Nerlens Noel hopes to help lead Kentucky to another SEC championship (US Presswire)

Yahoo! Sports is breaking down each league for the upcoming college basketball season working backward from No. 31 to No. 1. Here's a look at our No. 5 league, the SEC.

They won 38 games, captured the national title and produced the top two picks in the NBA draft last season. They're assembling a recruiting class so formidable there's already talk of making a run at an undefeated season two years from now.

Yes, John Calipari has certainly reestablished Kentucky as college basketball's juggernaut, but if SEC teams are ever going to challenge the Wildcats, this is probably the year.

With 93.3 percent of last year's scoring and 87.3 percent of last year's rebounding having moved on to the NBA, Kentucky returns only sweet-shooting forward Kyle Wiltjer from last year's seven-man rotation. Another top-rated recruiting class highlighted by center Nerlens Noel and forward Alex Poythress will help replenish the roster, as will transfers Ryan Harrow from NC State and Julius Mays from Wright State.

Kentucky has enough talent to win the SEC, return to the Final Four and even capture a second straight national title, but the path the Wildcats would take to Atlanta is more likely to resemble the bumpy 2010-11 season than last year's smooth 38-2 ride. Calipari has already acknowledged this week his team is "not very good right now," coach speak meant to motivate his team to be sure but also a product of so much youth.

The strength of the Wildcats will probably be their frontcourt thanks to the shot-blocking of Noel and the size and strength of Willie Cauley-Stein, the most pleasant surprise of the newcomers so far. Wiltjer's outside shooting will be a weapon and a matchup problem for opposing forwards, as will 6-foot-8 forward Alex Poythress' length, athleticism and ability to attack the rim in transition or via half-court sets.

Shabazz Muhammad (AP)Even if the NCAA were to unexpectedly clear Shabazz Muhammad in time for UCLA's season opener, the highly touted freshman still may not be able to play Nov. 9 against Indiana State.

Muhammad is expected to miss 2 to 4 weeks of practice as a result of a right shoulder injury sustained during practice Wednesday, UCLA announced Thursday evening. An MRI taken Wednesday night did not reveal any structural damage that would require the 6-foot-6 freshman to undergo surgery.

Hailed as the centerpiece of a recruiting class expected to revive a UCLA program that has missed the NCAA tournament two of the past three seasons, Muhammad has yet to spend much time on the floor with his teammates.

A high ankle sprain kept him from participating in workouts earlier this summer. Then the NCAA's inquiry into his recruitment prevented him from joining the Bruins on their exhibition tour of China in August. And now, this injury to his non-shooting shoulder will likely push back his debut until mid-November at the earliest.

Of course, it may be much longer than that before the NCAA allows Muhammad to don a UCLA uniform at Pauley Pavilion if investigators determine the star freshman accepted extra benefits during his recruitment.  

Andrew Wiggins (Getty Images)The wait to see North America's premier high school player face college competition will be one year shorter than originally anticipated.

Huntington Prep forward Andrew Wiggins, previously the top player in the Class of 2014, will reclassify to the Class of 2013, his father Mitchell Wiggins confirmed to Rivals.com on Thursday. The 6-foot-7 Canadian, who is from Thornhill, Ontario, was considered the best prospect in all of high school basketball as early as last winter, more promising even than future college stars like Jabari Parker or Shabazz Muhammad.

"It's time," the elder Wiggins told USA Today, which first reported the story. "It's time for him [to show] that he is the best in college right now. I think he is ready for the next step. Academically-wise he is doing great. Maturity-wise he is doing great. He has a lot of talent. He is ready for the next step, and everybody knows it's time. It is Andrew's time. Next year is coming soon and he's ready."

[Related: Rivals recruiting Home]

Wiggins' decision to enroll in college a year early is no surprise considering his family has acknowledged for months that it was a possibility. Since players can only enter the NBA draft a year or more after they graduate high school, this enables Wiggins to turn pro in 2014 rather than 2015, guaranteeing him one more year of earning potential.

In addition to hastening Wiggins' first payday, entering college early also accelerates what promises to be an intriguing recruiting battle between Kentucky, Florida State and perhaps late-comers like North Carolina and Kansas.

The selling points for the Wildcats are the usual: the ability to contend for a national championship and play for a coach who has proven he can develop future lottery picks faster than his peers. Florida State's appeal is Wiggins' father starred for the Seminoles for two years before being taken 23rd in the 1983 NBA Draft and embarking on a successful pro career.

Mark Lyons (US Presswire)

At the start of Arizona's annual Red/Blue scrimmage last Sunday, every Wildcats player jogged one-by-one from the tunnel to the center court to a warm ovation from the sold-out McKale Crowd.

To the rest of his teammates, it was probably a fairly innocuous moment. To Xavier transfer Mark Lyons, it had to feel like a fresh start.

Despite averaging 15.5 points per game last season and helping lead the Musketeers to the Sweet 16, Lyons had fallen out of favor at Xavier by last spring.

Perhaps it was Lyons' sometimes questionable shot selection or habit of bickering in practice. Perhaps it was the role Lyons played in instigating the infamous brawl with Cincinnati last December or his inflammatory comments afterward. Regardless, Xavier coach Chris Mack felt strongly enough his leading returning scorer needed a change of scenery that last April he encouraged Lyons to take advantage of the chance to transfer without sitting out a year as a fifth-year senior who already earned his degree.

"The opportunity was brought to my attention by Coach Mack," Lyons said. "It was very unusual, but once he told me about it, I decided to take that and run with it. I definitely didn't feel forced out. They made it clear they wanted me. I just did what I had to do to better myself."

That Lyons left Xavier and rejoined former Musketeers coach Sean Miller at Arizona could turn out to be a good thing for everyone involved.

Guard Kyle Dodd, now a TV analyst, played at Arizona State from 1999 to 2003 (Getty Images)

Former Arizona State guard Kyle Dodd, now the color analyst for Sun Devils basketball, spoke with me this week to help preview the Pac-12. Here's his scouting report on the league next season:

1. The Pac-12 has endured a few unusually bad seasons in a row, especially last year. Do you think the league will begin to bounce back this season with all the talented newcomers set to arrive?

KD: Obviously it's been down the past couple years, but what will help is the combination of younger talent becoming juniors and seniors and the influx of new talent. When you have that much talent leave the league in '08 and '09, you're going to see a dropoff. The league paid the price for that a couple years, but you knew it was going to bounce back. It was just a question of when. I feel like this year is the year they go back to getting a bunch of teams in the tournament and becoming one of the top leagues in the country again.

2. UCLA and Arizona appear to be the favorites in the Pac-12 depending on who's eligible for the Bruins. Who would you pick between those two?

KD: I can never pick Arizona, so I'd probably lean toward UCLA. They're the two teams that signed huge classes, but as much as people are picking those two teams, there are a number of teams that can compete for the title. Washington's had a great run under Coach Romar. I think Stanford and Colorado will also be in the mix. I think the big key for me regarding UCLA is whether a guy like Josh Smith, who has the talent, has really, truly decided this year that basketball is important to him and he wants to be the man down low. How well some of their older guys can adapt to the influx of the kids they brought in, how those guys all mesh is also key for them. Assuming everyone's eligible, they have every piece. It's just a matter of whether they can figure out how to play together.

Zay JacksonAmid outcry over the release of surveillance footage showing Zay Jackson plowing into two pedestrians with his car in a Walmart parking lot, Murray State has wisely altered its stance regarding the sophomore guard's punishment.

Earlier this month, athletic director Allen Ward said in a statement released to the Murray Ledger that Jackson is "still a very big part of the program" and will likely return to the team sometime this season. On Wednesday afternoon, Murray State reversed course and announced Jackson will be suspended for the entire 2012-13 season.

"He will not be allowed to participate in any contests during the upcoming season," Ward said in a statement. "It is my expectation that Zay will concentrate on getting the help he needs, fulfill the requirements that will be dictated by the court, go above and beyond the necessary steps required to become an exemplary citizen and prove to me and others that he is deserving of this opportunity to remain part of our program and university.

"After the season, I will assess whether or not Zay is exhibiting the traits and behavior that are worthy of the privilege to be a student at Murray State and participate in intercollegiate athletics. I am hopeful that I will find that he is."

Jackson began serving a 30-day jail sentence earlier this month after pleading guilty to charges of wanton endangerment stemming from the September incident in a Walmart parking lot that led to his arrest. Surveillance footage shows him plowing his car straight into Jason and Alia Clement following an argument, even driving a few hundred feet and speeding up with Jason still clinging to his hood before breaking to send Jason sprawling to the asphalt.

The brief jail sentence coupled by Murray State's apparent desire to have Jackson play for the Racers at some point this season sparked considerable outcry both in Murray and nationally. A short suspension was far too lenient a penalty for someone who showed such blatant and careless disregard for human life just a few months earlier.

Virginia players trapped in an elevator at a Paris Radisson (Screenshot via Virginia Athletics)

Of all the teams who traveled abroad this summer for an exhibition tour, few got closer than Virginia during its August trip to Europe.

(via Virginia athletics)Twelve Cavaliers players spent more than 45 minutes stuck between floors on an elevator at a Radisson Hotel in Paris until a maintenance crew finally freed them.

It wasn't entirely the Virginia players' fault since the listed capacity on the elevator was 13 people. What they failed to take into account was that 12 college basketball players weighing a total of more than 2,400 pounds probably overloaded the elevator more than 13 average-sized Parisians.

"Twelve of them is probably the equivalent of, I don't know, 15 normal people," Virginia coach Tony Bennett said in a video of the incident posted on the Virginia athletics site Tuesday. "I think they learned their lesson. We talked about team bonding and being close. I think that's as close as you can get for an hour in that tight a spot."

The elevator mishap wasn't the only adversity Virginia faced during its trip to Belgium, the Netherlands and France. The Cavaliers lost three of five games, including one game in which the official scorekeeper awarded the French team an extra third-quarter bucket to the dismay of Bennett.

"Two points in a game like that, that changes the whole game, and that's frustrating, because we were there for the win," Bennett told VirginiaSports.com. "I don't care if you're international or in the states, you gotta keep the right score."

To improve, the Pac-12 needs UCLA and Arizona to be its flagship programs again (US Presswire)

Yahoo! Sports is breaking down each league for the upcoming college basketball season working backward from No. 31 to No. 1. Here's a look at our No. 6 league, the Pac-12.

At the end of a train wreck of a season rife with damaging injuries, underachieving teams and horrendous nonconference losses, the Pac-12 finally hit rock bottom on Selection Sunday last March.

That was the day Washington became the first major-conference regular-season champ not to earn an invite to the NCAA tournament.

The bad news is the conference has performed so poorly the past three seasons that it has produced only eight NCAA tournament bids during that stretch and twice flirted with receiving only one bid. The good news is an influx of talented newcomers has raised hopes that better days could be ahead as soon as this season.

If the Pac-12 is ever going to regain its former stature, it will probably be tradition-rich UCLA and Arizona leading the charge. The Bruins and Wildcats have both missed the NCAA tournament two of the past three seasons, yet there's optimism on both campuses that this season may be the start of a revival.

Arizona can win the Pac-12 and contend nationally if its newcomers meet expectations, something last year's recruiting class did not do. The Wildcats need their trio of decorated freshmen big men to make an immediate impact and high-scoring Xavier transfer Mark Lyons to make a smooth transition from playing off ball to point guard.