DESTIN, Fla. — Within the wake of a historic males’s basketball season that noticed the league land a file 14 groups within the NCAA match and Florida win the nationwide championship, the SEC is trying to repeat historical past.
One fascinating headwind for the SEC and different high conferences for 2025-26 was talked about on the league conferences this week, and it is a looming issue hovering over the following males’s basketball season.
When requested concerning the SEC’s quest to duplicate historical past, first-year Texas coach Sean Miller identified that the newest crop within the NCAA switch portal primarily has “25 % of the pie lacking” by way of high quality veteran gamers due to the disappearance of gamers with an additional 12 months of eligibility from the COVID-19 eligibility guidelines.
He mentioned that as “wild” as everybody thought-about this males’s basketball portal to arrange 2025-26, there was a lacking notion.
“One factor that is undoubtedly going to vary, and I do not assume it is talked so much about in basketball, is the no COVID 12 months,” Miller mentioned. “In our case, we had a lot of gamers in my three years at Xavier that had been exercising their fifth 12 months. It is a 12 months that does not exist proper now.”
He mentioned this can doubtless find yourself hurting the ability conferences with essentially the most to spend, as there’s merely much less veteran, high-end expertise accessible.
“I feel simply that alone, taking that one layer of expertise, the place you may persuade an all-SEC participant to return for a fifth 12 months, and now that that is not in play, I do not assume our league will stay as previous,” Miller mentioned. “So I feel simply with that alone, I do not know if 14 of 16 (bids), I hope, however I can actually see the impact of that transferring ahead.
“Even within the Closing 4, whenever you appeared arduous intently at Auburn and Florida, two exceptional rosters, a part of their greatness was that that they had this present of a mix of expertise, however their older gamers, they had been an enormous a part of their success.”
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey informed ESPN in March that the SEC’s season was a “unicorn.” He is on the lookout for one other, as he mentioned the aim for the league is to get 16 males’s basketball groups within the NCAA match.
“So that is what I count on,” Sankey mentioned. “Is it a failure that we solely had 14? I believed it was fairly cool. Can we try this once more? You stroll within the room of coaches … we acquired a heck of a roster of males’s basketball coaches and I can say that about lots of sports activities. And whenever you look again 10 years, (it is a) very totally different dynamic so far as that roster of coaches. So I feel there’s an opportunity to compete at a excessive degree.”
Florida has fortified its roster with the return of star ahead Alex Condon, and needs to be within the dialog to repeat.
Gators coach Todd Golden mentioned he is uncertain if the league can get 14 bids once more, however he is assured the SEC is primed for a run of general dominance.
“I feel the league shall be excellent once more, this coming 12 months, I do,” he mentioned. “The groups have recruited effectively, and we are the premier basketball convention proper now. I feel it is fairly clear. So will it’s as elite because it was this previous 12 months? I am undecided … however I do assume we’ve got an opportunity to have one other nice 12 months.”