These 15 players are the SEC Basketball stars you have to keep an eye on when the 2020-21 season commences this November.
SEC Basketball doesn’t always get its due out of the state of Kentucky, but it remains a perennial upper echelon conference. That will remain the same in the fall when the 2020-21 season tips off.
Last season was dominated by the Wildcats, who finished the regular season with a three-game advantage over the Auburn Tigers and LSU Tigers. We’ll never know if that dominance would’ve carried over to the postseason, as the coronavirus pandemic scuttled the SEC Tournament after the first round and resulted in the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament.
John Calipari’s squad had plenty of stars, but a new season means a new batch of high-caliber players will rise to the top of the SEC. The conference’s player of the year (voted upon by the coaches), Kentucky’s Immanuel Quickley, is off to the NBA. So is the conference’s freshman of the year, Georgia Bulldogs guard Anthony Edwards. Of the players who were voted to the All-SEC First Team by the Associated Press, none are expected to be back in college next season.
There’s a serious void that needs to be filled at the top of the conference in 2020-21 and plenty of candidates who are capable of filling it. Whether it be a top player from last season who has retained their college eligibility, a transfer, a breakout player, or a star freshman, there will inevitably be new faces who will be the toast of the SEC a year from now.
Next up are the 15 best players in the conference entering the 2020-21 season. But first …
Honorable Mentions: G Scotty Pippen Jr. (Vanderbilt), G Xavier Pinson (Mizzou), F Jeremiah Tilmon (Mizzou), G A.J. Lawson (South Carolina), G Devontae Shuler (Ole Miss), G Noah Locke (Florida), F Jordan Bruner (Alabama), F Darius Days (LSU), G Keon Johnson (Tennessee)