SEC Basketball Rankings: Kentucky and Oklahoma have huge transfer hauls

Meet the top 10 newcomers to college basketball’s best conference.
Arizona v Arizona State
Arizona v Arizona State | Chris Coduto/GettyImages

The SEC had maybe the best season by an individual conference in college basketball history. After 14 NCAA tournament teams last year, plenty of the league’s best have departed, either as one of the 13 SEC players drafted, or by transferring for undoubtedly substantial NIL deals. The league’s coaches are trying to reload, so here are the top 10 SEC newcomers according to 24/7 Sports.

Jayden Quaintance (Arizona State to Kentucky)

A 6-foot-9 center with a 7-foot-3 wingspan, Jayden Quaintance transfers to Kentucky after his first year of college ball at Arizona State. He was the ninth ranked high school recruit in last year’s class, and was apparently heavily recruited by Kentucky coming out of high school. Quaintance averaged 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, and a ridiculous 2.6 blocks per game at Arizona State, but played in just 24 games as his season was cut short by a torn ACL. He only turned 18 this past offseason after being the youngest player in college basketball last season, and will be gunning for a lottery pick in next year’s NBA Draft.

Ja'Kobi Gillespie (Maryland to Tennessee)

The Greenville, Tennessee native spent his first two college seasons at Belmont before helping to turn Maryland into a Sweet 16 team last year, and now returns to his home state to play for the Volunteers. Gillespie averaged 14.7 points per game last year while shooting 40.7 percent on 3-pointers. Tennessee has developed a habit of adding a lot of scoring from the guard position through the portal, with Chaz Lanier (18.0 points per game) coming from North Florida last year and Jordan Gainey (11.6 points per game last year) coming from South Carolina Upstate the year before. Expect Gillespie to be the first option and leading scorer for Tennessee this year.

Dedan Thomas (UNLV to LSU)

Dedan Thomas is a rising junior, but reclassified so he could join the college ranks a year early. The 34th ranked recruit in the 2023 class chose UNLV, where he was a starter each of his two seasons there and averaged 14.5 points per game. This is a huge get for LSU, which was one of only two SEC teams to miss last year’s tournament. LSU’s two leading scorers last season, Cam Carter and Jordan Sears, are guards who have now graduated, so Thomas will likely be getting an even higher usage rate than he was enjoying at UNLV.

Keyshawn Hall (UCF to Auburn)

Keyshawn Hall is a 6-foot-7 wing who was an unranked prospect coming out of high school but has improved into an excellent college player during his three seasons at three schools. He started at UNLV where he played in just 18 games and didn’t start any of them, then transferred to George Mason where he averaged 16.6 points per game, and then onto UCF where he was the Big 12’s leading scorer with 18.8 points per game.

I don’t expect him to average quite as many points at Auburn since the ball will be in Tahaad Pettiford’s hands, but Hall will be a significant contributor for a team that expects to contend for a national title. He’s great at scoring at the rim, is a decent 3-point shooter at 35.4 percent last year, and is an exceptional rebounder for his position with 7.1 per game.

Xaivian Lee (Princeton to Florida)

Florida won last year’s national championship with three guards who started their careers at mid-majors in their starting lineup. They’re all gone now. Enter Xaivian Lee, who was the third leading scorer in the Ivy League last year with 16.9 points per game. That’s great, considering how much scoring Florida needs to replace, but what Florida fans should be most excited about is the passing ability. Lee had a 2.5 assist to turnover ratio last season and lob targets Alex Condon and Lee's high school teammate, Thomas Haugh, are still around.

Xzayvier Brown (Saint Joseph’s to Oklahoma)

Oklahoma, meet your Jeremiah Fears replacement. Fears may have been the seventh pick in the draft after his freshman season, but Xzayvier Brown could very well accomplish more in the college ranks during his Oklahoma tenure. Brown spent his first two college seasons at Saint Joseph’s, where he was markedly more efficient than Fears was at Oklahoma. Brown has shot 37.6 percent on 3-pointers during his college career to Fears’s 28.4 percent during his year at Oklahoma. Brown turns the ball over more than you’d want at 2.7 per game, but again, a little bit better than Fears’s average of 3.4 which was one of the worst in the country. 

Jaland Lowe (Pitt to Kentucky)

Mark Pope’s first year in Kentucky signaled a huge shift in the type of players they would be recruiting. John Calipari went after McDonald’s All-Americans who would turn pro after a year, while Pope’s first roster included seniors from mid-majors like Drexel, Dayton, Fairleigh Dickinson. Already with the addition of Jayden Quaintance, Kentucky has gotten a little younger than they were last year, but also added rising junior Jaland Lowe.

Lowe is a classic high usage, high scoring, low efficiency guard. He averaged 16.8 points last season at Pitt, but had abysmal shooting splits at 37.6 percent from the field and 26.6 percent on 3-pointers. Hopefully being on a more talented roster will allow him to choose his shots more carefully and take them under less duress.

Nijel Pack (Miami to Oklahoma)

Nijel Pack started his career at Kansas State and played for Miami the past three seasons. The 6-foot guard now joins Oklahoma after a season-ending foot injury after just nine games last season gave him an additional year of eligibility. He’s been a remarkably consistent scorer during his college career, never having less than 12.7 points per game in a season.

He also brings with him the experience of being the third leading scorer on a final four team. Now sharing a backcourt with Xzayvier Brown, I expect Pack to take a more traditional point guard role while Brown is more of the scoring guard.

Kam Williams (Tulane to Kentucky)

Clearly one of the more under-recruited players in last year’s incoming freshman class (the 178th best recruit in the country according to 24/7 Composite), Kam Williams is an efficient wing who does all the little things. He doesn’t need the ball in his hands, instead electing for catch-and-shoot threes, cuts to the basket, and putbacks. He reminds me a lot of recent Kentucky player and current Los Angeles Laker, Adou Thiero.

Dailyn Swain (Xavier to Texas)

Dailyn Swain is pulling a reverse Kevin Durant, joining the team he eliminated from last year’s postseason. Swain is a skilled forward who runs the floor and is sometimes the ball handler in pick-and-roll action.