Florida picked to win SEC, Kentucky's Oweh named Preseason Player of the Year

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The defending national champion Florida Gators have been chosen as the media’s pick to win the 2026 Southeastern Conference, and Kentucky senior guard Otega Oweh was selected as the Preseason Player of the Year.

Voters in the preseason poll were a select panel of both SEC and national media members.

Kentucky was selected to finish second, followed by Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Missouri and Mississippi in the top half of the conference. They were followed by Texas, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Georgia, LSU and South Carolina.

It marks the third time since the preseason SEC poll began in 1989 that Florida has been selected as the preseason favorite. The Gators also received that honor in 2006-07 and 2010-11, and both times went on to win the SEC championship.

Oweh averaged 16.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game last season for the Wildcats.

The first-team All-SEC team includes Oweh, Florida's Alex Condon, Mississippi State's Josh Hubbard, Auburn's Taheed Pettiford and Alabama's Labaron Philon Jr.

Florida’s Thomas Haugh and Boogie Fland, Tennessee's Nate Ament and Ja'Kobi Gillespie, and Missouri's Mark Mitchell received second-team honors. The third team consisted of Mississippi's Malik Dia, Alabama's Aden Holloway, Arkansas' Karter Knox and D.J. Wagner, and Kentucky's Jaland Low.

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