Alabama is seen as the favorite in basketball for the Southeastern Conference, moving away from its usual football spotlight. John Calipari is now at a new school, facing high hopes, but not at Kentucky.
Texas and Oklahoma are also part of this new setup. The SEC has had eight teams in the NCAA Tournament for the last two years and hopes to have even more with 16 teams now in the league. The league looks different this year.
No. 2 Alabama tops the preseason AP Top 25, following its first trip to the Final Four. SEC coaches are confidently claiming their league is the best in college basketball, not just football.
“We’re the best league in college basketball. We just are,” said Georgia coach Mike White, who believes the conference can have over ten teams in the NCAA Tournament. “The SEC is officially now the best league in college basketball.”
The SEC has several ranked teams: Alabama, No. 11 Auburn, No. 12 Tennessee, No. 13 Texas A&M, No. 16 Arkansas, No. 19 Texas, No. 21 Florida, No. 23 Kentucky, and No. 24 Mississippi.
Alabama coach Nate Oats is ready for the high expectations after being picked fifth in the SEC for the last two seasons, just days after the school celebrated its Final Four achievement at Coleman Coliseum.
“Our roster is not such that anybody is picking us fifth, so people have asked me whether we would rather come in under the radar and surprise people or … be picked to win,” Oats said. “I’d say I’d much rather have the roster I currently have and deal with where we’re picked.”
“We’ll need to find different ways to motivate ourselves since we won’t have a chip on our shoulder from being picked fifth or something like that.”
It’s unusual for Alabama to be ranked higher in basketball than football (No. 7). Guard Mark Sears mentions a saying from a former Tide football coach about distractions being like rat poison.
“Like Nick Saban said, you can’t let the rat poison affect you,” said Sears, the preseason SEC player of the year. “If you let it affect you now, it makes you feel like you’ve arrived, and really we haven’t done anything yet.”
The SEC has changed during the offseason, especially with Texas and Oklahoma joining.
Calipari moved to Arkansas after spending 15 seasons at Kentucky, a long-time powerhouse in the league, and some top players followed him.
“He’s one of the great coaches of all time, and he will make it even tougher than it’s ever been to play at Arkansas,” said Rick Barnes, the coach of defending champion Tennessee and a longtime friend of Calipari. “I’m happy for him because I think he’s happy.”
Calipari takes over a program where Eric Musselman led the team to two Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight in his five seasons before going to USC. He brought several of his Kentucky players and recruits, along with Florida Atlantic transfer Johnell Davis and highly ranked recruits Billy Richmond III, Karter Knox, and Boogie Fland.
Calipari’s first question was about when he decided it was time to leave Kentucky.
“I’ve explained why I made my decision. I’ve talked about it a lot,” he said. “What I want to discuss today is the SEC. This league has become incredibly tough. I want to talk about my team and my roster.”
Former BYU coach and Kentucky player Mark Pope took over at the school where he was a captain on the 1996 national championship team. Pope had to build the roster from scratch, bringing in nine transfers and three freshmen, with no returning scholarship players.
At least he doesn’t have to deal with players saying this is how Calipari did things. “I don’t have many players trying hard to hold on to how they did it somewhere else or how they’ve done it before,” Pope said.
Calipari believes that Pope’s strong ties to the school and his understanding of the expectations are advantages for him.
“I think they hired the perfect guy for that job,” Calipari said, adding that he would still be cheering for Kentucky, except when they play against his new team.
However, the Wildcats, often the favorites, are picked to finish eighth. This is the lowest prediction for Kentucky since SEC divisions were removed for basketball starting in the 2012-13 season.
“How much better is the league with John Calipari at Arkansas and now Coach Pope at Kentucky?” asked Auburn coach Bruce Pearl.
