Basketball Wildcats Favored To Win SEC Title

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Kentucky was predicted to win the 2022 Southeastern Conference men’s basketball championship in voting by a select panel of both SEC and national media members.

Vanderbilt sophomore guard Scotty Pippen Jr. was the choice of the media for SEC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year. Alabama’s Jaden Shackelford & Jahvon Quinerly; Arkansas’ JD Notae; Kentucky’s Keion Brooks Jr., Kellan Grady & Sahvir Wheeler; and Tennessee’s Kennedy Chandler also received votes in the Player of the Year voting.

Pippen, Shackelford, Quinerly and Wheeler were each All-SEC First Team selections in addition to Florida’s Colin Castleton and Mississippi State’s Iverson Molinar. Brooks and Grady were second team picks along with Arkansas’ Davonte Davis, Auburn’s Jabari Smith, Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe and LSU’s Darius Days.

Points were compiled on a 14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Each media member also voted for a five-player All-SEC Team. Ties were not broken.

The 2021-22 campaign begins November 9, with conference play set to begin December 29. The 2022 SEC Tournament will be March 9-13 at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay, Fla.

First Team All-SEC

Jaden Shackelford – Alabama

Jahvon Quinerly – Alabama

Colin Castleton – Florida

Sahvir Wheeler – Kentucky

Iverson Molinar – Mississippi State

Scotty Pippen Jr. – Vanderbilt

Second Team All-SEC

Davonte Davis – Arkansas

Jabari Smith – Auburn

Keion Brooks Jr. – Kentucky

Kellan Grady – Kentucky

Oscar Tshiebwe – Kentucky

Darius Days – LSU

SEC Player of the Year

Scotty Pippen Jr. – Vanderbilt

Preseason Media Poll

1. Kentucky

2. Alabama

3. Arkansas

4. Tennessee

5. Auburn

6. LSU

7. Florida

8. Mississippi State

9. Ole Miss

10. Missouri

11. South Carolina

12. Texas A&M

13. Vanderbilt

14. Georgia