SEC basketball: Notable transfers, returnees fuel optimism around league for 2021-22

A guide to the 2021-22 Southeastern Conference men’s basketball season, starting with some predictions:

Order of finish

1. Kentucky

2. Arkansas

3. Tennessee

4. Alabama

5. Auburn

6. LSU

7. Mississippi State

8. Florida

9. Vanderbilt

10. Missouri

11. Ole Miss

12. Texas A&M

13. South Carolina

14. Georgia

All-SEC team

▪ Scotty Pippen Jr., Vanderbilt

▪ Jaden Shackelford, Alabama

▪ Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky

▪ Jabari Smith Jr., Auburn

▪ Kennedy Chandler, Tennessee

Freshmen of note

▪ JD Davison, Alabama (McDonald’s All-American)

▪ Jabari Smith Jr., Auburn (highest-ranked recruit in program history)

▪ Kennedy Chandler, Tennessee

▪ TyTy Washington, Kentucky

▪ KeShawn Murphy, Mississippi State

▪ Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, Tennessee

▪ Efton Reid, LSU

Non-UK transfers of note

▪ Walker Kessler: North Carolina to Auburn. A 7-foot-1 center, he averaged 8.8 minutes at UNC last season, so he could also be on the list of players about to blossom.

▪ Liam Robbins, Minnesota to Vanderbilt

▪ K.D. Johnson, Georgia to Auburn

▪ Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Virginia to Georgia

▪ Garrison Brooks, North Carolina to Mississippi State

▪ Justin Powell, Auburn to Tennessee

▪ Noah Gurley, Furman to Alabama

▪ Wendell Green, Eastern Kentucky to Auburn

▪ Myreon Jones, Penn State to Florida

▪ Brandon McKissic, Missouri-Kansas City to Florida

▪ Aaron Cook, Gonzaga to Georgia

▪ Xavier Pinson, Missouri to LSU

▪ Adam Miller, Illinois to LSU

▪ Rocket Watts, Michigan State to Mississippi State

▪ Jaemyn Brakefield, Duke to Ole Miss

▪ Tye Fagan, Georgia to Ole Miss

▪ Chico Carter Jr., Murray State to South Carolina

▪ Stanley Umude, South Dakota to Arkansas

▪ Nysier Brooks, Miami to Ole Miss.

▪ Amari Davis, Green Bay to Missouri

▪ DaJuan Gordon, Kansas State to Missouri

Returnees of note

▪ Keyontae Johnson, Florida

▪ John Fulkerson, Tennessee

▪ Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee

▪ JD Notae, Arkansas

▪ Devo Davis, Arkansas

▪ Colin Castleton, Florida

▪ Darius Days, LSU

▪ Jermaine Couisnard, South Carolina

▪ Deyshaun Bryant, South Carolina

▪ Jarkel Joiner, Ole Miss

About to fully blossom

▪ Keion Brooks, Kentucky

▪ Alex Tchikou, Alabama

▪ Jahvon Quinerly, Alabama

▪ Allen Flanigan, Auburn

▪ Tolu Smith, Mississippi State

▪ Matthew Murrell, Ole Miss

▪ Josiah-Jordan James, Tennessee

▪ Stanley Umude, Arkansas

Early departures

▪ Tennessee lost freshmen Jaden Springer and Keon Johnson to the NBA.

▪ Florida lost Scottie Lewis and Tre Mann to the NBA.

▪ Auburn lost Sharife Cooper and “big” JT Thor to the NBA.

▪ Arkansas lost freshman Moses Moody, who was not originally expected to be a one-and-done player.

▪ LSU lost Cameron Thomas, Javonte Smart and Trendon Watford to the NBA.

Teams benefiting from players who return after considering leaving

▪ Florida. Colin Castleton returns after testing the metaphorical NBA waters.

▪ Alabama. Jaden Shackelford entered the NBA Draft, then entered the transfer portal, then decided to stay. He is Alabama’s leading returning scorer (14.0 ppg).

▪ LSU. Darius Days entered the NBA Draft, then decided to rejoin the Tigers.

▪ South Carolina. Keyshawn Bryant returned after entering his name in the NBA Draft.

▪ Tennessee. The Vols return four of last season’s top seven scorers.

▪ Vanderbilt. Scotty Pippen Jr., entered the 2021 NBA Draft, and then decided to play another college season.

Starting over

▪ Alabama reloads with five-star freshman JD Davison, McDonald’s All-American Nimari Burnett and Furman transfer Noah Gurley.

▪ LSU has eight newcomers. Seven players entered the transfer portal. The Tigers lost players responsible for 55.3 ppg of the team’s total of 81.8 ppg last season.

▪ Only five Georgia players return, and only one averaged more than 2.4 points last season. The top six scorers (all with eligibility remaining) departed. The 10 newcomers include seven transfers.

▪ Florida lost seven possible returnees to either the transfer portal or professional aspirations. That included Noah Locke’s transfer to Louisville. The Gators added three transfers who led their previous teams in scoring last season.

▪ Missouri has nine newcomers. The task is to replace more than 80 percent of the scoring and 75 percent of the rebounding. Six players transferred away.

▪ Texas A&M lost nine players via the transfer portal. That included leading scorer Emanuel Miller (16.2 ppg), who transferred to TCU. The Aggies added four transfers, plus a freshman class ranked in the top 30 nationally. In addition to on the court, Texas A&M seeks to rebound from COVID-19 restrictions and a power blackout.

Inch for inch

▪ Ole Miss has high hopes for 5-9 freshman Daeshun Ruffin

▪ Kentucky lists Sahvir Wheeler at 5-9

▪ Wendell Green, who transferred from Eastern Kentucky to Auburn, is 5-11

▪ Chris Lykes, who scored 1,256 points for Miami before transferring to Arkansas, is 5-7

Off the court

▪ Nysier Brooks, a transfer from Duke to Ole Miss, loves to cook. He shares his cuisine creations on Instagram and TikTok.

Questions

▪ Will the loss of Herbert Jones, John Petty and Joshua Primo mean defending champion Alabama must take a step back?

▪ Can South Carolina’s Jermaine Couisnard, a former All-SEC Freshman pick, make amends after making only 30.2 percent of his shots as a sophomore last season?

▪ Is this correct? Javonte Brown-Ferguson, a 7-footer who transferred to Texas A&M, scored four points, grabbed two rebounds and played only four minutes for UConn last season.

▪ Is LSU Coach Will Wade serious when he says Adam Miller could double the number of three-point shots he made for Illinois last season, which was 52?

▪ What if Vanderbilt wins six league games? That would match the Commodores’ total for the last three seasons.

▪ Will the NCAA impose penalties on Auburn, LSU, Alabama and/or South Carolina in connection with the FBI investigation into alleged bribery and corruption in college basketball?

Did you know?

▪ South Carolina extended Frank Martin’s coaching contract after last season. But there’s no buyout clause. So Martin, whose last four teams won only 32 of the last 69 games against SEC opponents, may need a turnaround season even though he’s the program’s third-winningest coach.

▪ Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes has resisted scheduling a game at Texas, where he coached for 17 seasons. Two days after being fired by Texas in 2015, Tennessee hired him as coach. The Vols play at Texas in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge on Jan. 29. Barnes has said he wants his 12-year-old grandson, who lives in Austin, to sit on the Tennessee bench.

▪ Missouri has not won an NCAA Tournament game in Cuonzo Martin’s last four seasons as coach. That dulled the shine created by victories over three top-10 teams last season (Illinois, Tennessee and Alabama). Missouri has not won an NCAA Tournament game since 2010.

▪ The SEC sent seven and six teams to the last two NCAA Tournaments. The only schools to play in both: Florida, Tennessee and LSU.

▪ Freshman Daeshun Ruffin will be the first McDonald’s All-American to play for Ole Miss.

▪ When he was on the floor as a freshman at North Carolina last season, Auburn’s Walker Kessler blocked 10.7 percent of opponents’ shots.

▪ Florida had 82 more turnovers (375) than assists (293) last season. Point guard Tyree Appleby had at least five turnovers in seven different games.

▪ LSU is the only team to finish among the top four in the SEC regular-season standings in each of the last three seasons. No team has more SEC victories over the last three seasons than LSU’s 39.

▪ Traditionalists will like that the Missouri-Kansas rivalry resumes with a Dec. 11 game in Lawrence. The series, which includes 267 games, stopped after the 2011-12 season.

▪ Tom Crean has an SEC record of 14-40 in three seasons as Georgia coach.

▪ LSU was 19-1 last season when Darius Days scored 10-plus points. LSU’s record when he has reached double figures in the last three seasons is 38-6.

▪ Florida’s four Division I transfers have scored a total of 3,882 points. Only Arkansas’ six Division I transfers have scored more: 4,125. Kentucky’s four D-I transfers have scored 3,568 points.

▪ Vanderbilt has made at least four three-point shots in 40 straight games. The streak started after the Commodores’ streak of making at least one ended after 1,080 games.

▪ Vanderbilt guard Scotty Pippen Jr., averaged 20.8 points last season. That’s the most by any returning player in the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC.

This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 6:30 AM.

Jerry Tipton

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-472-4091

Jerry Tipton has covered Kentucky basketball beginning with the 1981-82 season to the present. He is a member of the United States Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame. Support my work with a digital subscription