College basketball returns Monday night, and while it won’t get the attention of say, what’s happening this weekend in Tuscaloosa and Athens, there’s still plenty of excitement around hoops in SEC land. That’s what happens when you finished a season ranked as a top 3 league in the sport, per KenPom, and are projected to be a top-2 league in the sport this year by the same well-respected metrics.

About a decade ago, Greg Sankey bet big that basketball could matter across the SEC, and not just in Lexington, Gainesville and Fayetteville. He challenged SEC member institutions to invest in basketball and schedule aggressively, believing that eventually, the appeal of playing in the football-rich SEC would trickle down to other sports. The bet worked.

The SEC sent 8 teams to the Big Dance a season ago, tied with the B1G for the most in the country. They are projected to match that number i 2023-24, according to the outstanding bracketologists at The Almanac.

The SEC may lack a bona fide National Player of the Year candidate like it had a year ago in Alabama star Brandon Miller. But this could be the deepest league from a top-end talent standpoint in the sport, with multiple breakout candidates set to become stars and a handful of grizzled veterans back for one last run at glory.

Here are Saturday Down South’s top 15 players in the SEC as we prepare for opening night.

15. Matthew Murrell, G (Ole Miss)

Chris Beard doesn’t walk into a talentless pit in Oxford. Instead, he’s blessed with pure scoring talents like Murrell, who averaged 14.5 points per game a season ago despite an extended shooting slump that saw him only make 30.4% of his 3-point attempts. Expect Murrell to get better looks under Beard than he did under the offensively-challenged Kermit Davis. The result should be a return to something closer to the 38% he shot from distance as a sophomore — and a big time, All-SEC caliber season.

14. Tolu Smith, C (Mississippi State)

The Hail State star would be higher but for an injury which is expected to keep him sidelined until at least early January. When Smith does return, Chris Jans will get a 2-way talent who averaged 15.7 points, 8.5 rebounds and a career high 1.7 assists per game a season ago. Smith isn’t an elite rim protector, but he’s a stout positional defender and a monster rebounder who has never shot below 57% from the field in any of his 4 college seasons. A grizzled veteran now, he’ll return for SEC play and one last run at the NCAA Tournament.

13. Caleb Grill, G (Missouri)

The well-traveled Grill is one of the best defenders in the country, as he held opposing guards to just a 43.3% effective field goal percentage a season ago, per Synergy. Grill was having an All-Big 12 worthy campaign at Iowa State last season before anxiety and depression led to his dismissal from the team. He returned home to Wichita, regrouped, and landed at Missouri, where his ability to turn defense into transition offense is a seamless fit for Dennis Gates’s system in CoMo. Grill can also shoot, of course, hitting a career-best 53.6% of his triples a season ago in Ames. As part of an underrated backcourt that includes Colorado State transfer John Tonje and capable point guard Nick Honor, Grill is the guy with all-league upside.

12. El Ellis, G (Arkansas)

To understand how good Ellis is at scoring, consider that he averaged 17.7 points a game on a Louisville team that ranked 251st in KenPom offensive efficiency and won 4 (yes, 4) games. Ellis’s assist numbers in that context are even more impressive, as he managed 4.6 per night despite double teams, hedges, iced screens, and basically the kitchen sink thrown at him each night to slow his ability to score. Without the pressure of being a primary scorer, Ellis should flourish in Fayetteville, where Eric Musselman has proven masterful at putting transfers in a position to succeed by letting them — and asking them — to do what they do best.

11. Jarin Stevenson, F (Alabama)

Stevenson broke hearts in Chapel Hill when he shunned the home state Tar Heels for Alabama, electing to reclassify from the 2024 class to 2023 after capturing Gatorade Player of the Year honors in hoops-rich North Carolina. Stevenson is a 6-10 forward who can shoot, score and impact the game defensively, with quick feet and astonishing length. Nate Oats is earning a reputation for letting his freshmen play and learn through mistakes, and while this lofty ranking may seem high in November, it may end up being low as Stevenson chases All-SEC honors come March.

10. Antonio Reeves, G (Kentucky)

Reeves’ transition to Power 6 basketball saw the senior guard show he still is a dynamic scorer. While his effective field goal percentage slipped, he shot a career-best 40% from beyond the arc and his turnovers were a career-low 1.5 per game. Now, thanks to another top-ranked Kentucky recruiting class, he’ll have better talent around him, even without former National Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe, and he should benefit from it, especially in terms of getting open looks from the perimeter, where he’s lethal.

9. Dalton Knecht, G (Tennessee)

The biggest issue for Tennessee a season ago was what happened when the Vols’ best scorers, whether Santiago Vescovi or the ruthlessly efficient Olivier Nkamhoua, weren’t making baskets. Nhamhoua is gone, but enter Knecht, who averaged 20.2 points, 7 rebounds, and shot 38 percent from deep while leading the Big Sky in scoring a season ago for Northern Colorado. Yes, the Big Sky is not a good league. Then again, the film doesn’t lie, and Knecht’s talent as a 6-6 matchup nightmare were on full display in a preseason exhibition game at Michigan State, where Knecht poured in 28 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in leading the Vols to a win without Vescovi or Zakai Zeigler.

“We think offensively he’s an extremely gifted player, but he also defends 1-4 and he doesn’t take possessions off. It is a skillset we haven’t seen in a long time,” Barnes told SDS at SEC Media Days.

It could be the skill-set that makes this Tennessee team the first from Knoxville to play in a Final Four.

8. Trevon Brazile, F (Arkansas)

Who knows where Arkansas finishes last year if Brazile, a sensational athlete and shot blocker whose offensive game continues to evolve, doesn’t suffer a torn ACL and miss the second half of the regular season? Brazile is the perfect vertical spacer for Eric Musselman’s “space and pace” offense, and as his three-point shot continues to evolve (he made 38% of his 3s last year, on decent volume!), he’ll be an even more difficult player to guard. Brazile averaged 12 and 6 a season ago prior to his injury. If he’s healthy, a dominant defender who offers 14 and 8 seems probable, and the numbers could be even better if he’s added post moves to an ever-improving offensive arsenal.

7. Grant Nelson, F (Alabama)

Nelson will have a huge say in what Alabama’s ceiling in Year 5 under Oats. If the program is to breakthrough and reach an Elite 8 for just the 2nd time in school history, Nelson will figure at the center of things. A magnificent inside-out scorer at North Dakota State, Nelson averaged 17.9 points per game and 9.3 rebounds a year ago in winning Summit League Player of the Year honors. Nelson isn’t a good perimeter shooter (26.3% a year ago), but he makes just enough of them to keep defenses honest and allow him to do what he’s built to do and attack closeouts with reckless abandon. Along with Hofstra transfer Aaron Estrada, Nelson provides Alabama with the type of offensive firepower that should keep the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship conversation yet again.

6. Johni Broome, C (Auburn)

Bruce Pearl’s big man averaged 14.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per contest in his first season of Power 6 basketball, and Pearl thinks he could do even more in 2023.

“He’s already one of the best players in the league,” Pearl told SDS at SEC Media Days. “His body is lighter. He’s moving a little bit better. I think he can impact the game a little bit more on the defensive end. He can defend better even when he doesn’t block shots. That’s a big part of his growth and I think you’ll see it this season.”

Broome is already a force as an offensive rebounder as well, ranking 78th in the country in that category a season ago. Will he finish more efficiently? His field goal percentage dipped to 52.7% in his first year in the Power 6 — a 5 percentage point dip from his Morehead State days. A return to the 57% of old could position him for a run at All-American honors.

5. Tyrin Lawrence, G (Vanderbilt)

Lawrence electing to return to Vanderbilt after entering the NBA Draft process and the transfer portal was as big a recruiting win as any for an SEC coach this offseason. The Commodores guard averaged 13.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and a steal a season ago for Vanderbilt and spent the offseason getting feedback on how to be a more effective creator given his skill at driving and scoring at the basket. Lawrence’s emergence helped the Dores win 12 of their final 15 games a season ago, and Jerry Stackhouse believes he has “the best backcourt in our league and maybe the country” in Lawrence and UC Davis transfer Ezra Manjon.

4. Riley Kugel, Wing (Florida)

Kugel exploded late last season after the Gators lost All-SEC big man Colin Castleton to injury. Kugel scored in double figures in Florida’s last 10 games, including a 24-point outburst in a nip and tuck home loss to Kentucky in late February. Kugel’s creativity off the bounce and ability to find his own shot is something Florida has been missing since Tre Mann departed for the NBA in 2021. Kugel’s vast array of offensive weapons — despite only average numbers in the pick-and-roll — have him projected as a first round NBA Draft pick next summer. Over the final 10 games of the season, Kugel averaged 17.3 points and shot 39.6% from 3 — finishing the season with averages of 9.9 points and 37.6% 3-point shooting. Those splits show a player coming into his own:

What Kugel can do better — and started to do better late last season — is defend. His size, lateral quickness and high basketball IQ led to 4 multi-steal games in the season’s final month — and Todd Golden is counting on that trend continuing as he tries to get Florida back to the NCAA Tournament after a 2-year drought, the program’s longest this century.

3. Justin Edwards, Wing (Kentucky)

Edwards will take a moment to get acclimated, but only a moment.

That’s because the top 5 national recruit defends magnificently and plays with a huge IQ, much like Brandon Miller of Alabama last season. Edwards will also be 20 by SEC play — a huge advantage for a freshman and an explainer for why he enters so much more polished than most the McDonald’s All-Americans who share his hype.

Kentucky hasn’t had a wing this gifted on both ends since Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. That team turned out okay. This one will too.

2. Santiago Vescovi, G (Tennessee)

Vescovi is as consistent, fundamentally sound player as there is in the SEC. The 5th-year senior has poured in 12 points a game while collecting 4 rebounds and dishing out 4 assists a night since walking on campus in Knoxville 5 years ago. That won’t change in 2023-24. Vescovi is going to make perimeter shots at a high rate (37-41% in his college career) and he’s going to give Rick Barnes a capable ball-handler who doesn’t turn the ball over and understands the flex offense better than anyone on the floor. Is it flashy? Not really. Does it need to be when it is as reliable as FedEx? Nope. Vescovi’s boring game is why this Tennessee team is a preseason SEC favorite — they are old, dependable and good.

1. Wade Taylor IV, G (Texas A&M)

Our selection for preseason player of the year, Taylor IV returns to College Station with a chip on his shoulder, but not solely because of Texas A&M’s ignominious exit from the NCAA Tournament a season ago, when Penn State routed the Aggies in the opening round.

“I think it was the way we were 6-5 at Christmas that motivates me most,” Taylor IV told SDS at SEC Media Day. “I just have to play a whole season doing what I am asked to do, right? Get into the lane. Get fouled. Make foul shots. Don’t turn the ball over. Use my defense to make a statement. These are things I can control every day.”

Whether IV, as his coach Buzz Williams calls him, can do that consistently isn’t really a question anymore. The question is what is the ceiling for the Aggies if IV does. Taylor IV averaged nearly 20 points a game and 5 assists per night in SEC play. Are those types of numbers possible in a full season? All-American honors, and Texas A&M’s second SEC basketball championship (2016), could be waiting if they are.