Oklahoma Gets No Favors in Loaded SEC Preseason Men's Basketball Poll

The SEC media looked at Oklahoma men’s basketball and basically said, show us first.

The Sooners were picked 12th in the league’s preseason predicted order of finish, a result that is going to feel low to a fan base ready to believe in the roster and probably about right to voters still waiting on proof under Porter Moser.

Oklahoma is coming off a 21-win season that included a run to the College Basketball Crown title game, so this was not a program being treated like dead weight. It was a program being told the SEC is still too deep to hand out the benefit of the doubt.

That part is hard to argue.

Florida was picked to repeat as league champion, with Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Alabama filling out the top five. The conference still looks like the strongest in the country on paper, with eight teams showing up in ESPN’s latest Way-Too-Early Top 25.

In a league that crowded, somebody has to land in the middle and lower half even with decent returning production. Oklahoma got stuck in that group.

The individual honors made the same point. Florida’s Thomas Haugh was named preseason SEC Player of the Year and headlined a first team that also included teammate Rueben Chinyelu, Tennessee’s Juke Harris, Vanderbilt’s Tyler Tanner, and Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard. The second team went to Alex Condon, Amari Allen, Milan Momcilovic, Jordan Smith Jr., and Matas Vokietaitis. Billy Richmond, PJ Haggerty, Malachi Moreno, Tahaad Pettiford, and David Punch made the third team.

No Sooners made the cut. That is the part that should bother people in Norman more than the 12th-place team ranking. If voters do not see a clear all-league name yet, they are still waiting for somebody to force the issue.

Oklahoma does have a foundation to work from. The Sooners return two starters in Xzayvier Brown and Derrion Reid. Brown averaged 15.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists last season and looked like a guard who can create the kind of nightly floor Oklahoma needs in a league this physical. Reid scored in double figures 27 times and put up 11.7 points and 4.4 rebounds a game.

That is not nothing. It is just not the full answer by itself, especially in a conference where the top of the poll is stacked with more established names and deeper résumés.

This is where the season gets interesting. A 12th-place preseason projection is not a death sentence. It is a dare.

Oklahoma opens Nov. 2 against East Texas A&M at Lloyd Noble Center with a roster that has drawn more optimism in some model circles than it has from the media panel. That gap is useful if the Sooners handle it the right way.

If Brown takes another step, if the new pieces land, and if Moser’s team looks more physical and consistent than it has in past SEC seasons, the preseason order will not matter by January. If the same old issues show up again, 12th is going to look generous.

That is the cleanest read on Monday’s poll. The media did not bury Oklahoma. It also did not go out of its way to protect the Sooners’ feelings.

In a league this strong, respect still has to be earned the hard way. Oklahoma’s chance to start doing that arrives soon enough.

SEC Preseason Predicted Order of Finish

1. Florida

2. Texas

3. Arkansas

4. Tennessee

5. Alabama

6. Vanderbilt

7. Kentucky

8. Missouri

9. Texas A&M

10. Auburn

11. Georgia

12. Oklahoma

13. Ole Miss

14. LSU

15. Mississippi State

16. South Carolina

SEC Preseason Player of the Year

Thomas Haugh – Florida

Preseason First Team All-SEC

Rueben Chinyelu – Florida

Juke Harris – Tennessee

Thomas Haugh – Florida

Josh Hubbard – Mississippi State

Tyler Tanner – Vanderbilt

Preseason Second Team All-SEC

Amari Allen – Alabama

Alex Condon – Florida

Milan Momcilovic – Kentucky

Jordan Smith Jr. – Arkansas

Matas Vokietaitis – Texas

Preseason Third Team All-SEC

PJ Haggerty – Texas A&M

Malachi Moreno – Kentucky

Tahaad Pettiford – Auburn

David Punch – Texas

Billy Richmond III – Arkansas