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Kentucky picked to win SEC, Phil Pressey tabbed preseason POY

NCAA Basketball Tournament - Norfolk St v Missouri

OMAHA, NE - MARCH 16: Phil Pressey #1 of the Missouri Tigers drives in the second half against Chris McEachin #35 of the Norfolk State Spartans during the second round of the 2012 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at CenturyLink Center on March 16, 2012 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Eric Francis/Getty Images)

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Ah, the glorious days that are the preseason, where everyone fawns over media and coaches polls. Preseason all-conference teams and players of the year.

Today, the Southeastern Conference released their preseason media poll. And in the biggest non-shocker of the day, Kentucky was tabbed to repeat as regular season champions.

The Wildcats received 17 of a possible 24 first-place votes, with Florida coming in second with five. Missouri and Tennessee received one each.

In probably the biggest shocker of the day (kinda), Mizzou’s Phil Pressey was tabbed as the conference’s Preseason Player of the Year. He was joined on the all-conference team by Arkansas’ B.J. Young, Florida’s Kenny Boynton, Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel and Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes. None of which are surprising.

The six-player second team featured Marshawn Powell from Arkansas, Florida’s Patric Young, Alex Poythress of Kentucky, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope of Georgia and Missouri’s Michael Dixon, Jr.

I’m still not understanding why there’s no love for Ole Miss forward Murphy Holloway. The senior forward averaged 11.2 points and nine rebounds last season for an NIT team that returns a ton of talent and could make an NCAA Tournament run. He’s a bonafide second-teamer.

It also speaks to Mizzou’s team that they have two returning players that played last season, and both made the all-conference team. Laurence Bowers returns, but missed all of last season with a torn ACL.

Other that that, this is a blatant representation of the look of the SEC in 2011-12. Besides Caldwell-Pope, who is probably playing in his final college season, all selected for awards and honors are players on teams at the of the conference. Alabama is a wild card, but for the most part, it’s a top-heavy league.

Texas A&M has to deal with the loss of Khris Middleton. Darrin Horn left the the program empty at South Carolina. Mississippi State is depleted from transfers after Rick Stansbury “retired”. Vanderbilt was blasted by graduation and John Jenkins going pro. Auburn is still on the uptick, but Tony Barbee still has a long way to go and LSU is incredibly young in Johnny Jones’ first season.

John Calipari’s bunch are holding court again, and it’s going to be fun to look at these picks in March and see how it played out.

David Harten is the editor of The Backboard Chronicles. You can follow him on Twitter at @David_Harten.