SEC basketball schedule and AP poll recently released

Basketball season is around the corner

By Andrew Spanel@AndrewSpanel Nov 10, 2020, 3:31pm EST

SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament - Second Round

Oh hey.

In case you missed it (because there was A LOT going on this past weekend) the SEC released the men’s basketball conference schedule for all 14 teams a few days ago.

In addition to that, the preseason AP top 25 was revealed on Monday. Gonzaga came it at No. 1 for the first time to start a season followed by Baylor, Villanova, Virginia, Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Duke, and finally Kentucky at No. 10. Preseason media-favorite Tennessee was the only other SEC basketball team ranked at No. 12. Extending beyond the top 25, LSU had the most votes of any unranked team and is the de-facto No. 26 while Florida is No. 28 with Alabama right behind them at No. 29. Auburn also received a handful of votes.

While the start of the college basketball season was slightly delayed to November 25 this year, conference play appears to remain right on schedule with tip-off set for December 29 and running through March 3. Each team will play a total of 18 conference games.

The weekend of March 6 is an open date in case any games need to be made up. That said, this doesn’t seem to leave much margin for error on first glance with all the games that need to be played and coronavirus cases currently rising across the country and in the SEC at the moment. Hopefully, if things work out, the SEC Tournament will be held on March 10-14 in Nashville once again.

Some notable games in the SEC this season:

Dec. 29- South Carolina at Kentucky

Frank Martin returns an experienced side that some have as a dark horse in the league against John Calipari and a restocked group of McDonald’s All-Americans and timely transfers that will need to come together right out of the gate.

Jan. 2- Alabama at Tennessee

How good is Alabama? They lost their leading scorer from last season but maintain their 3-point shooting threat. Tennessee will be a big early test.

Jan. 9 and Feb. 27- Florida vs Kentucky

The Gators and Wildcats face off twice this season in what should be some very competitive games. Florida has a talented team with lots of guys returning including leading scorer Keyontae Johnson in addition to some guards ready to step up following the transfer of Andrew Nembhard.

Jan. 19 and Feb. 10- Tennessee vs Florida

Tennessee has been getting some love despite going 9-9 in conference play last season. That said, last season was a rebuilding year as John Fulkerson and Yves Pons began to emerge, and now they get help in a recruiting class that was one of the best in the nation and includes two five-star prospects. Suddenly, Tennessee is loaded going into this year.

Jan. 23- LSU at Kentucky

In a crowded field last year, LSU played well enough to finish tied for second in the SEC at 12-6. They return three double-digit scorers including Trendon Watford who looks to take his game to the next level, and the recruiting class looks really promising ahead of this season.

Feb. 6 and Feb. 20- Tennessee vs Kentucky

Possibly the two best teams in the SEC face off twice in a two-week span.

Feb. 13- Tennessee at LSU

Sandwiched in between games against Kentucky, the Volunteers have to travel to Baton Rouge.

Each team’s schedule is as follows: