24d ago basketball Edit

King's Court: The best transfer addition for every SEC team

Drew King • PowerMizzou

Basketball Writer

Dennis Gates got his fifth Infinity Stone on Sunday, picking up South Carolina big man Josh Gray to round out this year’s transfer class. I wrote about what Gray brings for the Tigers’ here.

Coming into the offseason, I said that Mizzou’s biggest needs out of the transfer portal were an experienced point guard, strength and size in the frontcourt and some depth that could bring a scoring punch. Gates said he thought that if they could get 85% of what they were looking for out of the portal, he expects to have a great team. And with Gray, Iowa transfer Tony Perkins, Northern Kentucky transfer Marques Warrick, Tennessee Martin transfer Jacob Crews and Duke transfer Mark Mitchell all now in the fold, I’d say just about all the boxes got checked.

There are still a handful of big names out there that haven’t found a landing spot yet. But with Mizzou now done in the portal, I wanted to look at some of the newcomers making their way to the conference. Here are what I view as the best transfer additions for each SEC team so far:

Alabama: Clifford Omoruyi (Rutgers, 10.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 0.5 apg)

Omoruyi was one of the top bigs to hit the portal this offseason. The 6-foot-11 center ranked third in the country averaging 2.9 blocks per game. He’s also an elite rebounder, pulling down 9.4% of available offensive boards and 23.8% of available defensive rebounds. With graduate senior forward Grant Nelson returning to the Crimson Tide, Alabama will have a fairly sizeable frontcourt. The team now patiently waits to see if leading scorer Mark Sears keeps his name in the NBA Draft or returns for another year.

Arkansas: Johnell Davis (FAU, 18.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.9 apg)

Davis was a crucial piece of the Owls team that reached the Final Four in 2023 and will now be the focal point for head coach John Calipari’s new team. The Gary, Ind. native is a true three-level scorer, shooting 48.3% from the field, 41.4% from deep and 85.7% from the free throw line. Davis’ presence on the roster gives the Razorbacks a high floor despite starting over from scratch.

Auburn: J.P. Pegues (Furman, 18.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.8 apg)

After spending last season with freshman Aden Holloway at point guard, the Tigers brought in a much more experienced player to run the position in Pegues. The Nashville, Tenn. native is a volume scorer who helped Furman upset Virginia in the first round of the 2023 NCAA tournament. With Johni Broome back at Auburn for one last ride, the Tigers will need Pegues’ production to translate in the SEC.

Florida: Sam Alexis (Chattanooga, 10.8 ppg, 9.1 rpg, 1.8 apg)

With Tyrese Samuel graduating from the Gators, Alexis should be a plug-and-play forward at Florida. Despite only being a sophomore last season, Alexis ranked in the top 100 nationally in both offensive and defensive rebounding rates and was a prolific shot-blocker, coming up with 2.1 rejections per game. Alexis will need to find his role in the rotation with fellow bigs Micah Handlogten and Alex Condon

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