I don’t keep up with offseason news nearly to the level that a few of you do. However, I would like to see a rundown and evaluation of how all the other teams did now that all the pieces have moved. Can a couple or a few of you please take a stab at it?
Would someone plz evaluate how the other SEC teams did in the offseason?
- Thread starter WildcatsAndBourbon_rivals395121
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I don’t think our old friend Cal improved his team even though dumb Arkansas fans think they’re a title contender.
Last year’s Pig squad was within a loss to South Carolina from not making the tournament and lost Thiero, Fland and Ivisic. They’ve added a couple of Freshmen and 2 players from the portal that played on horrible teams last season
Arkansas will be the most overrated team in the preseason, this could be Cal’s last year as I expect a complete implode.
The Razorbacks are a .500 team at best with no shot at the postseason. We’ll start hearing pig sooey, wait until 2027, around February.
Last year’s Pig squad was within a loss to South Carolina from not making the tournament and lost Thiero, Fland and Ivisic. They’ve added a couple of Freshmen and 2 players from the portal that played on horrible teams last season
Arkansas will be the most overrated team in the preseason, this could be Cal’s last year as I expect a complete implode.
The Razorbacks are a .500 team at best with no shot at the postseason. We’ll start hearing pig sooey, wait until 2027, around February.
Florida should be good again. Kept their entire frontcourt in tact and added Fland and Lee.
Cal had a pretty good finish, even if he barely made the tournament. Both valid points, IMO. I think his seat continues to slowly warm up, unless the chicken money turns into a game changer (which honestly could help or hurt Cal). Cal will get at least four years there.
Would love for this to be true, but they’ll make the tourney and be in the top 25 most of the season.
Unfortunately this isn’t what Arkansas fans were hoping for. They were dreaming of Final 4s and a title….which we know isn’t going to happen.
Cal gives them relevance which honestly sets them up better for what they do after Cal.
Which will probably be here faster than any of them expect.
Ah they're pretty much guaranteeing an sec championship and a final four..
Vols won't make the Final Four.... that's the only thing im sure of.
To me you have tiers on paper for this coming season(in no particular order):
Florida, UK, Arkansas- 1-3 seed types
Bama, UT, Auburn- 3-6 seed types
A&M, Ole Miss, Missouri, OU, Texas, Miss St- 6-11 seed types
For quick hitters on the non Ark/Florida teams:
Bama- Holloway, Philon, and Wrightsell back for a dynamic backcourt
UT- Gillespie from Maryland transferring in at PG and Nate Ament a top freshman on the wing/4
Auburn- Return Pettiford, grab Hall from UCF who put up huge stats, and got Murphy from Miss St(the kinda big guy that we left open from 3)
A&M-Pop Isaacs, Mackenzie from IU, and Rylan Griffen headlined their new roster
Ole Miss-Travis Perry! Malik Dia is back as a good big and well traveled AJ Storr joins the fold
Mizzou- Mark Mitchell is back with a bunch of role players
OU-Xzayvier Brown a great transfer from Saint Joes, Nijel Pack, and the talented Derrick Reid from Bama lead them
Texas- Travon Mark, Simeon Wilcher(SJU), Dailyn Swain(Xavier)
Miss St-Hubbard is back and Bulldogs fans can probably book their tickets for an 8/9 seed game already in the tournament
Florida, UK, Arkansas- 1-3 seed types
Bama, UT, Auburn- 3-6 seed types
A&M, Ole Miss, Missouri, OU, Texas, Miss St- 6-11 seed types
For quick hitters on the non Ark/Florida teams:
Bama- Holloway, Philon, and Wrightsell back for a dynamic backcourt
UT- Gillespie from Maryland transferring in at PG and Nate Ament a top freshman on the wing/4
Auburn- Return Pettiford, grab Hall from UCF who put up huge stats, and got Murphy from Miss St(the kinda big guy that we left open from 3)
A&M-Pop Isaacs, Mackenzie from IU, and Rylan Griffen headlined their new roster
Ole Miss-Travis Perry! Malik Dia is back as a good big and well traveled AJ Storr joins the fold
Mizzou- Mark Mitchell is back with a bunch of role players
OU-Xzayvier Brown a great transfer from Saint Joes, Nijel Pack, and the talented Derrick Reid from Bama lead them
Texas- Travon Mark, Simeon Wilcher(SJU), Dailyn Swain(Xavier)
Miss St-Hubbard is back and Bulldogs fans can probably book their tickets for an 8/9 seed game already in the tournament
On paper, Arkansas looks pretty strong.
Return Wagner, Knox, Brazile, and Richmond from a Sweet Sixteen team. That’s three starters back.
Added two decent bigs from the portal in Ewin (F$U) and Pringle (SCAR).
Added two 5-star guards in Acuff and Thomas. Acuff is a top 5-10 guy.
Also add a couple more Freshmen who really aren’t being counted on to do much (Seeley and Rtail).
G Acuff/Wagner
G Wagner/Thomas
F Knox/Richmond
F Brazile/Pringle
F Ewin/Pringle
I suspect that will be their 8-man rotation by the end of the year.
As usual with a Cal team, the short bench means injuries could be an issue.
Aside from potential injuries, coaching is the only thing that will hold this team back. If Cal doesn’t get in their way, and they stay healthy, they should make a pretty deep run.
That frontcourt will keep UF in the SEC race, but replacing their entire backcourt will be tough.
And going from the hunter to the hunted is tough. And repeating almost never happens unless you return pretty much your entire team.
And teams almost always come back down to earth after a superstar wills them to a title like Clayton did and then leaves.
Can’t remember a team losing their superstar from a title team and then repeating. Not since UCLA in the 70’s.
I’ve seen a few fail to repeat with just about everyone back a few times. Georgetown in 85. UNLV in 91. UNC in 93. Arkansas in 95. Michigan St. in 01.
The pressure to repeat seems to weigh on players. That and adjusting to constantly having targets on their backs.
Tough to repeat.
UF will probably finish top 4 in the SEC, though.
I think UF will end up being a Sweet Sixteen to Elite Eight team.
We shall see if the Golden magic is real or if he is overhyped.
I think he is a really good coach, but I want to see him do it without Clayton. Sometimes great players make good coaches look great.
I wish I could believe this, but I don't. I see Arkansas as a top 3 SEC team w/ a floor of tournament team and ceiling of Elite 8/final 4
Arkansas is favored to land Russian forward Egor Rhyzov too, I’d suspect he would be Brazile’s primary backup
This is about what I’m thinking. When Cal went there I felt like he basically had no passion left for basketball, but as a ceiling might have two Elite Eights worth of F*** Y** passion in him just to spite everyone who was sick of his schtick. So far he’s looking to be just a little shy of that.
Alabama had a lot of attrition and scrambled a bit to compensate for it. They certainly brought in decent people, but not of high enough caliber to make them look comparable to what they were last year, not on paper anyway. They probably belong at the top of the SEC’s second tier, below Florida and Kentucky (i.e. where Arkansas’s being put but I think Bama has a more legitimate claim to it once you subtract the cult of personality stuff attached to Cal). Much like Pope’s first class, the guys they brought in do have strengths that made them shine at lesser programs where they came from, even if they weren’t superstars even there. So if things come together right for them they could be a legitimate dark horse just like we turned out to be.
Correct, their first 6 or 7 are still pretty good and experienced enough to get them to the tournament. Getting Knox back was a big help. Their slow start last year made everybody forget they had talent that was just underperforming until late. They will have similar talent this year but it all comes down to how Acuff fits in and performs. If he's dynamic they can be really good. If he's a selfish mess then the other way around.
They also lost Clayton Jr., Richard, Martin, and Aberdeen .... top 4 backcourt guys and their best 3 overall players. That's not nothing.
This team finally got healthy and had to have everything go wrong to a team, TT, that had to have everything wrong the next weekend to loose to the eventual champs. We shall see.
They also lost Jonas Aidoo and as you mentioned they lost Thiero who was their best overall playmaker and finisher, and Big Z who was arguably their best perimeter shooter all year and stretched their offense a ton.
I'm not a fan of Pringle, I think Meleek Thomas is overrated, and I think Acuff is a ball-stopper who doesn't really make anyone around him better.
Wagner will be improved again, Knox/Richmond will be also, but I agree with you, I truly just don't understand the hype again.
Auburn has Pearl, who has been getting the job done for a long time for them, but he has one rotation guy back (Pettiford), so a brand new team replacing an army of Seniors. They should be no better than the middle of the pack in the SEC, but with Pearl at the helm, they will probably finish in the top third of the league.
Florida lost all that talent, but will still finish in the top 4 in the league because of their dominant frontcourt and an incredible coach.
They are still a top 10 team nationally.
I expect them to be good, I’m just not seeing them being Final Four/Championship good without Clayton and company leading the way.
But I could be wrong.
Big Z and Thiero weren’t even playing when Arkansas was at their best toward the end of the year though. Aidoo also wasn’t a factor much of the year but he did turn it on toward the end. Pringle isn’t near the shooter Big Z was but he’s better at nearly everything else.
Aidoo and Nelly Davis had really been the one to help right the ship for them once boogie went out. Both gone in addition to the 3 that were listed. I don’t see acuff or their bigs from the portal as better players than what they lost.
I feel like vandy could take a step forward. Ole miss too. Every road game will be a war. I would t be surprised if we dropped a conference game at home. The sec is stacked and they will realize it by February
I mean Big Z played more than 20+ minutes in 14 straight games to close the regular season- didn't play as much in the big dance but that seemed more matchup related than anything. He also was 2nd in the SEC in BPG, and was top-5 in America in block percentage (block volume based on minutes played).
Also there's zero doubt that Thiero was your best player last year.
Jonas Aidoo was misused by Cal the majority of the year (same with Davis) but was the sole reason you beat Kansas (you lose by double digits to a BAD Kansas team without him) with 22 points on nearly 60% shooting. Played 34 minutes in the loss to TexasTech.
This combined with Fland, these are big losses.
Idk, we'll see, but this roster coming up just SCREAMS a repeat of last year, which was objectively a disaster.
Doubt anyone was going to replace Clayton but Fland/Lee are going to be solid. I would expect the frontcourt guys to improve. I think Condon and Haugh have another level to their games.
I’m curious to see how they handle their rotation. The three spot in particular.
If they put their best five out there, it’s got to be Haugh at the 3. But they really played well last season with the three guards.
Might be better playing Lee, Fland, and Brown together in the backcourt with Condon and Chenyelu and bring Haugh and Handlogten off the bench at the 4 and 5.
Haugh creates some nice mismatches at the 3, with his size, but I think having Brown on the floor with Lee and Fland with his shooting stroke, really spreads the floor and puts a lot of pressure on the defense.
I’m sure we will see both scenarios a lot.
Get used to saying these things, eventually you guys will realize the issue isn't the fact the other team just happened to get hot. Eventually you'll see what the real problem is.
Also, that's not how you spell 'lose'.
Here’s a link to a google sheet that has the current sec rosters as well as the other big leagues.
Gives you a sense of who’s back, new, etc. FWIW Tennessee has some missing spots, could be a down year for the vols.
Crazy Josh Hubbard is back and only a junior.
2025-2026 college basketball rosters
Gives you a sense of who’s back, new, etc. FWIW Tennessee has some missing spots, could be a down year for the vols.
Crazy Josh Hubbard is back and only a junior.
2025-2026 college basketball rosters
I disagree. While I don't particularly like Cal as a coach, Arkansas will have a good squad. They return Wagner, Knox, Richmond, and Brazile. Added two dynamic freshmen in Acuff and Meek. Plus, the portal additions of Pringle and Ewin provide depth in their frontcourt.
They're easily a tournament team and probably finish top 6 of the conference.
There it is. Cal always leaves fans with just enough hope for the next year.
It will always end that way with Cal. Rinse, repeat....