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Kentucky and Tennessee enter the 2009-10 NCAA basketball season as the front-runners in the SEC closely followed by Mississippi State. A lot of sites have State above the Vols in the pre-season rankings, however, with all of State’s recruits not having been cleared by the NCAA to play next season, I’m keeping them just behind the Vols for now.

Kentucky has made the biggest jump from last season with their much publicized nr1 2009 NCAA basketball recruiting class to go with future NBA lottery pick, Patrick Patterson. When the Wildcats and Bulldogs meet-up, fans will be able to see two of the strongest frontcourts in the nation with Kentucky’s Patterson/Orton/Cousins/Stevenson and State’s Vernado/Riek/Sidney/Osby.

2009 SEC Basketball Rankings

 

#1 2009 SEC Basketball Team – Kentucky

Coach John Calipari has done more for the Kentucky Basketball program in 4 months than most coaches do in a year! There have been a few growing pains with Coach Cal’s previous job in Memphis, however, the Wildcats are on track to compete for the SEC and NCAA titles in the 2009-10 basketball season and are ranked in the top 10 in most pre-season polls.

 

#2 2009 SEC Basketball Team – Tennessee

 

Coach Pearl brings back a lot of talent and experience for the 2009-10 NCAA basketball season. They are very capable of becoming a Top 10 team by the end of the season if Coach Pearl can get the team to work together like they were at the end of last season. The Vols will give Kentucky a run for the first place spot in the East, and should make the NCAA tournament again next season. Don’t look for Tennessee to have 13 losses again this season.

 

#3 2009 SEC Basketball Team – Mississippi St

 

State has one of their strongest basketball teams in years returning this season. If all of the talented recruiting class is eligible to play next season (Renardo Sidney primarily), then the Bulldogs will remain the favorites in the SEC West and will make the NCAA tournament.

 

#4 2009 SEC Basketball Team – Vandy

Vandy Coach Kevin Stallings returns experienced players and is bringing in shooting talent that will complement the starters nicely. Vandy is not in most pre-season basketball rankings, however it won’t take much to see the Commodores in the Top 25.

#5 2009 SEC Basketball Team – South Carolina

Downey and the rest of the South Carolina backcourt is one of the best in the SEC. The Gamecocks primary problem is being consistent enough to get their win total into the mid-25’s this season to make the NCAA tournament. With the SEC being assessed at a much higher level than last season, South Carolina may have better luck making the NCAA tournament this season.

#6 2009 SEC Basketball Team – LSU

LSU has one of the best coaches in the conference in coach Trent Johnson. The primary talent coming back for the Tigers is SF Tasmin Mitchell. The Tigers may just turn out being one of the dark horse teams in the SEC to watch in what is supposed to be a rebuilding year for the squad.

#7 2009 SEC Basketball Team – Florida

 

Gator fans are looking forward to Coach Donovan getting back to the NCAA tournament after missing it the past two years. Start PG Nick Calathes has left school for the Greek Pro league, but many believe that will help the incoming freshmen perform quicker in Coach Donovan’s system. We’ll just have to wait and see how the young Gators respond to Donovan when the season begins.

 

#8 2009 SEC Basketball Team – Ole Miss

Chris Warren is one of the best PG’s in the SEC when he’s healthy. Unfortunately, Ole Miss does not have a lot of talent in the front court and they will have to rely a lot on their guards in the 2009-10 season.

 

#9 2009 SEC Basketball Team – Arkansas

Coach John Pelphrey has had a lot of craziness in the off-season, but he does have some talent with Forston, Clarke, and Washington. If he can flesh out the starting 5, the Hogs could rise to the middle of the conference this season.

 

#10 2009 SEC Basketball Team – Alabama

Alabama has a number of upper classmen on the squad for the 2009-10 season. They’ll be joined by recruits Mitchell, Davis, and Hines who will be expected to contribute right away. They may be ranked a bit low, so don’t be surprised if the Tide rises up during the course of SEC play.

 

#11 2009 SEC Basketball Team – Auburn

The Auburn Tigers were able to scratch there way to a 9-7 record last season and wrapped up SEC play as one of the hottest teams in the conference. They lost some crucial players through from that team and will do good to stay above Georgia this season.

 

#12 2009 SEC Basketball Team – Georgia

Georgia is entering another rebuilding year. Coach Mark Fox will get them there, but it will take a few seasons to do so. Howared Thompkins is the bright spot for the Bulldogs this season, but overall will likely be a very rough one for Georgia basketball fans.

2009-10 SEC East Predictions

 

#1 – Kentucky

#2 – Tennessee

#3 – Vandy

#4 – South Carolina

#5 – Florida

#6 – Georgia

2009-10 SEC West Predictions

#1 – Mississippi State

#2 – LSU

#3 – Ole Miss

#4 – Arkansas

#5 – Alabama

#6 – Auburn

Now that the dust has settled from the 2009 NBA draft and it’s almost time for football, the following is how I hold the pre-season 2009 Big East Basketball rankings. Short previews for the top 8 teams are provided with Villanova entering as the pre-season number 1. Defending regular season and tournament champion, Louisville, comes in at number 4.

2009 Big East Basketball Rankings #1-8

 

 

#1 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Villanova

The Wildcats became the team to beat in the 2009-10 season when Scottie Reynolds pulled his name from the 2009 NBA draft. Coupled with a Top 5 2009 NCAA recruiting class led by Maalik Wayns, the Wildcats enter the season as the favorite.

 

#2 2009 Big East Basketball Team – West Virginia

West Virginia lost Alex Ruoff, but have PG Joe Mazzulla returning to go with an outstanding 2009 recruiting class. If Mazulla has problems returning at the start of the season, it could open the way for incoming freshman Dalton Pepper to get more minutes at the 2 guard early in the season. A greatly improved Devin Ebanks is back at PF and Deniz Kilicli from Turkey is expected to start at the center position. West Virginia will be in the running for the conference championship and comes in just behind Nova at Nr 2.

 

#3 2009 Big East Basketball Team – UCONN

 

Coach Calhoun lost a lot of talent from last year, but Kemba Walker will start out the season playing PG. SG Jerome Dyson will be back and will be joined by freshman Darius Smith. Freshmen Alex Oriakhi replaces Thabeet in the paint if he can beat out senior Gavin Edwards for the spot. The Huskies won’t have the depth they did last season, but enough experienced talent returns to rank them Nr. 3.

 

#4 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Louisville

Rick Pitino lost a lot with T-Will and Earl Clark departing for the NBA. The Cardinals are led by Samardo Samuels who will have to play more consistently in 2009-10 for Louisville to be near the top of the Big East again. Edgar Sosa will return at the PG position for Louisville backed up by incoming freshman Peyton Siva. Reginald Delk is eligible this season after previously being at Mississippi Sate and is expected to be the favorite to play the shooting guard position. The Cardinals performance next season is going to depend on how quickly the young players can come up to speed to play quality college basketball.

 

#5 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Syracuse

The Orangemen lost Johnny Flynn, Eric Devendorf, and Paul Harris to the pros which has left them coming in at Nr. 5 for the upcoming season. Scoop Jardine and Bradon Triche will be competing to take over the PG role for the 2009 season and Andy Rautins will likely become the SG. Wesley Johnson becomes eligible to play at the SF position this season after transferring from Iowa State and junior Rick Jackson will be back at the PF position. Syracuse enters the 2009-10 season with a lot of potential and we’ll just have to see how quick the team learns to work together.

 

#6 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Georgetown

Greg Monroe is back. He has to get more aggressive for Georgetown to have a great year. Junior Chris Wright takes over at the PG position and SG Austin Freeman will be back. The Hoyas also have freshman Hollis Thompson coming in to compete for the SF position and G-Town could make a play at the Big East championship if they click early as a team.

 

#7 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Cincinnati

 

The biggest news for Cincinnati was the signing of Lance Stephenson. If Lance is eligible to play, then I bump the Cincy up to Nr 5 in the conference. Coach Cronin also has SG Deonta Vaughn coming back who will likely move over to the PG position. Yancy Gates is back at Center for his sophomore year and Stephen Toyloy is expected to be the PF this season. Overall, 8 of the top 10 players from last season’s squad are back.

 

#8 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Pittsburgh

Pitt lost a lot with Levance Fields, Sam Young, DeJuan Blair, and Tyrell Biggs. Freshman Dante Taylor will be expected to fill in immediately at PF with juniors Gilbert Brown and Bradley Wanamaker battling it out for the SF position. Redshirt freshman Travon Woodall comes in as the favorite to start at the PG position for Pitt. The Panthers will be down a fair bit from last season overall, but still have talent that can pull some upsets in Big East action.

 

2009 Big East Basketball Rankings #9-16

 

#9 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Notre Dame

#10 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Seton Hall

#11 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Marquette

#12 2009 Big East Basketball Team – St. John’s

#13 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Providence

#14 2009 Big East Basketball Team –  South Florida

#15 2009 Big East Basketball Team –  Rutgers

#16 2009 Big East Basketball Team – Depaul

 

The Kansas Jayhawks enter the 2009-10 NCAA basketball season as the clear-cut number 1 team in the country as rated by ESPN and other major news services.  Returning just about their entire team from last season along with a top 5 NCAA recruiting class, everyone expects to see the Jayhawks in the Final Four this year. They will have some stiff competition in the Big 12 this season in Texas, Oklahoma, K-State, Missouri, and A+M though before getting to the NCAA tournament. Its hard to tell at this point how many teams will get to the tourney, but expect to see at least 5-6 Big 12 teams get the nod.

2009 Big 12 Preseason Basketball Rankings

#1 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Kansas Jayhawks
Coach Self brings star shooting guard, Xavier Henry in to compliment the starters returning from last season. If anything, his hardest problem may be getting enough PT for all of his stars during the regular season.

#2 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Texas Longhorns
The Longhorns bring back a deep team from last season, but the main question for this season appears to be if they can stay focused through Big 12 play. If they can, we could very well see Kansas get upset for the league title. Texas has a strong strength of schedule, so they should be ranked high for the majority of the season baring any sustained mental lapses. Look for big years out of Dexter Pittman, Damion James, and Avery Bradley.

#3 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Oklahoma Sooners

Oklahoma won’t be as strong as season with the Griffin’s and Austin Johnson gone. Willie Warren and Toney Crocker give them a strong base to go with the highly rated incoming recruiting class though, and the Sooners will see the NCAA tournament again this year.

#4 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Missouri Tigers

Ok, I know a little bit of a stretch here. The Tigers have lost three of their big contributors from last season in Leo Lyons, Demarrie Carrol, and Matt Lawrence, but they have JT Tiller back with the young backcourt which showed some promise last season. I’ll take Mike Anderson’s battle tested youngsters at this point of the predictions and let them prove me wrong.

#5 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Kansas State

A lot of people have K-State ranked over Missouri…a few even over Oklahoma. The Wildcats managed to squeak above .500 in Big 12 play last season, and with Jake Pullen and Denis Clemente getting it done by the end of the season, they should vie for a post season bid this year. Several transfers and other recruits coming in to K-State, that if they jell quick, the Wildcats will knock off some teams.

#6 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Oklahoma State Cowboys
Travis Ford has James Anderson and Obi Monuelo back along with Keaton Paige in the backcourt. OSU has a great recruiting class coming in as well, so Travis Ford should have them competing for a NCAA tournament bid again.

#7 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Texas A+M
A+M is led by Bryan Davis and Donald Sloan this season. They will need some work from star 6-6 guard recruit, Naji Hibbert in order to get it done this year though since he is the only 4 star prospect signed by the Aggies in their 2009 NCAA recruiting class. The other 3 star prospects will help, but its just too early to tell if A+M’s squad will have the depth to back up Davis and Sloan to go deep in the Big 12 this season.

#8 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Baylor
Baylor was able to get to the Big 12 championship game and the NIT finals. Coach Drew has lost a lot of players from last year, but he will try to leverage star recruits Nolan Dennis and Mark McGlaughin to try and get past the NIT this year. I don’t know if they’re going to have enough juice to do that though and they may be NIT bound again.

#9 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Iowa State
Iowa Sate has a lot of potential this season, however, they probably will not be deep enough to do a ton of damage in Big 12 play. Chris Colvin is expected to bring the Cylones some depth in the back court this season and star player, Craig Brackens is returning as well. They will likely pull an upset or two along the way, but it will take a lot for them to make the NCAA tournament.

#10 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Texas Tech
Pat Knight’s team will do better this year, but they are probably a year or two away from making any serious noise in the Big 12.

#11 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Nebraska Corn Huskers
Nebraska’s going to have a tough time getting anywhere near last seasons .500 mark in Big 12 play. Lots of key players gone with a not-so-deep recruiting class coming in….they may do well to stay out of last place.

#12 2009 Big 12 Preseason Team – Colorado
Just think about football season for Colorado. Basketball is not going to be their sport this season.