College Basketball is back and if you haven’t heard, the SEC is king. No, really. With national championship contender Alabama, 9 ranked teams to begin the season, and a roster of coaches that includes 2 current and at least 2 future Hall of Famers, the SEC has a legitimate claim at being the nation’s best basketball conference in 2024-25. “A decade ago, Billy Donovan and I had to go around the country preaching the gospel of the SEC,” John Calipari, one of the SEC’s current Hall of Fame coaches and now the head coach at Arkansas, told SDS at SEC Media Days. “We’d go and promise there was more to the league than Kentucky and Florida. All the sudden, we are the ‘it’ league in basketball, too. You look at the investment. The facilities. The passion of the fan bases. The great coaches. The home sites in this league. Ridiculous. Coaches and players all at the top of their game. It’s incredible.” The SEC has never finished No. 1 among power conferences in the KenPom era. This season could change that. “It’s the best league in America. Period. You play a team picked to finish 12th and it’s a dog fight. Nowhere else is that the case,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard told SDS last month. “It’s exceptional to compete in that environment.” To become the best league, the SEC had to collect the best players. From Wooden Award candidates like Johni Broome of Auburn and Mark Sears of Alabama to Final Four veterans like Lamont Butler of Kentucky and Florida’s Alijah Martin, the talent in the SEC is magnificent. Almost every team has a star, and in a league where picking 5 great players used to be a genuine challenge, it is now hard to limit the list to 15 great ones. Nevertheless, SDS did its best. Here is our list of the top 15 players in the SEC ahead of the 2024-25 season. 15. Dre Davis, Guard (Ole Miss) Davis is a perfect fit for a Chris Beard team: big (6-6), tough, physical, switchable, and a kid who plays with relentless energy. After powering Seton Hall to the NIT title, Davis transferred to Ole Miss, where he’ll play 4 different positions this season while offering the type of defense and rebounding last year’s team lacked. He can score too, of course, averaging 15 points per game while becoming 1 of just 6 Big East players since 2010-11 to average 15 or more points, shoot 50% or better from the field, and 80% or better from the free-throw line in conference play. A potential breakout star who could rank higher on this list if the Rebels make good on a preseason Top 25 ranking. 14. Asa Newell, Forward (Georgia) One of 4 players to receive SEC Player of the Year votes in the preseason media poll, Newell is the lone freshman on our preseason list, edging other elite recruits like Tre Johnson of Texas and Boogie Fland of Arkansas. At 6-10 with the quickness of a guard, Newell is a menace as a help defender and rim protector. He will challenge for SEC All-Defensive Team honors immediately. The question is what he’ll offer on offense. He’s outstanding inside already, as long as he’s leveraging his side and using his left hand. To truly become All-American good, he’ll need to hit jump shots without space. For now, Mike White will likely pick and pop him some, content to allow him to grow as a stationary catch and shoot player when he ventures outside the paint. 13. Josh Hubbard, Guard (Mississippi State) One of the most fun players to watch in the country, Hubbard is the SEC player who most epitomizes “Shooters Shoot.” Hubbard averaged 17 points and shot 35% from beyond the arc as a freshman for Chris Jans a season ago. Hubbard’s 478 shots in 27 minutes per game ranked 11th in the country. At least he knows why he’s on the floor, am I right? https://twitter.com/TruMaroonNation/status/1850244075619782672 Miss State has more help in 2024-25, so I don’t think Hubbard takes 34% of Miss State’s shots again as he did last season. But when he gets hot, as he did when he dropped 34 against Kentucky, he’s a game-changing talent. 12. Alijah Martin, Guard (Florida) Desperate to fix a defense that finished a disappointing 94th in KenPom defensive efficiency last season, Todd Golden and his staff went into the portal and inked one of the best on-ball defenders in America in Alijah Martin. A fiery competitor who plays with immense physicality on both ends, Martin was the Most Outstanding Player in the East Regional in Florida Atlantic’s Final Four run in 2023, and he dropped 26 points in a heartbreaking 1-point loss to San Diego State in the national semifinals. 26 points on 13 shots for Alijah Martin in a heartbreaking Final Four loss. The chiseled 6'2 FAU sophomore showed off his scoring instincts and dynamic shot-making prowess all NCAA tournament long as well as his toughness and defensive versatility. pic.twitter.com/M3iHgaoXOM