Inside the SEC: Picking the Best Team, Coach, Freshman and Player So Far

Best coach — Mark Byington, Vanderbilt

We could simply refer you to the above two paragraphs, but we’ll take you back farther than the last two months. In the spring, Byington wanted his staff to find more size and some ball-hawking guards, particularly Miles, who they pursued three times and finally landed after he committed to and left Virginia and Texas A&M. Give Byington credit for knowing what he needed, finding it, and then putting the pieces together into a cohesive unit.

Best player — Labaron Philon, Alabama

When Philon, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, bypassed the 2025 NBA Draft and returned to Alabama, coach Nate Oats was thrilled because he knew he had a potential SEC Player of the Year on his hands. If that award were handed out today, Philon would be the unanimous winner. He’s leading the league in scoring (21.9 points per game), but he’s no black hole; he’s also fourth in assists (5.6 per game). Philon is a tough cover because he’s shooting 42.2 percent from three but also 62.5 percent from two. If one were to nitpick, if Philon could improve his free-throw shooting percentage (72.4) a tad, there’s no question he’ll go on to lead the league in scoring, because he’s going to live at the line.

Best freshman — Darius Acuff, Jr., Arkansas

In the first month of the season, this might have gone to Tennessee’s Nate Ament, who won three of the first of the first four SEC Freshman of the Week awards. But Acuff, a 6-foot-2 point guard, has won the last three, and, as it says in Arkansas’ latest press notes, is “on a heater.” In his last seven games, Acuff scored 21 points (with 5 assists) against Duke, 17 (10 assists) against Louisville, 17 (8 assists), against Fresno State, 20 (8 assists) against Texas Tech, 23 (10 assists) against Queens, 27 (8 assists) against Houston and 17 (6 assists) against James Madison. He’s the only Arkansas freshman since 1992-93 to hand out 10 assists against an Associated Press Top 25 team. Acuff is second in the league in assists (80) and assists per game (6.2) and he’s also fourth in scoring (18.8).

Best transfer — Keyshawn Hall, Auburn

The 6-foot-7 250-pound senior is third in the SEC in scoring (20.1) and tied for fifth in rebounding (8.0). Last season while playing for UCF, Hall was the Big 12’s top scorer, and he’s shown no let-up. Hall, who has also played for UNLV and George Mason in his Rand McNally career, is shooting 47.8 percent from the field, 41.5 percent from three and a personal-best 87.9 percent from the free-throw line. Tennessee’s Ja’Kobi Gillespie — a third-team All-Big Ten pick last season at Maryland — is a close runner-up here; he leads the Vols in scoring (17.8) and assists (5.6) and has racked up a 32-point game against Rutgers and five others of 20 or more, including 22 in an upset of Houston and 23 against Louisville.

Teams with the biggest upside — Alabama (10-3), Florida (9-4), Kentucky (9-4) and Tennessee (10-3)

OK, it seems like a cop-out that we couldn’t pick just one, but let’s consider each of them individually. All have played difficult schedules, but the Crimson Tide’s has been particularly brutal — St. John’s, Purdue, Illinois, Gonzaga, Maryland, Clemson and Arizona were on the dance card, and Alabama lost to the Boilermakers, Zags, and Wildcats. But the Tide has endured a couple of nagging injuries and when healthy has as much firepower — and the willingness to use it — as any team in the country.

Defending national champion Florida didn’t duck anyone either, playing and losing to Arizona, Duke and UConn. The puzzler among the Gators’ four losses was an 84-80 neutral-site setback to TCU. Florida has arguably the best front line in the country, but its three-point shooting has been poor (28.2 percent, 230^th nationally) and transfer guards Boogie Fland and particularly, Xaivian Lee, who last played at Princeton, have had trouble filling in for the Gators’ dynamic and NBA-bound 2024-25 backcourt of Walton Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard. Lee has shown signs of life — in his last five games, he’s scored 19 points against UConn, 24 against George Washington, 18 against Saint Francis, 19 against Colgate and 12 against Dartmouth. True, most of those teams would fit into the schedule he played last season at Princeton, but if he’s regained his confidence, the Gators will be a difficult team to beat.

Kentucky has caught abundant grief from its notoriously demanding fans, but injury problems, most notably to point guard Jaland Lowe, a 6-2 junior transfer from Pitt, haven’t helped against a schedule that has included Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina and Gonzaga. The Wildcats lost those four games, but more recently have beaten Indiana and St. John’s. And the big news is that 6-foot-9, 225-pound sophomore forward Jayden Quaintance has finally returned after suffering a knee injury last season at Arizona State. In his first two games, and obviously still on a minutes limitation (12.5 per game), Quaintance has averaged 7.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.0 blocked shots. He’s capable of more, which is why NBA scouts were so eager to see him back in action.

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes has better talent than he did the last two years, when he led both teams to the Elite Eight. There’s much more depth, more low-post scoring ability, better shooting across the board. The only difference is the Vols don’t have a Dalton Knecht or Chaz Lanier, transfers who came in and could single-handedly win games. But Ament could be that guy. Gillespie has already taken over several games. Ament just needs to get tougher and more assertive, and no one knows that better than he does. He’s coachable and has put in hours of solo practice time since arriving last June. Gillespie is learning how hard it is to play point guard for Barnes but is picking up the nuances of the job. And the Vols have some length and tonnage in the paint, more than Barnes has had in his 11 seasons in Knoxville.

Will experience matter?

In an era where entire rosters can be built in a three-week span in the spring, Arkansas (10-3) is an anomaly. The Razorbacks of coach John Calipari return 59.3 percent of their minutes from last year, by far the most in the conference. Still, and this is another sign of the times, Arkansas is 136^th in KenPom’s experience metric with an average of 1.6 years of Division-I experience per man. Yes, Arkansas brought back D.J. Wagner, Karter Knox, Billy Richmond III and Trevon Brazile from a 2025 Sweet Sixteen team, but it is also leaning heavily on freshman guards Acuff and Meleek Thomas, its first- and second-leading scorers.

In nonconference play, the Hogs beat the teams they were supposed to and lost to Michigan State on the road and to Duke and Houston at neutral sites. There’s no shame in that, but now we’ll get to see if previous experience in the conference wars will make a difference. It helps that Arkansas landed post player Nick Pringle in the portal — he’s an SEC graybeard, having already played for Alabama and South Carolina. Pringle has started 12 times and is the Hogs’ second-leading rebounder. The schedule gives Arkansas a chance to get off to a good start — its three toughest match-ups in the first half of an 18-game grind are at home, against Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Kentucky. 

The jury is still out on — Missouri

The Tigers are 10-3, but their nonconference schedule was Sisters of the Poor weak — 347^th in the country according to KenPom. And the Tigers have lost to all three good teams they have played (Notre Dame, Kansas and Illinois). The latter, to Illinois in the annual Braggin’ Rights game in St. Louis, put a capper on the nonconference season no coach wants — the Illini won 91-48. The 43-point margin of victory was Illinois’ largest in the series that began in 1932. 

Surprise teams — Georgia and LSU

Both finished the nonconference season 12-1. LSU’s only loss was to Texas Tech, and the Bulldogs lost to Clemson in overtime. Neither team’s schedule strength was overwhelming, but LSU showed that this year, it can win without Jalen Reed — who in 2024-25 was lost with an ACL tear, and this season went down after six games with an Achilles tendon injury — and Georgia has size, shooting and depth. The Bulldogs lead the nation in scoring average (99.8).

Looking for a sleeper?

Why not Oklahoma, which is 10-3, though like Georgia and LSU, didn’t play a ridiculous nonconference schedule. But the Sooners bagged wins over Marquette and Wake Forest. Also like the Bulldogs and Tigers, the Sooners can score (121.8 points per 100 possessions, 20^th in KenPom rankings). And then there’s this: On Sunday, Oklahoma announced it had signed 6-foot-11 Russian import Kirill Elatontsev, a 23-year-old veteran of his native country’s top pro league, where he earned “Best Young Player” honors two consecutive years.

Three months ago, Sooners coach Porter Moser saw a social media post that said Elatontsev was ruled eligible by the NCAA. “Then we did our due diligence, watched him and started recruiting him, did that whole process,” Moser said after the Sooners’ 93-69 victory over Mississippi Valley State on Dec. 29. Elatontsev played and contributed four points, four rebounds and an assist in 18 minutes.

Elatontsev has just one semester of eligibility, but he speaks fluent English and has a high basketball IQ, so he should be able to pick up Moser’s system quickly. He’ll provide needed depth in the frontcourt. The Sooners’ backcourt is already in the capable hands of Miami transfer Nigel Pack — who’s having a solid year, averaging 16.3 points and shooting 49.7 percent from the field, 47.5 percent from three and 88.2 percent from the free-throw line — and Saint Joseph’s transfer Zzayvier Brown, who’s averaging 15.4 points and leading the team in assists and steals.

Ranking the Top 10 Freshmen in Men’s College Hoops

Jan 2: Duke’s Cameron Boozer, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson lead a loaded freshman class

What’s wrong with? — Mississippi State and Ole Miss

Both schools from the Magnolia State were expected to be better — the Bulldogs are 8-5 with losses to New Mexico and San Francisco and the Rebels are 8-5 after a tough stretch from Nov. 25 to Dec. 6 during which they lost to Iowa, Utah, Miami and St. John’s by a combined 20 points. They also got drilled by NC State. Both teams are having trouble scoring, and worse, both have played porous defense for a couple of defensive-minded coaches. The Bulldogs and Rebels earned NCAA Tournament berths last year, but they’ll have to get busy to do so again in 2026.

Games to watch

Kentucky at Alabama on Jan. 3. (ESPN). Crimson Tide fans are hoping Philon will be back for this game. He missed Alabama’s final nonconference game against Yale on Dec. 29 after suffering a thigh/groin injury against Kennesaw State on Dec. 21. The injury isn’t serious, and Oats thinks Philon will be ready for the Wildcats, but isn’t 100 percent about that. This game could come down to what team makes the most threes. Alabama is No. 2 in the nation in the number of three-pointers to field goals inside the arc it takes (53.6 percent) and No. 11 in percentage of points from threes (41.5). Kentucky is 118^th (31.0) in the latter stat.

Tennessee at Arkansas on Jan. 3 (ESPN2). 

The Volunteers were flying high after beating Houston in the Players Eras tournament to get to 7-0, but then hit the skids, losing a 12-point second-half lead to Kansas and losing to Syracuse and Illinois. They averaged 15 turnovers and shot a combined 16 of 33 (48.4 percent) from the free-throw line in the latter two games. They’ve since regrouped, beating Louisville, Gardner-Webb and South Carolina State by an average of 31 points, but turnovers and pedestrian free-throw shooting have persisted. They’ll have to value the ball and cash in at the line to win at Arkansas, one of the toughest places to play in the country.

Auburn at Georgia on Jan. 3 (SEC Network). 

This game provides the dual benefit of showing us if first-year Auburn coach Steven Pearl can win a tough league road game just like his dad, former Tiger coach Bruce Pearl did. And we’ll also see if the high-scoring Bulldogs can rough up an SEC team the way they did their nonconference victims in the season’s first two months.