‘It is like the cool place to play now.’ SEC basketball boasts high-level recruiting.

John Calipari’s postgame press conferences are a time for the longtime Kentucky head coach to establish his talking points.

A question to Calipari may lead to a few sentences about that topic, before he inevitably steers the discussion toward whatever he wants to talk about. It’s the way things go.

But there’s one subject Calipari has frequently been happy to discuss at length, and stay on topic about: The growth of SEC men’s basketball.

When asked about the difficultly of an SEC basketball season following UK’s home win over Missouri on Jan. 9, Calipari provided a 447-word, 2:26-minute long response about the depth and quality found top to bottom in the conference.

The SEC has a proud basketball tradition to be sure: The debut last year of the seven-part ESPN Films series “Southern Hoops: A History of SEC Basketball” (with a strong focus on Kentucky) is a testament to that.

And on the women’s side, the conference has produced 11 national champion teams, with South Carolina and Tennessee among the sport’s most legendary programs.

But recent years have seen SEC schools take a major leap when it comes to their men’s basketball talent.

And a heightened focus on recruiting has been a big reason why.

Plenty of prep basketball talent is about to join the SEC

This month’s announcement of the 2024 class of McDonald’s All-Americans was direct evidence of the recruiting power now held by SEC men’s basketball programs.

Of the 24 players named Burger Boys, seven are committed to or have signed with SEC programs for next season (including future league member Texas). This is the most of any conference in the country.

Alabama and Kentucky will each bring in a pair of All-Americans next season.

UK may even bring in three if small forward Karter Knox selects the Wildcats from his final shortlist of post-high school playing options. But already, nearly 30% of this year’s class of McDonald’s All-Americans will play in the SEC next season, with three Burger Boys still yet to commit.

The strength of the freshman talent about to enter the SEC is further highlighted by recent rankings updates made for the 2024 class of prospects.

According to the 247Sports Composite, 14 of the top 50 recruits in the 2024 class will be in the SEC in just a few months’ time.

And perhaps most relevantly to Calipari’s monologue is the fact that eight of a possible 16 SEC schools — exactly half of the league — are represented among this group.

Calipari even shared some inside knowledge about how he’s seen this recruiting transformation take shape.

Peach Jam, the showcase summer basketball event that concludes the Nike EYBL travel circuit, is a marquee moment on the recruiting calendar. Each year, dozens upon dozens of college coaches and recruiters descend upon the Riverview Park Activities Center in North Augusta, South Carolina, for live viewings of prospects, along with the opportunity to edge closer to securing their commitments.

For a while, Calipari said it was just he and legendary Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski who would take private planes to the event.

That’s no longer the case.

“Do you know how many planes are private there (now)?” Calipari asked, rhetorically. “Everyone in our league is in a private plane moving around. To recruit, you can’t — If you think you are going to fly commercial during the year and do this job and recruit and then stay overnight and get a 5 o’clock flight back. You better be 30 years old. And so, now the investment in the facilities, the way they travel, the way they treat their players. Everybody charters.”

SEC basketball recruiting continues to improve

The key event Calipari pointed to when it comes to the recent improvements in SEC men’s basketball was a TV deal the league (then led by former commissioner Mike Slive) signed with ESPN in 2008.

Reportedly worth more than $2 billion at the time it was inked, Calipari referenced the influx in available monetary funds the deal produced for the league’s schools.

“I’ve said this over and over for 30 years. Basketball coaches win games and administrations win championships because they invest in it,” Calipari said. “... You had a choice of where you can put all that money. Put it into one sport or you can say basketball needed it. And many of the schools said we are invested in basketball and invested in baseball and we are doing this and we are going to upgrade football stuff. And now all of a sudden they got unbelievable facilities, they got the top coaches in the country and they are able to go recruit.”

Going back to the 2009 recruiting class, SEC schools have signed 45 top-10 ranked recruits according to the 247Sports Composite.

Even after taking Kentucky (29 players) out of the equation, 11 other SEC programs (including Texas for next season) have landed a top-10 recruit over the last 16 years.

Starting with the 2024-25 season, only four SEC schools will have failed to land a top-10 player over the last 16 years: Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.

“It is like the cool place to play now,” Calipari said. “This is a hard league now.”

And this statement isn’t limited to just freshman additions, either.

According to the college basketball statistician Evan Miyakawa, of the top 16 players available in the NCAA transfer portal last offseason, four of them (including Kentucky’s Tre Mitchell) opted to transfer from outside the SEC to a school in the conference.

SEC basketball continues KenPom rise

Of course, recruiting can’t and shouldn’t be the only measure of a league’s strength.

More tangible metrics — such as NCAA Tournament performance and overall league strength as measured by KenPom — also reflect the SEC’s growth over the last decade-plus.

Here’s a look at the number of SEC teams in each NCAA Tournament since 2010, along with the number of league teams that reached the Sweet 16:

▪ 2010: Four SEC teams in NCAA Tournament, two in Sweet 16.

▪ 2011: Five in NCAA Tournament, two in Sweet 16.

▪ 2012: Four in NCAA Tournament, two in Sweet 16.

▪ 2013: Three in NCAA Tournament, one in Sweet 16.

▪ 2014: Three in NCAA Tournament, three in Sweet 16.

▪ 2015: Five in NCAA Tournament, one in Sweet 16.

▪ 2016: Three in NCAA Tournament, one in Sweet 16.

▪ 2017: Five in NCAA Tournament, three in Sweet 16.

▪ 2018: Eight in NCAA Tournament, two in Sweet 16.

▪ 2019: Seven in NCAA Tournament, four in Sweet 16.

▪ 2021: Six in NCAA Tournament, two in Sweet 16.

▪ 2022: Six in NCAA Tournament, one in Sweet 16.

▪ 2023: Eight in NCAA Tournament, three in Sweet 16.

As of Tuesday morning, BracketMatrix.com projected eight SEC teams to comfortably make this year’s NCAA Tournament field of 68.

And while the NCAA Tournament sometimes isn’t a true reflection of a team or league’s performance over the course of an entire season, KenPom is.

Here’s a look at where the SEC has stacked up as a league compared to others around the nation over the same span.

▪ 2010: Fifth-best league, adjusted efficiency margin of +12.63.

▪ 2011: Seventh best (+9.49).

▪ 2012: Fourth best (+10.68).

▪ 2013: Seventh best (+8.49).

▪ 2014: Sixth best (+10.46).

▪ 2015: Fifth best (+11.74).

▪ 2016: Sixth best (+11.21).

▪ 2017: Fifth best (+12.91).

▪ 2018: Fourth best (+14.39).

▪ 2019: Fourth best (+14.64).

▪ 2020: Sixth best (+10.98).

▪ 2021: Fourth best (+14.32).

▪ 2022: Second best (+14.46).

▪ 2023: Fourth best (+12.57).

Through Monday’s games this season, KenPom rates the SEC as the third-best league in the country with an adjusted efficiency margin of +14.64.

If this adjusted efficiency margin holds, it would be the league’s highest mark since the 2018-19 season, which saw seven SEC teams make the NCAA Tournament field, four squads reach the Sweet 16 and Auburn reach its first ever Final Four.

McDonald’s All-Americans joining the SEC

Here’s a list of the 2024 McDonald’s All-Americans who are coming to the SEC, and which schools they’ll be playing for.

Guards: Boogie Fland (Kentucky), Tahaad Pettiford (Auburn), Tre Johnson (Texas).

Forwards: Derrion Reid (Alabama).

Centers: John Bol (Ole Miss), Jayden Quaintance (Kentucky), Aiden Sherrell (Alabama).

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