SEC Basketball: Early grades for each teams 2023 offseason moves

Auburn Tigers – Grade: C-

Are the Tigers a team who may miss the tournament entirely?  It’s May so that would be a huge conclusion to draw but the first part of the offseason has not been kind to Auburn. Coach Bruce Pearl is going to have his work cut out for him with this team. Auburn was close to getting an F but any time you can add Denver Jones,  a 20-point-per-game scorer in the portal, that will bump the ranking up as well. The Tigers were also able to secure a late commitment from JUCO star Chad Baker-Mazara to bump the ranking up a little bit to a C-.

It isn’t the additions but the fact that Auburn lost a lot of young talent this year to the transfer portal Yohan Traore, Chance Westry, and Babatunde Akingbola were some of the talented young players they lost to the transfer portal. All of those players were guys who could have contributed a lot for the Tigers. Allen Flanigan who was one of my favorite players to watch in the game has entered the transfer portal as well. The roster is still going to be good and even though I mentioned it in the first sentence I would be surprised if they were bad, but I do have questions as to how these new additions are going to fit in.

Florida Gators – Grade: A

Head coach Todd Golden was one of the best mid-major coaches in the game, then he took the job at Florida and year one was not what anyone wanted but if the offseason heading into year two is foreshadowing for the season then the Gators might be good. Florida added a lot they added two fantastic guards and two of the better big men in the portal who are both great at different things. The Gators have a dynamic roster and while they did lose Kowacie Reeves they more than made up for it in the transfer portal.

Micah Handlogton is a walking double-double. Is an elite center in the game and will replace Colin Castleton nicely. Tyrese Samuel is a great defender and a tough kid who is skilled around the rim. Walter Clayton Jr. came from Iona and was coached by Rick Pitino. The guard is one of those players that everyone is going to be talking about come March about how he changed the fortunes of the Florida team and they got him from the transfer portal. EJ Jarvis went to Yale and has played on a lot of winning teams and is extremely smart. I love the makeup of these transfers and what they are going to bring to Florida. They are going to be led by the guards again but coach Golden has built this roster that doesn’t have too many weak spots at least on paper.