A little more than a month from now, the ballots will be counted and an SEC men’s basketball preseason player of the year will be named.
There’s a good chance that player will be Kentucky’s Otega Oweh.
The leading scorer from Mark Pope’s first UK team is back for his senior year, and an exodus of recent stars from the league should make for a wide-open race for top player honors during the 2025-26 season. That’ll get sorted out once the games begin.
When selecting the players most deserving of preseason honors, however, past success is paramount. Oweh doesn’t have much company in that conversation.
All five of the first-team all-SEC selections from last season — led by 2025 player of the year Johni Broome — are gone. And Oweh will be one of only two second-team picks returning for another run in the conference.
There will still be plenty of talent all around the SEC this season, for sure, but Oweh’s status as an established standout on what is expected to be one of the league’s best teamsputs him right in the thick of the preseason player of the year debate this fall.
All that other talent in the league will ensure that earning the actual SEC player of the year award in March won’t be an easy task. And the past is an indication that predicting who the league’s best performer will be is quite difficult, too.
No SEC preseason player of the year pick has gone on to win the actual award since Tennessee’s Grant Williams in the 2018-19 season, and Georgia’s Yante Maten, who achieved the same thing the previous year, is the only other player to pull off that feat since UK’s Ron Mercer did it way back in 1997.
That’s not a great track record for reporters covering the league; their latest SEC preseason player of the year selection will be revealed during the conference’s media day festivities the week of Oct. 13.
If Oweh is indeed the pick, here’s an early look at the players who could block him from earning the real honor in March.
SOMEONE AT FLORIDA
Apologies for starting this list with a bit of a cop out, but Todd Golden’s roster is stacked, and the reigning NCAA champions are the preseason favorites to win the league in 2026.
Team success often leads to individual accolades.
Over the past 10 seasons, someone from the regular-season champion has won at least a share of SEC player of the year honors eight times. The only exceptions in that span were UK’s Oscar Tshiebwe (the national player of the year in 2021-22) and Tennessee’s Grant Williams in 2018-19. In those cases, UK and Tennessee finished second in the SEC standings.
So, if Golden’s Gators win the league title this season, who’s most likely to earn the top individual trophy?
Alex Condon is the safest choice. He averaged 10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game as a sophomore last season before pulling out of the NBA draft — where he was projected as a possible first-rounder — to return to Florida.
An ESPN rundown of possible award winners from each team in its preseason Top 25 rankings earlier this week pegged Thomas Haugh as the most likely Gator to end up with postseason hardware. He averaged 9.8 points and 6.1 rebounds as a sophomore last season, ending things off with some loud games in the NCAA Tournament. A high-upside pick, for sure.
And speaking of potential for a breakout, don’t forget about Boogie Fland. The former UK recruit, who followed John Calipari to Arkansas, looked like a budding star as a freshman before an injury basically ended his season in mid-January. He entered the NBA draft (expected) and the transfer portal (unexpected), then pulled out of the draft (also unexpected) before transferring within the league to Florida.
The Gators — No. 2 nationally in ESPN’s latest rankings — will be picked to win the SEC, and it shouldn’t be a surprise if any of these three players ends up with the conference’s top individual honor. Throw in transfer guard Xaivian Lee and returning big man Rueben Chinyelu, and Golden might just have the best starting five in the country to begin the season.
