SEC Basketball: Alabama, Auburn leads way-too-early power rankings for 2024-25 season

6. Kentucky Wildcats

It's a new era of Kentucky Basketball. After the Wildcats stumbled to 14-seed Oakland in the Round of 64 -- marking the fifth straight year Kentucky failed to make it out of the first weekend -- John Calipari and BBN faithful reached a breaking point. Now Calipari is off to Arkansas.

After a few swings and misses for some big-time names, including Scott Drew and Dan Hurley, Kentucky would land with former Utah Valley, BYU head coach Mark Pope, a Kentucky alum who helped propel the Wildcats to a national championship in 1996.

Although Pope’s hire at Kentucky was met with reasonable skepticism due to the lack of NCAA Tournament success (the same reason Kentucky fans outside Calipari), this Kentucky group boasts a similar mold to Pope’s BYU teams: shooting, shooting, and more shooting. But don’t look past the Wildcat’s interior defense, either.

In this transfer-heavy class, Mark Pope has landed the likes of Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), Kerr Kriisa (Arizona, West Virginia), sharpshooter Koby Brea (Dayton), Lamont Butler Jr. (San Diego State), Brandon Garrison (Oklahoma State) and Jaxon Robinson (BYU), among others.

On paper, there might not be a more talented team in the SEC. The pieces will need to fit and it can take some time to mesh together. Yet, the talent is there, making the Wildcats one of the better teams in the SEC next season.