Hear ye, hear ye, or whatever.
This is King’s Court, a weekly college basketball column that’ll mostly focus on the Missouri Tigers.
I figured the SEC preseason media poll would be a good place to start off. I was asked to vote in it this year and sent my ballot in on Friday. The results of the poll came out on Tuesday and Mizzou was picked to finish in ninth place.
I loathe making predictions because I hate being wrong. I just spent a whole month researching every team in the conference but there will be someone who spent five minutes on their ballot who ends up being more right than me.
So while I can’t promise you my picks will be 100% accurate, I can guarantee you that a lot of thought went into these — some might say too much! Here was my predicted order of finish for the conference, breaking the teams down into four tiers.
Tier 1: I hardly have any questions
1. Texas A&M
2. Tennessee
When I showed my ballot to @GabeD, his first question was, “Is A&M going to be that good?” And my answer is an emphatic “yes.”
Continuity and experience are more valuable than talent. Squads with players who have wink-wink chemistry already built in, who know how to execute a scheme and understand what it takes to get through a college basketball season are really tough to beat. And Texas A&M, to me, will benefit from their continuity and experience more than any other school in the SEC.
The Aggies went 15-3 in league play last season. They play tough defense, they crash the boards, they get to the free throw line more often than every other high-major school in the country. And most importantly, they bring back eight returners, four of them starters.
Ten of TAMU’s 16 players on the roster are upperclassmen. Buzz Williams will have to find a replacement for former starter Dexter Dennis, who’s currently playing for the Dallas Mavericks, but has a junior in Manny Obeseki who’s been waiting in the wings for his opportunity. Williams also brought in a pair of mid-major transfers in Jace Carter from UIC and Eli Lawrence from Middle Tennessee State who, on paper, seem to fit exactly with what the Aggies like to do — this year’s group is going to be deeper than last year’s.
That’s not to say that this team doesn’t have talent, either. I voted for Wade Taylor IV as the SEC Preseason Player of the Year. He was in the top 100 in assist rate, steal rate, fouls drawn per 40 minutes and free throw percentage. He’s also an above-average shooter from distance. I’m not sure what else you could want from a point guard.
I have zero doubts Texas A&M is going to be good this season. It’s fair to wonder if they’ve got the firepower offensively to win the conference, but I think they’re elite everywhere else.
I have similar feelings about the Volunteers, who also bring back eight returners, including four starters, and were picked to win the league by the media at large. Santiago Vescovi and Josiah-Jordan James might as well be the main characters of “The Last of Us” — the zombie apocalypse has come and gone and they’re still here.
I’ve got Tennessee a tick lower than the Aggies for two reasons, the first obviously being that starting point guard Zakai Zeigler is coming off a torn ACL. So much of his game was predicated on his speed and I’m weary that he won’t be as quick, at least not right away. It’s easier to stop the 5-foot-9 guy when you can actually keep up with him.
The other reason is that I’m not as in love with the Vols’ transfers. Dalton Knecht averaged over 20 points a game but he did it for a Northern Colorado team that only won 12 games. Jordan Gainey was the leading scorer for a USC Upstate team that went .500. How will they fare without the ball in their hands as often and going against tougher competition? How much of Tennessee’s defensive identity will Rick Barnes be sacrificing by playing those guys big minutes? I think there’s a little bit of a wider range of variance with them than there is with TAMU’s newcomers.
Still, these two teams are the safest picks to finish in the top four of the SEC. It’ll take somebody becoming a star out of nowhere, like Brandon Miller did for Alabama last season, to top Texas A&M and Tennessee.
Tier 2: I have a couple of questions
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