Filed under: Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Tennessee, SEC, Alabama

Florida is back, at least so far as the media’s preseason vote is concerned. The Gators received eight first-place votes in the league’s preseason media poll, outdistancing predicted SEC West champion Mississippi State, which received three votes, as well as Kentucky and Tennessee, which each received a pair of votes.

The Gators finished 21-13 last year and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time since winning consecutive national titles in 2006 and 2007. Florida returns all five starters from a season ago and will add heavily recruited freshman forward Patric Young to the mix.

Billy Donovan’s club passed by last year’s SEC champion, the Kentucky Wildcats, who went 35-3 and advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. However, John Calipari’s Wildcats put five players into the first-round of the NBA Draft, including four freshmen from the Wildcats’ 2010 team. Voters were likely also concerned about the eligibility of Calipari’s star post recruit Enes Kanter. The incoming Turkish freshman remains in eligibility limbo with the NCAA.

Still, voters had enough confidence in the rest of Calipari’s second-straight outstanding recruiting class to keep the Wildcats near the top of the SEC East. Kentucky earned 95 points and three first-place votes in the East, trailing Florida’s 110 points and 13 first-place votes. Resurgent Georgia edged Tennessee for third in the division, followed by Vanderbilt and South Carolina.

Mississippi State, which will eventually have the services of Renardo Sidney, who has finally resolved his eligibility issues after more than a year, and point guard Dee Bost, who declared for the draft and failed to withdraw his name by the updated May deadline, easily claimed first place in the SEC West. Both players will sit out the first nine games, but neither will miss a conference game. Ole Miss finished second in preseason balloting, followed by Alabama, Arkansas, LSU and Auburn.

Georgia junior Trey Thompkins was nearly unanimous as the league’s preseason player of the year. Thompkins received all but two of the 20 votes cast. Ole Miss senior Chris Warren, Kentucky freshman Brandon Knight, Georgia junior Travis Leslie and Vanderbilt junior Jeffrey Taylor rounded out the league’s first-team selections.

Georgia junior Trey Thompkins was the choice of the media for SEC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year with 18 votes. Ole Miss senior Chris Warren (one vote) and Kentucky Freshman Brandon Knight (one vote) also received votes in the Player of the Year voting.

Arkansas’ Marshawn Powell topped the second team, followed by Florida’s Kenny Boynton and Chandler Parsons, as well as JaMychal Green of Alabama Scotty Hopson of Tennessee.

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