Mark Pope on the start of SEC play: "This is where you want to be... Let's go."

Several of the best teams in college basketball come from the Southeastern Conference. This season, the SEC is loaded from top to bottom, including 10 teams ranked in the Top 25. The SEC makes up half of the AP’s Top 10, with Tennessee and Auburn leading the way at No. 1 and 2.

Tenth-ranked Kentucky begins its SEC slate against one of the league’s best on Saturday, opening day for the conference. The Wildcats host sixth-ranked Florida in Rupp Arena in the first of many Top-10 matchups throughout the SEC in the months ahead.

When previewing that game on Thursday, Mark Pope spoke highly of the conference when he saw it both as a player in the 1990s and as he begins the difficult road ahead as a first-year SEC head coach.

“Man, it’s a great league,” Pope said in his Thursday Q&A. “It was a fun league when I was here. It wasn’t quite this dominant, but I think we had–I think most of the season, we had five, six or seven teams in the top 25. And it is unbelievable venues, it’s incredible fan bases, it gets super salty, and it’s just everything you want.

“And right now, you know this league is incredibly, incredibly special, and it’s where you want to be. I’ve said this before, but if you don’t get to play in the SEC this year, I feel sad for you because this is where you want to be. It’s where the best teams are, and the best players are. Let’s go.”

One Top 10 battle after another

Looking toward the Gators, Pope noted his first opponent’s halfcourt defense, ranked in the top-one percentile in college basketball, and Florida’s rebounding dominance.

“They got three veteran guards that just score in bunches,” Pope added, “and a phenomenal talent coming off the bench that can really hurt you there. And their bigs are just voracious, they’re relentless and physical and skilled and can shoot it.

“Listen, it’s another Top 10 battle, and you would get super excited about that, but then the next game is a Top 10 battle, the next game after that, the next game after that. It’s just this league. So, it’s going to be a great test for us to see where we are right now and the lessons we’ve learned and how we implement them.”

SEC Basketball By The Numbers Before Opening Day

• The only three undefeated college basketball teams are in the SEC (Tennessee, Florida and Oklahoma)
• 10 of the AP Top 25 teams are in the SEC, including half of the Top 10
• The SEC has twice as many ranked teams as any other conference
• SEC teams won 91.1 percent of their non-conference games (185-23)
• SEC teams are 59-19 (75.6 percent) against teams from the ACC (30-4), Big 12 (14-2), Big East (5-4) and Big Ten (10-9)
• SEC teams are 21-7 against teams ranked in the AP Top 25, including a 6-2 record against teams in the Top 10
• The SEC’s 21 regular-season, non-conference Top 25 wins are eight more than any other league has ever had in a season (@Jared Berson)
• The SEC won the ACC/SEC Challenge: 14-2
• Five SEC teams won MTEs: Auburn (Maui Invitational), Florida (ESPN Events Invitational), Oklahoma (Battle 4 Atlantis), Tennessee (Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship), and Texas (Legends Classic)
• There are 14 SEC teams in the Top 50 of the NET Rankings, and another, LSU, is No. 52.
• The SEC’s +20.04 average KenPom rating is the highest rating by a conference in over 20 years

Mark Pope previews Kentucky’s SEC opener

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.