SEC Basketball: Ranking of top 25 players entering 2023-24 season

The next college basketball season is less than two weeks away, signaling the beginning of several months of fantastic play. After all of the months and years that these players spent honing their craft, they get their chances to prove their potential.

These coaches and their staffs spend countless hours not only building these rosters but putting their athletes in position for success, tasks that certainly get harder as the years go on. Fortunately, we’re really close to the next season, the rosters are mostly set, and these programs and players are ready to show their worth, especially in a power conference league like the SEC.

Today’s attention is on some of those big names, as we’re identifying and ranking the 25 best players in SEC Basketball for the upcoming season. A league that’s been significantly more intense in recent years will continue to excite. Which players, old or new to the conference, can stand out in the SEC this season?

25. Dalton Knecht – Tennessee

After a pair of seasons at the junior college level, Knecht was at Northern Colorado for the last two years, emerging as a dynamic backcourt presence for the Bears. After solid figures as a junior, he averaged 20.2 points and 7.2 rebounds while shooting 38% from outside the arc last year, albeit a starring role on a somewhat dreadful Northern Colorado squad. He still earned Second Team All-Big Sky honors.

Last year, Knecht showed that he was talented on the offensive end, and he now joins a Tennessee team that lacked some of that firepower last year. While his defense will need to improve to fit into Rick Barnes’ system, the hope is that Knecht will add significant fireworks on the offensive end; not necessarily 20 points a night, but something more than they had last year.