What can Kentucky expect in the SEC? A look at the top players, new faces, odds and more.
The non-conference schedule didn’t go as well as expected for Kentucky, which lost games to Michigan State, Gonzaga and UCLA, with a triumph over unranked Michigan regarded as its best win so far.
The Wildcats will get plenty of chances for marquee victories in the Southeastern Conference, and league play starts Wednesday night. The SEC has been impressive on the basketball court this season, and there will be six Top 25 teams from the conference when the calendar flips to 2023 — providing ample opportunity for UK to boost its profile in the coming weeks. Of course, such wins won’t come easy. There will be potential pitfalls on a weekly basis for the Cats, who will need to step up their game in a hurry to compete for another SEC crown.
Here’s a look at the best teams, the top players, the new coaches and more across the league ahead of Wednesday’s tip-offs:
Kentucky’s top competition
The 19th-ranked Wildcats started the season as the No. 4 team in the country. They begin league play as the No. 4-ranked team in the SEC, according to the latest Associated Press poll, thanks to those early losses and some impressive play from conference rivals. The three teams ahead of them …
No. 7 Tennessee: The Volunteers (10-2) lost to a not-bad Colorado team in Nashville and suffered a five-point defeat at top-five Arizona, and they’ve won the rest, including a neutral-court victory over Kansas. KenPom.com rates Tennessee at No. 1 nationally in defensive efficiency, and the Vols’ balanced attack will make them a tough matchup throughout conference play.
No. 8 Alabama: The Tide are also 10-2, and their only losses have come to Final Four threats UConn and Gonzaga, with victories over Houston, North Carolina, Memphis and Michigan State already on the resume. Freshman Brandon Miller has been the star, but Nate Oats’ team has a great mix of veterans and youth to make up a squad that should fare well on both sides of the court.
No. 9 Arkansas: Picked second (behind Kentucky) in the SEC preseason media poll, the Razorbacks (11-1) have just one loss (to Creighton) so far, but they haven’t played as many highly touted opponents as some others in the league. Arkansas also recently lost leading rebounder Trevon Brazile for the season with a torn ACL, and No. 1-ranked recruit Nick Smith Jr. is also sidelined.
The rest of the SEC
No. 20 Auburn: Bruce Pearl’s bunch (10-2) doesn’t have any marquee victories yet, but the addition of Morehead State transfer Johni Broome, along with the return of several key players (including former Eastern Kentucky star Wendell Green Jr.) makes this an interesting team capable of beating anyone in the league on any given night.
No. 21 Mississippi State: The Bulldogs (11-1) have exceeded expectations to this point. Picked 10th in the preseason SEC voting, Mississippi State was one of the final unbeaten teams in the country before losing its first game last week against Drake, rising to No. 15 in the AP poll before that defeat. The Bulldogs’ best wins so far came over Marquette and Utah.
Florida: The Gators (7-5) have zero victories over top-100 opponents on either the KenPom or Torvik rankings list, but they entered the week ranked top 50 on both websites. (Florida does have lopsided losses to UConn and West Virginia). Colin Castleton leads the team in points, rebounds, blocks, steals, and he’s second in assists.
Texas A&M: Buzz Williams’ squad started the season with high hopes —26th in the initial AP voting — but they’ve already lost to Murray State, Colorado, Boise State, Memphis and Wofford, with zero quality victories. The Aggies (6-5) don’t play their first league game until next week, and KenPom’s game-by-game projections have them going 7-11 in the SEC after being picked sixth in the preseason poll.
Missouri: The 11th-place team in that preseason SEC poll, Missouri (11-1) has been in the “also receiving votes” section of the AP poll this season and will go into Wednesday’s league opener against Kentucky off a 93-71 neutral-site victory over nationally ranked Illinois. The Tigers have the league’s highest-scoring offense (88.8 points per game), and they also lead the SEC with 10.0 made threes per game (and they’re second behind UK in three-point percentage).
Ole Miss: The Rebels (8-4) have lost four of their last six games, including a defeat at home last week to North Alabama, possibly the worst loss by any SEC team this season.
LSU: The Tigers (11-1) have a great record, but the KenPom and Torvik sites both project them to go 6-12 in conference play. LSU’s strength of schedule is the worst in the SEC, with Kansas State (a loss) and Wake Forest (a win) the only opponents of any note.
Georgia: The Bulldogs (9-3) enter league play with just two victories over KenPom top-200 teams: Notre Dame and Chattanooga (both teams started the week outside the top 100). It’s looking like another long season for a program that hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game in 20 years (and that one was later vacated).
Vanderbilt: Jerry Stackhouse’s team has scheduled some tough games, but the best win by Vanderbilt (6-6) has come at home against Pittsburgh. The ‘Dores’ 7-11 mark in SEC play last season is its best in the past five years.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks (6-6) were picked last in the league on SEC media day in the fall. And they’ve looked like the conference’s worst team by a pretty wide margin. Freshman GG Jackson is projected as a first-round NBA Draft pick, though.
The new coaches
Even dedicated SEC basketball fans will need a reminder on the new faces patrolling the sidelines once league play begins.
Florida: Todd Golden — A former Bruce Pearl assistant at Auburn for two years, the 37-year-old’s profile rose as an analytics darling at San Francisco, where he was head coach from 2019-22 and led the Dons to the NCAA Tournament last season.
Georgia: Mike White — He’s not new to the league, but you’ll be forgiven if you do a double-take upon seeing White in red and black. The 45-year-old crossed state lines this past offseason after seven seasons as Florida’s head coach. (He was also a player and longtime assistant coach at Ole Miss).
LSU: Matt McMahon — The 44-year-old spent 11 years at Murray State — four as an assistant, seven as head coach, two of those seven with Ja Morant running the point — and went to three NCAA Tournaments, advancing to the round of 32 twice.
Missouri: Dennis Gates — The 42-year-old spent eight seasons as an assistant coach for Leonard Hamilton at Florida State before getting his first top job, leading Cleveland State, in 2019. Gates inherited a program that had won just one regular-season conference title in the previous 25 years and then achieved that feat in both 2021 and 2022.
Mississippi State: Chris Jans — The 53-year-old was the head coach at several junior colleges, spent a combined nine years — over two stints — on Gregg Marshall’s staff at Wichita State and was most recently the head coach at New Mexico State for five seasons, going to three NCAA Tournaments in that span.
South Carolina: Lamont Paris — An assistant coach for 20 years — the last seven at Wisconsin — before getting the head coaching job at Chattanooga, the 48-year-old led the Mocs to the NCAA Tournament last season, his fifth with that program.
SEC’s top players
Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky: Purdue’s Zach Edey might have the upper hand on Tshiebwe in the national race, but the SEC player of the year award still runs through the Kentucky big man. Tshiebwe is averaging 15.0 points and 13.0 rebounds this season, the latter number second only to Edey nationally.
Brandon Miller, Alabama: A one-time Kentucky recruiting target, Miller has been outstanding for the Tide this season, averaging 19.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. He’s tied for the SEC lead in scoring and tops all freshmen in that category nationally. ESPN rates him as the No. 7 overall prospect for the NBA Draft.
KJ Williams, LSU: The former Murray State standout — and last season’s OVC player of the year — followed Matt McMahon to Baton Rouge, and the results have been great. He’s tied with Miller for the SEC lead in scoring, he’s fifth in the league in rebounding (8.3 per game) and the 6-10 forward has made 23 of 46 threes.
Johni Broome, Auburn: Another former OVC star, Broome was the man at Morehead State before hitting the transfer portal last offseason. He’s leading the SEC with 2.8 blocks per game, and he’s averaging 12.2 points and 8.2 rebounds for the Tigers.
Tolu Smith, Mississippi State: A returning standout in the league, Smith is top 10 in the SEC in both points (15.6) and rebounds (8.7) per game, and he’s leading the conference with a 62.2 field-goal percentage. The 6-11 senior is the top player on one of the SEC’s most surprising teams.
D’Moi Hodge, Missouri: Kentucky fans will meet Hodge on Wednesday night. The 6-4 guard followed Coach Dennis Gates from Cleveland State and has been stellar for Mizzou, averaging 16.7 points (fourth in the SEC), 4.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. He leads the league and is fifth nationally with 2.8 steals per game. He also has the most three-point makes (39) and attempts (92) among conference players, shooting 42.4 percent from deep.
Ricky Council IV, Arkansas: Third in the SEC in scoring, Council is averaging 18.3 points per game after transferring in from Wichita State in the offseason. The Hogs’ roster also features a top freshman class, with Anthony Black and Nick Smith Jr. projected as NBA lottery picks, though Smith is currently sidelined with a knee injury.
Colin Castleton, Florida: The preseason All-SEC pick is doing just fine for the Gators, averaging 15.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.5 blocks (third in the league) in 2022-23.
GG Jackson, South Carolina: A highly touted recruit who reclassified into college early, Jackson has been just about the only bright spot for his hometown Gamecocks, averaging 16.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game
Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee: The Vols’ roster makes it tough to single out any one player, but Vescovi leads the team in scoring at 11.8 points per game — amazingly, four others have fewer points but still average double figures — and he’s also adding 4.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.5 steals per game for arguably the SEC’s best team.
SEC basketball odds
There’s no clear favorite going into conference play.
DraftKings has betting odds for the SEC champion, and Tennessee has the shortest number on that list at 2.2-1. Kentucky is next at 3-1, followed by Alabama at 7-2 and Arkansas at 4-1.
Those are clearly the top four teams in the league, according to the oddsmakers.
Auburn is next at 15-1, followed by Florida (30-1), Mississippi State (40-1), LSU (40-1), Texas A&M (50-1), Missouri (50-1), Ole Miss (80-1), Vanderbilt (250-1), Georgia (500-1) and South Carolina (500-1).
Some Kentucky fans will surely scoff at this, but the Cats are still the SEC team with the shortest betting odds to win the 2023 national championship. UK is at 15-1 to win the title, according to the Caesars Sportsbook. Only four teams — Houston (7-1), Arizona (9-1), UConn (12-1) and UCLA (12-1) — have shorter national title odds.
The other prominent SEC teams on that national title list are Tennessee (20-1), Arkansas (25-1), Alabama (30-1) and Auburn (50-1).
Wednesday
No. 19 Kentucky at Missouri
What: Southeastern Conference opener
When: 7 p.m. EST
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Kentucky 8-3, Missouri 10-1
Series: Kentucky leads 14-2
Last meeting: Kentucky won 83-56 on Dec. 29, 2021, in Lexington
This story was originally published December 27, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
