The new king of SEC basketball? One of Kentucky’s rivals can stake that claim
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Florida surges to No. 2 in ESPN rankings after keeping Alex Condon, adding Boogie Fland
- ESPN ranks Kentucky second in SEC, bolstered by Otega Oweh's return and transfer additions
The Southeastern Conference was home to plenty of winners following last week’s NBA draft deadline, and Kentucky was certainly among them.
Otega Oweh’s decision to pull out of the draft and return to UK for one more season of college basketball cemented the Wildcats’ status as one of the top teams in the SEC — and the country — for the 2025-26 season.
Recent league juggernauts Alabama and Auburn got good news, too, with projected first-round pick Labaron Philon opting to return to the Crimson Tide and Tahaad Pettiford — another possible first-rounder — rejoining the Tigers at the deadline.
All three of those teams should be formidable again next season.
But the biggest wins of the past couple of weeks belonged to the team that had the biggest win of the previous month.
The reigning national champion Florida Gators are, once again, the team to beat in the SEC.
And led by head coach Todd Golden, who won’t turn 40 years old until next month and has a new long-term contract with the school, these Gators might be the league’s team to beat for a while.
Florida was already projected as a preseason Top 25 team before the one-two punch of Alex Condon and Boogie Fland led to a major jump in the early rankings.
Condon, who was the Gators’ top rebounder, fourth-leading scorer and another possible first-round NBA pick, opted out of the draft to return to Gainesville for a third season.
“I’ve got a good situation waiting for me at Florida,” he told the Herald-Leader and others at the NBA Combine a couple of weeks earlier. “I’ve got teammates that I just won a national championship with. … I’m ready to stay if I need to.”
But Condon didn’t need to stay. He was receiving positive feedback from the pros and certainly had a secure place in this month’s draft. His decision was a positive sign for Golden’s program.
Fland, who was projected as a second-round pick, raised some eyebrows when he decided to jump in the transfer portal after one season with John Calipari at Arkansas, but that move wasn’t analyzed too deeply outside of Fayetteville, because the consensus in college basketball circles had Fland keeping his name in the draft.
As that pro process wore on, however, word started to spread that the former five-star recruit — and one-time Kentucky commitment — might actually return to school. By the time he pulled out of the draft during Combine week, the Gators had emerged as the clear favorite.
With Fland’s commitment, Golden picked up one of the top talents in the SEC. The 6-foot-2 guard scored at least 12 points in 15 of 17 games to start his college career — and averaged 5.1 assists with 1.4 turnovers per game as a freshman — before an injury ended his regular season in the middle of January and limited his effectiveness when he attempted a return during the NCAA Tournament.
A return to full health and a prominent spot in Golden’s high-octane offense should make him one of the best guards in the SEC next season.
And these two late offseason moves have made Florida the favorite in the SEC again.
Florida is the SEC’s top team
ESPN updated its early Top 25 rankings Monday morning, and the Gators jumped from No. 18 on the previous list to No. 2 nationally on the new one. Only Purdue, which will play an exhibition game against Kentucky in Rupp Arena on Oct. 24, is ranked higher.
Houston, UConn and St. John’s round out the top five.
Florida jumped 16 spots on that list. Alabama, which moved from No. 24 to No. 17 upon Philon’s return, was the only other school nationally that rose more than three positions.
Condon rejoins a frontcourt that already included holdovers Thomas Haugh (9.8 points per game) and Rueben Chinyelu (a 40-game starter for the national champions), and Fland will fill in for a backcourt that loses a lot — departing seniors Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard, plus UK transfer Denzel Aberdeen — but is gaining some intriguing players.
In addition to Fland — ranked by ESPN as the top transfer in the SEC — Golden picked up a pledge from former Princeton star Xaivian Lee, who was once on Kentucky’s transfer portal radar and appears to be a similar fit as Clayton for the Florida offense. ESPN ranks Lee as the SEC’s No. 7 transfer.
Starting lineups can be difficult to project this time of year, but it seems a lock that Lee, Fland, Haugh, Condon and Chinyelu will be the first five in Gainesville this season.
And the backcourt of Lee and Fland — with Golden’s offensive stylings — could be scary.
“When you have two point guards that are out there making plays, I think it makes your offense really dynamic. So we’re excited,” the Florida coach said after Fland’s commitment. “I think you can have both those guys start the offense. They’re both going to have the ball in their hands a ton, being able to play out of the ball screen, being able to push in transition — weapons that teams are going to have to account for.”
In addition to that projected starting five, Florida is bringing in 6-4 guard AJ Brown, who scored 13.2 points per game at Ohio last season, as well as top-40 high school recruits Cornelius Ingram Jr. (a 6-6 forward) and Alexander Lloyd (a 6-3 guard) to join a roster that counts 7-1 center Micah Handlogten among its other returnees.
That foundation of young players is another good sign for Florida’s future beyond next season, and the Gators’ recent success on the court should make them a major player in the transfer portal and on the recruiting trail in the years to come.
The only notable transfer departures for Golden’s program this offseason were Aberdeen, a key reserve, and Sam Alexis, who jumped to Indiana after playing 11.9 minutes off the bench last season.
Aberdeen and Alexis rejoined their old teammates for Florida’s trip to the White House last month.
“I thought it was really special,” Golden said of that brief reunion. “College is changing. That’s just the bottom line. It’s a lot different now. So again, for us, we were just proud that we could provide that opportunity for them, and that they took us up on it.
“I know they had a great time with their former teammates, and we’re still going to try to kick Kentucky’s ass next year, but those guys deserve it.”
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UK basketball ranks second in SEC
If Florida is the reigning king of SEC basketball, Kentucky might be in the best spot to reclaim the crown in the coming season.
The new ESPN rankings this week placed the Wildcats at No. 9 nationally and second in a league that sent a record 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament last season. The post-NBA draft deadline Top 25 rankings at CBS Sports have UK at No. 12 nationally — also good enough for second best in the SEC — and that website listed Mark Pope’s program as the country’s top winner in the transfer portal this offseason.
ESPN’s projections have Kentucky’s starting five looking like this: Pittsburgh transfer Jaland Lowe at the point, alongside Aberdeen and Oweh in the backcourt, with Alabama transfer Mouhamed Dioubate at power forward and possible NBA lottery pick Jayden Quaintance at the 5 spot.
That could very well be Pope’s first five, depending on whether the UK coach wants to go with a three-guard lineup and assuming Quaintance, who suffered a torn ACL in February, is able to play major minutes. Returning big man Brandon Garrison is among the others who could factor into the starting five discussion, especially at the beginning of the season.
Regardless of who starts the games, the Cats project to be plenty deep during the 2025-26 season, and recent history says Florida — while formidable — isn’t a foregone conclusion to win the league.
Alabama was in a strikingly similar situation this time last year. Nate Oats had taken his place as the new big name in SEC basketball. The Tide were coming off their first Final Four in school history and had been the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament the previous year, with All-American guard Mark Sears headlining a returning group that some ranked No. 1 nationally — and certainly tops in the SEC — during the preseason.
And while Bama had another good showing in 2025, Oats’ team bowed out in the Elite Eight and finished third in the conference standings behind Auburn and Florida.
The SEC appears to be similarly stacked with plenty of possible top-tier teams for next season.
In addition to Florida at No. 2 and Kentucky at No. 9, the early ESPN rankings have John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks at No. 11 — one spot ahead of Duke — with defending SEC regular-season champs Auburn at No. 14, Alabama at No. 17 and Tennessee at No. 23.
The CBS Sports list also includes Texas at No. 23 nationally. The most recent ESPN Bracketology update has 13 SEC teams making the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
Florida might be tops in the league at the moment, but once the games begin it’ll be another all-out battle for the No. 1 spot in the conference standings.
