AUSTIN — Texas men’s basketball earned the No. 7 spot in the SEC’s Preseason Poll, per a media release Monday.
Texas, ranked No. 19 nationwide in the AP Poll, had an up-and-down 2023-24 season before falling to Tennessee in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Volunteers are in the conference’s top three, behind Alabama and Auburn, respectively.
SEC Preseason Poll
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. Tennessee
4. Arkansas
5. Texas A&M
6. Florida
7. Texas
8. Kentucky
9. Ole Miss
10. Mississippi State
11. South Carolina
12. Georgia
13. Missouri
14. LSU
15. Oklahoma
16. Vanderbilt
Alabama has the Preseason Player of the Year in graduate guard Mark Sears. No Longhorns were named to either the first or the second All-SEC teams, but Arkansas transfer Tramon Mark made it to the third team.
Mark, a graduate guard out of Dickinson, Texas, started his career at Houston before transferring to Arkansas his junior year. In the past four years, Mark has played in 107 career games, recording career totals of 1,200 points (11.2 points per game) and 424 rebounds (4.0 rebounds per game) in 2,881 minutes (26.9 minutes per game) and converted 42.4-percent (406 of 957) from the floor and 79.6 percent (289 of 363) from the free throw line, per Texas Athletics.
Preseason All-SEC First Team
Mark Sears (Alabama), Johni Broome (Auburn), Walter Clayton Jr. (Florida), Zakai Zeigler (Tennessee), Wade Taylor IV (Texas A&M)
Preseason All-SEC Second Team
Grant Nelson (Alabama), Jonas Aidoo (Arkansas), Johnell Davis (Arkansas), Matthew Murrell (Ole Miss), Josh Hubbard (Mississippi State)
Preseason All-SEC Third Team
Chad Baker-Mazara (Auburn), Alex Condon (Florida), Jaxson Robinson (Kentucky), Collin Murray-Boyles (South Carolina), Tramon Mark (TEXAS)
With this years No. 19 position, the Longhorns have made it to AP preseason poll for the fifth consecutive year, its highest since being No. 5 in 2021-22.
Texas has also advanced to at least the Round of 32 the past three seasons, and the Longhorns are only one of eight teams to do so.
