Hat, I agree with everything in your post, but not the title. Things surely do look different now and we need Harris to be everything advertised and more, but I think its too close to call who is the favorite in the SEC. We need to catch some of these guys in game first.
Did Kentucky just get one more really nice player in Jones? Yes, they did. But we already have Tobias (a player ranked higher than Jones) coming in at the same position. Does it make Kentucky better? Surely. But I'm sure both the Florida and the Tennessee players have something to say before handing over the SEC crown to Kentucky.
PGs - Goins, Knight, Walker
SGs - Hopson, Lamb, Boynton
SFs - Tatum, Miller, Parsons
PFs - Harris, Jones, Tyus
Cs - Williams, Kanter, Macklin
I don't see any of the three schools having a superior talent advantage, and with Cal's, well, poor in game coaching strategies, in MY OPINION, (not a flame to the great UK trolls on this board eace2 the SEC is a toss up to me right now.
Kentucky had the roster of a bad NBA team last year and look how far it got them.
UK won it last year and if things look about even they are the defending champs so it still runs through Lexington.
Regardless, I think it's awfully fishy that a classically underachieving coach can have such mind blowing success on the recruiting trail so regularly without something amiss. It's not as if they're a bunch of slouches in the college game that Cal is working over.
This, with a few more points. Its not that Kentucky cemented themselves as an overall favorite, its more that neither of the three teams (regardless of Swampy's contiuous touting of UF preseason top 10 ranking) really stand out as a favorite to run roughshod over the league this season.
UK only lost 2 games in the SEC last year, but quite frankly could have lost 6 if it hadn't been for the refs bailing them out against Miss St twice, getting questionable-at-best calls against Georgia, Wall picking the ball up and running like Bo Jackson, Cousins basically molesting anyone he guards and Cousins getting every call in the book. That was a crutch we could lean on, starting 3 freshmen. Next season however, we are starting mostly all freshman again without that safety net. I don't think this team goes 14-2, but neither do I see UT or UF doing the same.