Five-minute season preview: The SEC
Yahoo Sports will break down the top 10 leagues for the upcoming college basketball season working backward from No. 10 to No. 1. Here's a look at our No. 6 league, the SEC:
In the last 10 years, the SEC has received fewer NCAA tournament bids than any other power conference. In the last five years, no SEC school besides Kentucky and Florida has received a top-four seed.
SEC basketball hasn't exactly rivaled SEC football in terms of quality depth in recent years, but an influx of talent, money and established coaches suggests a resurgence may be on the way.
Twelve of Rivals top 50 prospects in the Class of 2015 signed with SEC schools, more than any other league. Granted four of the 12 are Kentucky-bound, but Mississippi State, LSU and South Carolina each nabbed McDonald's All-Americans and Texas A&M landed a trio of players who just missed the cut.
Revenue from the SEC network has also helped the league's basketball programs upgrade their facilities and land some high-profile coaches. Mississippi State replaced Rick Ray with three-time Final Four participant Ben Howland. Tennessee parted ways with Donnie Tyndall and added longtime Texas coach Rick Barnes. Alabama settled for former NBA coach of the year Avery Johnson after its attempt to throw millions of dollars at Wichita State's Gregg Marshall failed.
It will take a couple years for those new coaches to build up their programs, but the outlook for the league this season is still better than it previously has been. Kentucky as usual remains a prohibitive favorite to win the SEC, but Vanderbilt is poised to regain national relevance for the first time in a few years and Texas A&M, LSU and Georgia each have teams that are capable of cracking the Top 25 at some point this season.
That Kentucky is again the favorite is a testament to John Calipari's ability to reload on the fly. Seven key players from last year's 38-1 Final Four team all left for the NBA, yet Calipari has the Wildcats again in national title contention thanks to the arrival of another heralded recruiting class.
Highly touted combo guards Jamal Murray and Isaiah Briscoe and wing Charles Matthews join pass-first point guard Tyler Ulis to form one of the nation's elite backcourts. Athletic 7 footer Skal Labissiere will anchor a frontcourt that also includes versatile senior forward Alex Poythress, potential sixth man Marcus Lee and Australian center Isaac Humphries. All in all, it's not a group likely to make a run at a 40-0 season like last year's team did, but it is a roster capable of accomplishing what last year's team could not and winning a national title.
Who will keep Kentucky from running away with the SEC? The most obvious choice is Vanderbilt, which returns nearly every key player from a young team that won eight of its final 10 league games last season to reach the NIT and serve notice that its future is bright.
The Commodores boast one of the nation's best big men in 7 footer Damian Jones, a rapidly improving point guard in Wade Baldwin IV and an array of shooters with which to surround them. Vanderbilt shot 39.6 percent on threes as a team last season thanks to sweet-shooting 7 footer Luke Kornet and perimeter snipers Riley LaChance, Matthew Fisher-Davis and Jeff Roberson.
Texas A&M and LSU have the talent to contend in the SEC if their coaches can get their promising newcomers to jell with the returners right away.
There's an excellent chance Billy Kennedy will make good on his promise to finally make his first NCAA tournament this season with his top three scorers returning from a 21-team and his best-ever recruiting class also arriving. Texas A&M's two established stalwarts are wing Danuel House and power forward Jalen Jones, both of whom combined to average more than 28 points per game last season. Alex Robinson and South Florida graduate transfer Anthony Collins will share point guard duties, Alex Caruso will move off ball to his natural wing position alongside House and freshmen Tyler Davis and Elijah Thomas should both see playing time at center.
Everything LSU does will center around versatile freshman forward Ben Simmons, the potential No. 1 pick in the draft next June. The 6-foot-10 Simmons can do it all, from lead a fast break, to score from all three levels, to distribute from the post or off the dribble. He'll have solid talent around him despite the early departure of all-conference forwards Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey as guards Tim Quarterman and Keith Hornsby are back and high-scoring freshman Antonio Blakeney joins the mix.
Who else from the SEC can make the NCAA tournament? Don't sleep on a Georgia team that returns its three top guards from a 21-win team or a Florida team that has substantial talent but finished below .500 for the first time since 1998 last year and is transitioning to new coach Michael White's system. Mississippi State and South Carolina are also dark horses depending on the impact of adding stud freshmen Malik Newman and P.J. Dozier to modestly talented veteran-heavy rosters.
Noticeably absent from the list of NCAA tournament contenders are a couple of programs with rich basketball histories. Arkansas' breakthrough season last year now looks like a one-year wonder after the early departures of Bobby Portis and Michael Qualls and a spate of offseason off-the-court trouble. Missouri may struggle to avoid a second straight year in the conference basement with Johnathan Williams and Montaque Gill-Caesar both transferring in the wake of last season's 9-23 disaster.
MAKING A LIST:
Best shooter: Riley LaChance, Vanderbilt. On a Commodores team that was among the nation's best 3-point shooting teams last season, LaChance may be the sniper opponents fear most from behind the arc. The Wisconsin native made 71 threes last season as a freshman, knocking them down via catch-and-shoot opportunities and pull ups. He also sank a team-best 87.3 percent of his foul shots.
Best playmaker:
Tyler Ulis, Kentucky. Utilized mostly as a spark plug off the bench last season, Ulis nonetheless had flashes of brilliance as a distributor on his way to a tidy 3.6-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. The 5-foot-9 sophomore will have the ball in his hands even more frequently this season and will be counted on to organize the offense, push tempo and get the ball to Kentucky's myriad of weapons in places where they like to score.
Best defender: Damian Jones, Vanderbilt. The only returning member of the SEC's 2014-15 all-defense team, Jones is a 7-footer with unusual athleticism and mobility for his size. He holds his ground well in the post, he moves well containing and recovering against pick and rolls and he has good enough timing and awareness that opponents have to be wary of his ability to alter shots at the rim.
Top NBA prospect: Ben Simmons, LSU. One of the most diversely skilled players to enter college basketball in the past few years, Simmons will create matchup problems for all of LSU's opponents this season. The Australian-born future lottery pick handles the ball well enough to lead a fast break and creates for himself or for others off the dribble. Yet at 6-foot-10, 240 pounds, he's also plenty big and strong enough to defend opposing post players.
Best backcourt: Kentucky. John Calipari has the luxury of having three elite guards who can all handle the ball. Ulis is a classic pass-first point guard who creates for teammates, knocks down open shots and pesters opponents defensively. Six-foot-3 Isaiah Briscoe is a strong, athletic lead guard who generates shots for himself and his teammates in transition and is at his best bullying smaller guards and finishing through contact. Six-foot-4 Jamal Murray is the most comfortable of the three playing off ball because of his deep range, yet he also can pass or score off the dribble.
Best frontcourt: Kentucky.While none of Kentucky's frontcourt standouts have proven much in college, the Wildcats undeniably have the most raw talent. Skal Labissiere, an athletic 7-foot native of Haiti, is projected to be one of the top picks in the draft next June because of his ability to alter shots on defense and score from multiple spots on the floor on offense. Senior forward Alex Poythress is coming off an ACL tear but gets to transition back to his more natural power forward spot. Top backup Marcus Lee has in flashes shown the potential to impact a game with his offensive rebounding and ability to finish above the rim.
Best recruiting class: Kentucky. Was there even a doubt? Even though Calipari missed on an abnormally high number of prospects this past spring, the trio of Briscoe, Murray and Labissiere are all potential first-round picks next June. What's more, Charles Matthews has been a pleasant surprise in camp so far because of his defense and athleticism and Aussie Isaac Humphries can provide much-needed frontcourt depth this season before perhaps blossoming into a Josh Harrellson type down the road.
Coach on the hot seat: Kim Anderson, Missouri. Anderson's dream job has quickly become a nightmare thanks to a 9-23 debut season, two key offseason transfers and an inability to nab any of his top recruiting targets. The second-year coach swung and missed on McDonald's All-American Thomas Bryant last April and failed to land any of the three Saint Louis-area top 100 prospects in the Class of 2016. All coaches deserve longer than two years to prove themselves, but if Missouri really finishes last in the SEC as projected in the preseason poll, the pressure on school officials to make a change may be intense.
FACTS AND FIGURES
New coaches: Mike White, Florida; Ben Howland, Mississippi State; Rick Barnes, Tennessee; Avery Johnson, Alabama
Regular-season winner last season: Kentucky
Tourney winner last season: Kentucky
League RPI rank in each of past 3 seasons: 2014-15: 6th, 2013-14: 7th, 2012-13: 8th
NCAA bids the past three seasons: 11 (Kentucky 2, Florida 2, Ole Miss 2, Arkansas, Georgia, LSU Missouri, Tennessee)
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
