs

We are believers in Mike White. Always have been. This space, for the second straight year, is reserved for absolving Mike White of any blame for a recent blowout loss in the NCAA tournament and reminding readers of another 20-win season. The Bulldogs hadn’t been to back-to-back tournaments in 24 years, and despite the loss to Saint Louis, which we’ll pretend never happened, expectations in Athens are to make the tournament, which hasn’t been the case in decades. Mike White is building something.

That something includes a backcourt of Smurf Millender and Blue Cain, the best backcourt duo name combination in the nation. Wing Kanon Catchings also returns to Athens, making Georgia basketball the only team in the entire conference to return a double-digit scorer from all positions 1-3 in their starting lineup. That’s got to count for something.

In all, four returners make up the starting lineup with sophomore Kareem Stagg assumedly at the four spot after a productive freshman season. Ole Miss transfer James Scott can be ultra-efficient when used correctly. We saw that at Louisville a couple of seasons ago. There are certainly viable questions about depth, but this team is plenty dangerous when healthy. Am I going to doubt Georgia in the SEC basketball preview for the third straight season?

11. Oklahoma Sooners

Do not sleep on Oklahoma. I might be, considering I have them outside of the top ten in the conference, but that has more to do with the quality of the SEC than the makeup of this team. The Sooners fell apart in January last year, losing nine straight conference games between January 3 and February 7, then won 10 of their last 14 games. Basketball can be confusing.

But what isn’t confusing is watching Xzayvier Brown with the rock. He was left off the SEC preseason all-conference teams for some reason, but averaged 15.4 PPG for the Sooners last season after transferring in from St. Joe’s. With Nijel Pack out of eligibility, Brown is now the leader of the Oklahoma offense.

A second double-digit scorer returns, Derrion Reid, who added a decent perimeter shot during last season’s action after coming in from Alabama. Sharp-shooting reserve guard Dayton Forsythe is back too, but the biggest addition to this roster might be SMU transfer B.J. Edwards, who I assume will be eligible. Having him start next to Brown in the backcourt is huge, filling a major hole for the Sooners. Edwards is a phenomenal second option on offense, and Villanova transfer Duke Brennan can rebound like no other. Porter Moser is inevitable, and Oklahoma has the potential to surprise some people this year.

12. Auburn Tigers

Auburn basketball is in a bit of a tough spot. On the bright side, star guard Tahaad Pettiford returns, along with shooting guard Kevin Overton. That’s about where the good news stops and gets replaced with some questions marks. That’s not to suggest that Auburn can’t be good, but a large chunk of this program’s roster has no experience in a starting role at a Power Five program.

Owen Freeman looked great at Iowa two years ago, but something happened at Creighton last season and his production plummeted to just 5.0 PPG. Mantas Rubštavičius could prove to be a solid wing for the Tigers, but his last season in the EuroLeague saw him average just 4.3 MPG in a reserve role, and now he’s slated to be a starter at the SEC basketball level. Thomas Dowd was a rebounding machine at Troy, but is the 6’8″ power forward able to produce at the same level against players such as Alex Condon and Malachi Moreno?

This is not a shot at any of those players, but this team simply has way more questions than answers entering the season, and if they couldn’t make the tournament with last year’s team, there’s really not all that much hope the second time around now that Keyshawn Hall and KeShawn Murphy are both gone. It would take a grand effort for a coach like Bruce Pearl to squeeze out 20 wins this season. With Steven at the helm, it’s far more of a Herculean task.

13. South Carolina Gamecocks

It’s make or break for head coach Lamont Paris. Though he led the Gamecocks to one of their best regular seasons in program history just a few years ago, three of his four seasons have simply not been up to expectations. In those three seasons, South Carolina basketball is 10-44 against SEC basketball opponents. That’s not good, and he’s probably playing for his job this year. However, he nearly cleaned house in terms of the program’s roster, and clearly made an attempt this offseason to win immediately.

Spoiler alert, but point guard Kory Mincy is on the third-team All-SEC list in this SEC basketball preview, and probably not on any all-conference teams in any other publications or sites. He’s flying under the radar, but the Georgia native and George Mason transfer is seriously talented. He has the potential to score 18 PPG in the SEC, and certainly will be the focal point of the team’s offense. Keep your eyes peeled, y’all.

Elsewhere, the aforementioned international frontcourt stars Juan Fernandez, an almost-seven-foot Argentinian that’s played a half-decade in Spain and isn’t intimidated by SEC basketball. He’s joined by Wisconsin transfer Aleksas Bieliauskas, a gem of a pickup in the portal that can shoot the rock and inject some spacing into the Lamont Paris offensive scheme, the secret ingredient that helps this team run. It may not look pretty, but this team will grind their way towards wins and I would be surprised if they finish with a losing record again this year.

14. Mississippi State Bulldogs

I wasn’t joking earlier when I said Josh Hubbard was coming for the Mississippi State basketball record book. The senior guard is only 195 points away from breaking Jeff Malone’s all-time points record for the university, meaning if he maintains his 22.1 PPG rate from last season, he’ll sit atop that leaderboard around 10 p.m. on Dec. 2 when Georgia Tech travels to Starkville for the Bulldogs’ ninth game of the season.

The issue with this team, however, is that they don’t have a ton of depth and quite a few questions outside of Hubbard. Four returnees besides Hubbard come back to Starkville, but three of those are redshirts who didn’t see a minute for the Bulldogs last year. The Bulldogs need one or two players that can take opponents’ defensive pressure off Hubbard, and while that might be Tajuan Simpkins or ND Okafor, there’s not enough evidence that can prove that yet.

Mississippi State basketball isn’t a horrible team, but the defense was horrific last year under a coach and culture that is built on stopping opponents from scoring. Is there enough defensive mettle to prevent a repeat of last season in a grueling SEC basketball slate? Time can only tell.

15. LSU Tigers

Before y’all in Baton Rouge get mad at the author, let it be known that in this very article last year, he had LSU in last place (exactly where they finished) and implied that Will Wade would return to Baton Rouge. Both of those things happened, so as a treat to the LSU fanbase, I’ll go ahead and type out the phrase “Will Wade signs Tari Eason from the Houston Rockets” in this year’s edition of the SEC basketball preview for y’all. Little bit of bayou magic headed y’all’s way.

But bayou magic might be fighting an uphill battle against the NCAA. Half of LSU’s roster may not see the court due to various eligibility concerns, and as long as the status of players such as RJ Luis, Skyy Clark, Brice Dessert, Gilad Levy, Saliou Niang, and others is up in the air, I’ll assume that the Tigers enter the season with the same six-man rotation that they played against UCF in a recent scrimmage. With all due respect to the LSU basketball training staff, a roster of six scholarship players cannot compete at 100% in an 18-game conference schedule.

For that reason, LSU slips to the penultimate spot in the SEC basketball preseason poll, with (obvious) room to grow if they can field even an eight or nine-man rotation.

16. Ole Miss Rebels

Someone has to finish last, and in this case it’s Mississippi. Chris Beard’s squad *might* have FIU transfer Corey Stephenson and Florida transfer Micah Handlogten. Their fates are up to the NCAA, and while the program has some proven bright spots like Ilias Kamardine, a solid chunk of the depth doesn’t have the Power Five experience or proven production that other SEC programs do.

Defensively, the Rebels are solid. But especially if Corey Stephenson isn’t eligible, the offense in Oxford has more questions than answers. Mississippi was 15th out of 16 teams in the SEC in points per game last year, and now they’ll have to replace AJ Storr and Malik Dia, two players that sometimes lacked on the defensive end but could be counted on to score a bucket.

With the exception of Budd Clark, the aforementioned shorter point guard, none of the incoming transfers to Oxford were among their team’s top-two scoring options last season. It might be hard to find guys on the roster outside of Clark, Kamardine, and returning sophomore Patton Pinkins that can be relied upon to score double digits in a given night.

It should be noted, however, that if Corey Stephenson is granted eligibility, that last place is a little low for this team. The addition of Stephenson would push them up maybe two of three spots in these rankings, but this is not a team that is likely to make the NCAA tournament, especially in a crowded SEC basketball conference.

CBB Review Preseason SEC Basketball Player of the Year

Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt

You’ve likely heard something along the lines of this prior, but Tyler Tanner would not be the best player in the SEC basketball universe this season if he was 6’3″. That’s because he’d be in the Association after being picked in the lottery over the offseason. But as it stands, Tanner, who is listed at six feet even, elected to return to Nashville for his junior year with the ‘Dores.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but Tanner is second in PPG among returners to the SEC, the only returner who averaged over 5.0 APG, last year’s conference leader in steals regardless of return status, and the conference’s outright leader last season in box plus/minus, win shares per 40 minutes, and win shares. If there’s a player that adds more value to an individual team in the SEC, I’d love to see him. But until then, the nod goes to Tanner.

CBB Review Preseason SEC Basketball Coach of the Year

John Calipari, Arkansas

Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Maybe, but this dog’s still got plenty of his old tricks up his sleeve. One of those tricks is convincing top-tier talent to come to Fayetteville, Arkansas. That sounds like a shot at Fayetteville, but I promise, Arkansas faithful, that it isn’t. It just so happens to be the location that the most decorated coach in SEC basketball , John Calipari, happens to coach at.

It’s impossible to look at any position on the Arkansas roster and point out a veritable hole. They’ve got every base covered and talent at every position. With that talent, I’m betting on Calipari to win the SEC basketball regular season title, and if Arkansas can beat out Florida for the top spot in the conference, you can bet your bottom dollar that voters are going to reward John Calipari for it.

CBB Review Preseason SEC Basketball Freshman of the Year

Jordan Smith Jr., Arkansas

Speaking of a certain coach, a Calipari guard is the pick for freshman of the year. Stop if you’ve heard that before. Chances are, if you cover college basketball, you’ve also heard of Jordan Smith Jr. before. An NBA-ready 6’2″ guard with a 6’8″ wingspan, Smith can play offense and defense, and for as elite as Darius Acuff Jr. is on offense, that’s something the Razorbacks didn’t have last year.

Smith has all the things you can teach, sure, but also the things that you can’t. He has the intangibles, he has the motor. I repeat, he has the motor. If there’s a loose ball on the floor, Smith is diving after it. If there’s a rebound going out of bounds, Smith is diving after it. If there’s a complex play on offense, Smith is understanding it.

He is one of the best guard prospects of the 2020s, and now he gets to be coached by the best guard coach in college basketball history. I was tempted to make Smith the SEC Basketball Player of the Year, but I needed to stave off a complete revolt from my loyal readers. Please just let your eyes watch this player and see for yourself.

CBB Review Preseason SEC Basketball Transfer of the Year

Juke Harris, Tennessee

Juke Harris scores the ball. For those who didn’t watch Tennessee basketball last season, that was a huge problem for the Volunteers at times, including in a 62-60 loss to Syracuse, a 75-62 loss to Illinois, a 95-62 loss to Michigan…y’all get the picture. Juke Harris was Wake’s top scorer last season and in a three-week span averaged 25.4 PPG in seven conference games between January 31 and February 25. That’s about as good a cure for an offensive slump as you can find in the portal. The 2025-26 ACC Most Improved Player has the keys to the starting small forward position in Knoxville, and joins a talented portal class.

There were thoughts of putting Milan Momcilovic in the Transfer of the Year spot in the stead of Harris. I’ll admit that. But despite Momcilovic’s shooting prowess, he doesn’t bring the ball-sharing ability that Harris has, and Harris is actually the superior rebounder, too. Both will produce for their respective teams, but Harris gets the nod here in the final paragraph of the SEC basketball preseason preview.

CBB Review Preseason SEC Basketball First Team

• G: Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
• G: Josh Hubbard, Mississippi State
• G: Jordan Smith Jr., Arkansas
• G: Juke Harris, Tennessee
• C: Rueben Chinyelu, Florida

CBB Review Preseason SEC Basketball Second Team

• G: Xzayvier Brown, Oklahoma
• G: PJ Haggerty, Texas A&M
• F: Milan Momcilovic, Kentucky
• F: Thomas Haugh, Florida
• F: Alex Condon, Florida

CBB Review Preseason SEC Basketball Third Team

• G: Kory Mincy, South Carolina
• G: Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn
• G: Jason Crowe Jr., Missouri
• G: Amari Allen, Alabama
• C: Matas Vokietaitis, Texas