Kentucky picked to finish 4th in SEC; Two Wildcats voted Preseason All-SEC

SEC Basketball Media Day takes place tomorrow in Birmingham, and the league is tipping things off by releasing the Preseason All-SEC teams and predicted order of finish. A select panel of SEC and national media members voted two Kentucky Wildcats Preseason All-SEC and predicted that Tennessee will win the conference this season. The Cats were picked to finish fourth in the league behind the Vols, Texas A&M, and Arkansas.

Freshman Justin Edwards made the Preseason All-SEC First Team and senior Antonio Reeves the Second Team. Texas A&M’s Wade Taylor IV was voted Preseason SEC Player of the Year. Edwards is the highest-ranked member of Kentucky’s No. 1 recruiting class and is considered one of the top NBA Draft prospects in all of college basketball this season. Reeves won Co-SEC Sixth Man of the Year last season and MVP honors at the GLOBL Jam over the summer, leading Kentucky in scoring with 23.0 points per game and 4.5 made three-pointers per contest.

Check out the complete teams and poll below. Zack Geoghegan is currently on his way to Birmingham to cover SEC Basketball Media Day for us, so the content has only just begun.

SEC Men’s Basketball Preseason Media Poll

1. Tennessee
2. Texas A&M
3. Arkansas
4. Kentucky
5. Alabama
6. Auburn
7. Mississippi State
8. Florida
9. Missouri
10. Ole Miss
11. Vanderbilt
12. Georgia
13. LSU
14. South Carolina

Preseason All-SEC First Team

• Grant Nelson, Alabama
• Trevon Brazile, Arkansas
• Johni Broome, Auburn
• Justin Edwards, Kentucky
• Tolu Smith, Mississippi State
• Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee
• Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M

Preseason All-SEC Second Team

• Mark Sears, Alabama
• Davonte Davis, Arkansas
• Riley Kugel, Florida
• Antonio Reeves, Kentucky
• Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee

Preseason SEC Player of the Year: Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M

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Kentucky ranked No. 16 in Preseason AP, Coaches Polls

Yesterday, the AP and Coaches Preseason Polls were released and Kentucky is No. 16 in both. It’s the lowest AP preseason ranking of the John Calipari Era, the next closest being No. 11 to start the 2010-11 season. Five SEC teams were ranked in both polls, three ahead of Kentucky in the AP Top 25 (Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas A&M) and two in the Coaches (Tennessee, Arkansas).

In addition to the six games against ranked SEC opponents, Kentucky has non-conference games against four teams in the AP Top 25: No. 1 Kansas (Nov. 14), No. 11 Gonzaga (Feb. 10), No. 13 Miami (Nov. 28), and No. 19 North Carolina (Dec. 16). That’s quite a gauntlet.

Just 20 days until we tip this thing off for real.

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