My preseason hoops All-SEC ballot

I know a lot of you prefer that football talk and debate not get interrupted by another sport, but basketball practice officially started on Friday.

Across much of the nation, and at Kentucky, they held Midnight Madness ceremonies last night. At the 11 other SEC schools, the basketball players went to IHOP.

In any event, I was one of the media members asked to vote for this year’s SEC preseason awards, which are set to be announced next week. Here’s how my ballot went:

SEC CHAMPION: Florida

ORDER OF FINISH - EASTERN DIVISION

1. Florida
2. Kentucky
3. Vanderbilt
4. Georgia
5. Tennessee
6. South Carolina

ORDER OF FINISH - WESTERN DIVISION

1. Mississippi State
2. Arkansas
3. Alabama
4. Ole Miss
5. LSU
6. Auburn

ALL-SEC TEAM (Can be any number of positions)

Trey Thompkins, F, Georgia
Kenny Boynton, G, Florida
Chris Warren, G, Ole Miss
Jeffery Taylor, F, Vanderbilt
JaMychael Green, F, Alabama

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Thompkins

My predicted order of finish differs from a preview I did for The State in May, after the NBA early-entry deadline had passed. A few things have changed since then: Tennessee’s NCAA trouble, which could be a distraction, Kentucky’s Enes Kanter is a question mark and Mississippi State got Dee Bost back.

Plus, I just did a bit of re-thinking, and dropped Tennessee because of the looming NCAA news. (And no, it’s not because I’m covering Georgia now and giving the Dogs some home-cooking.)

The East is a crapshoot, especially three through five. Florida and Kentucky may be a notch above, while you could put Georgia, Vanderbilt and Tennessee in any order. Five teams from the division could make the NCAAs. Well four, if Tennessee gets a postseason ban.

The West was also hard to predict, but for different reasons. Other than Mississippi State, it’s pretty mediocre, with a chance to be dreadful. There are some good players – Alabama’s Green, Ole Miss’ Warren and Arkansas’ Marshawn Powell among them. But there isn’t much depth.

Thompkins was a relatively easy pick as preseason player of the year, though I thought about Taylor too.

Last year I made John Wall my preseason SEC player of the year, and was excoriated for voting for a guy who hadn’t played in college yet. So what do I know.

I almost put Travis Leslie on the first team, and there’s a good chance he’ll end up there. Honestly, other than Thompkins and Taylor, the rest of the first team is debatable.

Feel free to call me an idiot for anything on that ballot. Or any other assorted things.