The deadline for college hoops prospects to enter the NBA Draft has come and gone, and a few SEC programs received some great news as it pertains to roster building for next season. Notably, Otega Oweh of Kentucky, Tahaad Pettiford of Auburn and Labaron Philon of Alabama made the decisions to run it back for one more season in college basketball.
Roster-building is not complete quite yet, but teams around the conference are getting closer and closer to locking in their squads for the 2025-26 campaign. After the NBA Draft withdrawal deadline passed at the end of May, ESPN revealed their rankings for the top 25 teams in the sport, which included 6 SEC programs.
Here’s where each SEC inclusion ranked on ESPN’s list:
Florida Gators, No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats, No. 9 Arkansas Razorbacks, No. 11 Auburn Tigers, No. 14 Alabama Crimson Tide, No. 17 Tennessee Volunteers, No. 23This is a strong ranking, but don’t sleep on the likes of Oklahoma and Texas, either. Both loaded up in the portal – especially the Sooners, who are set to have a strong backcourt led by former St. Joseph’s guard Xzayvier Brown and former Miami Hurricane Nijel Pack.
As for the teams on the list, there are no surprises here. Florida is once again set to be a premier program with its entire frontcourt back from last season: Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, Reuben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten. Walter Clayton Jr’ may be gone, but Todd Golden’s crew added to the backcourt with high-octane Princeton transfer Xavian Lee and former Arkansas guard Boogie Fland.
Auburn is an interesting team to watch for as well. The Tigers are the 4th highest-rated SEC team on ESPN’s list, but did very well in the portal by adding former UCF forward KeyShawn Hall, former MSU center KeyShawn Murphy and high-flying D2 transfer Elyjah Freeman. Pettiford’s decision to return will pay massive dividends, as will the addition of surefire guard Kevin Overton out of Texas Tech. The roster is certainly going to look different with Chad Baker-Mazara and Johni Broome out of the picture, but Bruce Pearl and Co. have as much firepower in their projected starting 5 as any team in the country.
ESPN includes 6 SEC Hoops programs in post-NBA Draft withdrawal Top 25 Saturday Down South.
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