BIRMINGHAM — College basketball doesn’t formally return until the ball is tipped on Nov. 3, but you wouldn’t have known it based on the crowds at Day 1 of SEC Tipoff ’26.
A year after the SEC set records with an NCAA Tournament-record 14 programs receiving tournament bids, 7 programs reached the Sweet 16, 2 advanced to the Final Four, and Florida captured its third national championship, the league is hoping for an encore in the 2025-26 season, with a record-tying 7 SEC schools appearing in the preseason AP Top 25 and 6 teams slotted in the KenPom preseason top 25.
Day 1 of SEC Media Days featured 3 of the 5 programs picked in the top 5 of the preseason media poll, including blue-blood Kentucky (picked second) and home state heroes Alabama, whose earliest March Madness exit over the last 3 seasons was a Sweet 16 as the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed in 2023. Here are 5 thoughts from Day 1 of a full day of hoops in Birmingham.
Nate Oats and Alabama are flying under the radar — but that backcourt can beat anyone
Does Alabama need to get healthy?
Absolutely. Latrell Wrightsell Jr. has been cleared for 5-on-5, and seemed optimistic he’d play when Alabama hosts North Dakota on November 3.
Former McDonald’s All-American and Miami transfer Jalil Bethea may take longer to recover from a left foot injury suffered in September, but Nate Oats expects him back when league play begins in January.
Still, when the pieces come together, Alabama will field one of the most formidable, if not the very best, backcourts in college basketball. Even without All-American Mark Sears and Chris Youngblood (who is shining for Oklahoma City in exhibitions), Oats loves the composition of his backcourt.
“Our backcourt, we feel confident in,” Oats said from the podium Tuesday. “We have some guys that were out last year, Houston Mallette and Latrell Wrightsell Jr., and I think they really add something to the team. They’re smart, they’re tough, they’ve played a lot of basketball. You add (First-Team preseason All-SEC selection) Labaron Philon back, great freshman year, decided to come back. (Aden) Holloway, I think he made a big jump from his freshman to sophomore year. I think he’s going to make a bigger jump. He looks really good in practice.”
The questions are in the frontcourt, but even without Cliff Omoruyi to protect the rim, the Crimson Tide should be more skilled. Aiden Sherrell, a former 5-star recruit, is as versatile a big man as Oats has ever had — rangy, athletic, an explosive leaper, a capable shooter and passer. London Jemison, a bouncy wing who can play the 2, 3, or 4, should help Alabama guard better. Finally, Florida State transfer Taylor Bol Bowen won’t replace Grant Nelson’s offense or leadership, but his 7-2 wingspan does give Alabama a potent rim protector, as evidenced by an impressive 7.1% block rate that ranked among the top 100 in America a season ago.
Alabama has been picked to finish in the top 3 in the SEC in each of the last 3 seasons. That makes this season’s fourth place projection motivating.
“Yeah, I think anyone thinking there will be a drop off is in for a surprise,” Wrightsell told SDS on Tuesday. “With our backcourt and 3 bigs who are perfect fits to play with us, we know what we’re capable of doing.”
An undervalued Nate Oats team? Buy stock now.
Cal says Arkansas has a long way to go, but the ceiling is immense
John Calipari opened his 16th trip to SEC Media Days referencing his team’s scrimmage this past Sunday in Hot Springs.
“I’m not going to say it was a debacle,” Calipari said with a smile. “But what’s the next word up from debacle? We’ve got a long ways to go.”
That might be true.
But this Arkansas roster might be the most talented in the SEC. The dynamic freshman duo of Darius Acuff Jr. and Meleek Thomas couldn’t be any different from a personality standpoint. Thomas is confident — some might even say loud.
“When he scores, he lets you know about it,” Arkansas junior DJ Wagner told SDS.
Acuff is quieter, a mature-beyond-his-years guard who lets his play do the talking.
The duo, along with the constantly improving Wagner, will give Arkansas one of the nation’s most versatile backcourts. Throw in Karter Knox, a 6-6 swing with a 6-10 wingspan and lottery upside, and you have a deep group that can guard and score.
The frontcourt will be better, too. Malique Ewin is a great rebounder who was a top-100 effective field goal percentage player a season ago at Florida State. Trevon Brazile won Calipari over with his effort a season ago and while he’s no longer considered a likely NBA Draft pick, he has outstanding athleticism, rebounds, and plays terrific defense. Nick Pringle will give Arkansas a force on the glass off the bench.
In other words, the Razorbacks will have a lot of ways to win.
Will they be able to make shots? Knox is the best returning shooter (35%), which likely explains the gap between what humans think of Arkansas (top 15 in the AP Poll) and computers (29th in KenPom, 20th in Evan Miya). But if Acuff and Thomas (and DJ Wagner, who Calipari insists can shoot better than the 30% he’s shot in his career from beyond the arc) can open up defenses, there’s SEC title potential in Fayetteville.
Doubt a Chris Beard team at your own risk
On paper, Chris Beard’s third Ole Miss team figures to take a step back from his second, which won 24 games and reached the Sweet 16, losing an epic game to Michigan State.
Just don’t tell Chris Beard that.
“Our objective is to build a program that can sustain success,” Beard said on Tuesday. “It is not to be a one-hit wonder in Mississippi.”
There are data-driven doubts. Two reclamation projects, AJ Storr, on stop 4 in 4 years, and Koren Johnson, on stop 3, need to find themselves and play better basketball. Beard pushed back on the narrative on Storr a bit Tuesday.
“I believe in AJ Storr. Not to put all the pressure of the world on his shoulders. Truth-telling program. I think AJ has a chance to re-establish himself as one of the best players in college basketball.”
That may be true.
But Storr hasn’t been one of the better players in the sport since Year 1 at St. John’s. Is that player, who shot 40% from 3 and posted an efficient 51.2 eFG%, still in there somewhere?
If anyone can squeeze the best out of Storr’s prodigious talent, it’s Beard.
On the bright side, Beard returns Malik Dia, one of the most productive frontcourt players in America, to lead the team. Dia, an honors student on top of being a decorated player, was perhaps the most impressive young person in a building full of them on Tuesday. Dia loves the idea of playing for a team many are doubting.
“We’re projected No. 8 in the league and that just gives us fuel. I think we’re a really motivated team. What you can expect is that we’ll play hard. We know there are people who don’t think we are going to play in the NCAA Tournament. That’s fine. Our guys all have a lot of stories. They have a lot to prove. If we come together because of that, we’ll be an elite team. You can say we won’t be one. You can say ‘It’s Ole Miss.’ But I think bringing a lot of underdogs together, we have a chance to be special.”
A group of underdogs coached by Chris Beard? Sign me up.
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Yes, Mark Byington and Vanderbilt are as good as the analytics suggest
One of the most surprising things from the preseason analytical rankings has been the high placement of Vanderbilt, who was an afterthought much of the offseason but finds itself situated in the top 25 of KenPom (19th), Bart Torvik (21st), and EvanMiya (24th).
It begins with player retention. The Commodores retained sharpshooting Tyler Nickel (the best returning 3-point shooter in the SEC), glue guy Devin McGlockton, and impressive point guard Tyler Tanner.
“The players we have coming back were priority No. 1 for us,” Byington said Tuesday. “They are unbelievable people, really good basketball players, and they care about winning. I don’t know how many kids do (care about winning) right now. Having those guys that will sacrifice and do different things because they care about winning, that was the most important thing we did this spring.”
Throw in a top-25 portal haul that includes TCU guard Frankie Collins, Louisville wing Mike James, Oklahoma shooter Duke Miles, and North Carolina big man Jalen Washington, and you have a Commodores team that is not only more talented than last year’s NCAA Tournament team but should be among the best offensive teams in the country.
Byington also thinks Vanderbilt being a bigger team will help it weather the grind of SEC play and, potentially, avoid the late-season fade that plagued the program a year ago, when the Commodores lost 7 of their final 10 games.
“You look at our size, our length. We’ll play bigger, not just at the center position. We’ll also play bigger at the guard spots and the other 4 positions. I just thought we had to make sure that while we’re not trying to be everyone else, we had more size, which was something we couldn’t overcome last season. You’ll see a big improvement from length and everything else with our team.”
If the added size helps Vanderbilt guard even a little better than a year ago (79th in KenPom defensive efficiency), a second weekend is distinctly possible.
Denzel Aberdeen is a different type of competitor who’ll change the culture in Lexington
The angry BBN supporter will read that headline and ask what was wrong with a culture that helped Mark Pope reach the Sweet 16 in season 1 at his alma mater. The short answer is “not much.”
But when you ask Mark Pope about Denzel Aberdeen, who transferred to Kentucky from rival Florida fresh off helping the Gators win the national championship last season, you understand that yes, Aberdeen was primarily brought in to change the way Kentucky competes.
“Denzel Aberdeen, everybody at Florida knows this too — beautiful, just a pure competitive spirit, which kind of our whole team feels they are embodying right now. His love of competition. The fearlessness about how he competes, how he’s willing to step on the floor and he’s not afraid of taking an L, but he’s going to fight you to the death to win everything,” Pope said. “If we put him out there to play Tiddlywinks or a game of Uno, I think our guys would lose their mind watching him compete.”
It helps that Aberdeen is a fine player. He guards at a high level and is a better 3-point shooter than he ever gets credit for, shooting 35% on relatively high volume over the last 3 seasons as a role player at Florida.
But just as Florida brought in Alijah Martin, a fiery competitor with Final Four experience, to inject added fire to last year’s Florida roster, Pope plucked Aberdeen from the hated Gators to do the same in Lexington.
Aberdeen gets it, too.
“I definitely watched guys like Alijah Martin, Will Richard, Walter Clayton Jr., who I played with last year. I took a lot of stuff from that. They are great leaders. They are great competitors. There’s a reason they are in the league right now. I’m so happy for them. But yeah, I definitely watched them, watched their leadership, and I wanted to bring that over here to Kentucky. I wanted to show my new teammates the ropes, and just how hard you have to play to win the national championship, and that playing that hard starts in practice. You try to win championship 9 every day in practice.”
Denzel Aberdeen is a different type of competitor. Kentucky might be different this year, too.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
