SEC 2021-22 basketball predictions – Can Kentucky scratch its seven-year Final Four itch?

As the countdown continues to the start of the 2021-22 college basketball season on Nov. 9, an ESPN panel of experts is making predictions for all of the nation’s top leagues. So far we’ve taken a look at Gonzaga and the best teams from the mid-major conferences (Atlantic 10, C-USA, Ivy, MAC, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, SoCon, Sun Belt and WCC), followed by Memphis, Houston and the AAC, the Villanova-dominated Big East, UCLA and the resurgent Pac-12 Conference and a Big 12 with a second straight national title in its sights. We continue our series with the SEC, where 10th-ranked Kentucky continues to dominate the headlines, even on the heels of an unthinkable 9-16 season.

John Calipari and the Wildcats have drastically retooled the roster, with an eye toward reclaiming SEC supremacy and making what has recently become an elusive trip to the third weekend of the NCAA tournament. But they’ll have competition near the top of the SEC — the reigning conference champ Alabama Crimson Tide, a well-stocked Arkansas Razorbacks squad that comes off an Elite Eight run, and mega-talented Tennessee Volunteers and Auburn Tigers squads are among the programs that are unlikely to go quietly in the 2021-2022 SEC title race. Beneath those squads, 2021 NCAA tournament teams including the LSU Tigers, Florida Gators and Missouri Tigers still linger in an increasingly strong top-to-bottom conference.

With that in mind, ESPN’s writing team of Myron Medcalf, Jeff Borzello and John Gasaway sized up all the top teams and storylines in the league, including their predictions (which wildly differ in some cases) for where the SEC’s 14 current teams will finish.

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SEC 2021-22 superlatives

Player of the Year

Medcalf: Jahvon Quinerly, Alabama
Borzello: Jahvon Quinerly, Alabama
Gasaway: Scotty Pippen Jr., Vanderbilt

Newcomer of the Year

Medcalf: Jabari Smith, Auburn
Borzello: Jabari Smith, Auburn
Gasaway: Jabari Smith, Auburn

SEC 2021-22 writer roundtable

This…