Vols picked to win SEC

Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl is honored to have the Vols selected Monday to repeat as SEC champions, but he knows there is plenty of work to be done if that prediction is to come true.

The Vols were tabbed No.1 in a poll of SEC media that included two media members for each of the league’s 12 teams and six additional writers selected by the SEC office. The voters also tabbed Tennessee’s Tyler Smith as player of the year. He was the only Vol selected on either the first or second team.

“We have worked hard to put ourselves in this position,” Pearl said. “I see this and that fact that we had 16,600 season tickets sold, and games already sold out, and players like Tyler Smith and (Wayne) Chism deciding to come back — that’s where we want to be.”

But, he’s far from ready to hand his team the title.

“I see this race as being a lot closer than last year,” he said. “Florida has had back-to-back great recruiting years. Vandy has the best big man in the league. Alabama and LSU are returning so many good players. I don’t see a dominant team.

“As far as Tennessee, we have a chance to be a real good team, but we have as much to work on right now as any team I’ve coached.”

When asked about Smith being picked to be player of the year, Pearl responded: “They got that one right.”

He pointed out, however, that three Vols — Smith, JaJuan Smith and Chris Lofton — were named to these teams last year, which brings up a matter of his concern.

“When are we going to see J.P. Prince on that list or Chism?” he said. “When are these new players going to surface; they will need to surface. We’ll need to see who steps up.”

PRESEASON ALL-SEC

First team

Patrick Patterson, Kentucky

Tyler Smith, Tennessee

Nick Calathes, Florida

Devan Downey, South Carolina

A.J. Ogilvy, Vanderbilt

Second team

Marcus Thornton, LSU

Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State

Ronald Steele, Alabama

Tasmin Mitchell, LSU

Chris Warren, Ole Miss

Alonzo Gee, Alabama

PREDICTED TEAM FINISH

SEC East

Tennessee (23 first place votes), 172 (points)

Florida (5), 143

Kentucky (2), 130

Vanderbilt, 88

South Carolina, 56

Georgia, 41

SEC West

Alabama (11) 151

LSU (11) 147

Ole Miss (8), 136

Mississippi State, 91

Auburn, 54

Arkansas, 51

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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