BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Arkansas men’s basketball coach John Calipari was far from the only coach to express confidence in the SEC at the league media day Tuesday.
And for good reason.
The SEC has nine teams ranked in the preseason AP Top 25, the most of any conference. It is rated as the country’s top league in KenPom’s Net Rating. Seven of 247Sports’ top 20 transfer classes are in the SEC.
Texas and Oklahoma are expected to add more depth and talent to a conference that has all 16 of its members in KenPom’s preseason top 100 — one of only three with that distinction.
But it wasn’t always like this. Gone of the days of few NCAA Tournament bids and empty arenas. The conference tournament is no longer jokingly referred to as “The Kentucky Invitational.”
The conference, at least on paper, is better than it’s ever been. Coach-speak and cliches aside, there’s real optimism surrounding the conference.
“This league has gotten ridiculously hard,” Calipari said. “I can remember being in this league and we got two or three teams in the NCAA Tournament. Now all of the sudden it’s going to be 10 or 11 teams in the NCAA Tournament.”
Georgia coach Mike White had the same sentiment — “I think this will be a big breakthrough year to potentially have double-digit teams in.”
The league’s increasing focus on men’s basketball has been evident throughout recent years. Alabama was the No. 1 overall NCAA Tournament seed in 2022 and advanced to the Final Four a year later. Auburn, a program that was once at the bottom, has consistently been in and around the top 10. Tennessee was in the Elite Eight, and eight total SEC members were in last season’s NCAA Tournament.
“I think it speaks to the level of coaching going on early, the level of athletes we’ve been able to get in the SEC,” Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said.
That depth gives even the league’s perceived lower-level members a chance at the postseason.
Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington won 32 games at James Madison last season. Even with that, the Dukes likely would not have been selected for the Big Dance had they not won the Sun Belt Tournament.
“When you’re at the mid-major level, you always have the complaint that we don’t have potential for Quad 1 wins, especially at home. The SEC is, every game is Quad 1 or Quad 2,” Byington said. “I don’t think there’s going to be such thing as a bad loss. There’s going to be potential for good wins, and you have to stack them together and get as many as you can, but it’s a great problem to have.”
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes, who is alongside Calipari and Auburn’s Bruce Pearl for the longest-tenured coaches in the league, said he’s watched the SEC grow — be that in his recent years with the Volunteers or dating back to his time at Texas.
“I think we can really say that we’ve got the best basketball league in the country,” Barnes said. Oklahoma’s Porter Moser said the same.
Calipari is of the same mindset. Now in Fayetteville after 15 years at Kentucky, he’s been part of that growth.
He built a roster to compete in the SEC. Four transfers — Kentucky’s Adou Thiero, DJ Wagner and Zvonimir Ivisic and Tennessee’s Jonas Aidoo — and returner Trevon Brazile have SEC experience. Calipari and his staff have coached in the conference for years.
“I know the challenges, I’ve been in this league.” Calipari said. “I know how hard it is, but this is something that I’m really excited about.”
