NCAA Basketball: Ranking the 16 matchups for 2024 ACC/SEC Challenge

4. Kentucky at Clemson

It’s a new era at Kentucky, with former player Mark Pope replacing John Calipari as head coach. He has a completely new roster filled with intriguing pieces, led by BYU transfer Jaxson Robinson and starting guards, Otega Oweh and Kerr Kriisa. It’s unknown how good this team is and they’ll have a rare true non-con road game at Clemson, coming off an Elite 8 appearance of its own.

The Tigers won’t have star big man PJ Hall but do return starting guard Chase Hunter for another year. There’s plenty of frontcourt depth with Ian Schieffelin back, joined by transfers Viktor Lakhin and Myles Foster. They’ll need BC transfer Jaeden Zackery to have a big impact to remain in the NCAA Tournament mix but this is a big opportunity for the Tigers program to have a big home win against a vulnerable Wildcat’ program.

3. Arkansas at Miami

Calipari isn’t at Kentucky but instead at Arkansas, bringing with him several former Kentucky players/commits, along with former AAC Co-POY guard Johnell Davis and Tennessee center transfer, Jonas Aidoo. There’s not a lot of depth and they’ll need the underclassmen to have an impact but there’s plenty of overall talent to work with.

The same goes for Miami, even without Norchad Omier and Wooga Poplar around. Nijel Pack and Matthew Cleveland are back and joined by a good class of transfers, including 21 ppg scoring guard Jalen Blackmon, as well as Lynn Kidd and Brandon Johnson inside. Plus, they may have the best true freshman playing in this game in 5-star guard prospect, Jalil Bethea.