Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook ranks 3 SEC teams in preseason top 15

SEC men’s basketball may be several weeks away, but a preseason poll has three league teams inside the top 15 in the country, led by Tennessee at No. 5 in the country.

That’s according to the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook Preseason Top 25 and Chris Dortch, who ranked the Vols behind No. 1 Gonzaga, No. 2 Virginia, No. 3 Baylor and No. 4 Virginia.

Kentucky checked in at No. 13, while Alabama was pegged at No. 14.

Last month, Barnes discussed with reporters how this may be the most athletic team since he has been at Tennessee.

“I think that would be a fair assessment,” Barnes said. “I think we have a chance to be a terrific defensive team when we get everybody to buy into it. I think we’re going to have the ability to do a lot of different things defensively. Some things that we haven’t done in the past. Offensively, with what we’ve done and where we are, we can be better there too obviously. This group is athletic.”

Here is the full ranking:

1. Gonzaga
2. Villanova
3. Baylor
4. Virginia
5. Tennessee
6. Kansas
7. Wisconsin
8. Iowa
9. Duke
10. Texas Tech
11. Illinois
12. Oregon
13. Kentucky
14. Alabama
15. Creighton
16. UCLA
17. North Carolina
18. Florida State
19. Michigan State
20. West Virginia
21. Ohio State
22. Richmond
23. Texas
24. Arizona State
25. Houston

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.