Media picks UK to win SEC, Patterson to win POY

One year after collapsing down the stretch and finishing on the outside looking in on the NCAA Tournament, the SEC media has nearly unanimously picked Kentucky to win the conference and picked the Wildcats leader, Patrick Patterson, to win top honors as the player of the year.

Needless to say, things have changed a bit in the past 6 months.

20 of 25 writers tabbed UK as best in the SEC, and 23 of 25 said UK would win the SEC East.

Naturally, Patrick Patterson was a unanimous member of the media SEC first team, and was joined by Jarvis Varnado of Mississippi State, Tyler Smith of Tennessee, Terrico White of Mississippi, and Devan Downey of South Carolina.

Notably absent from the first team is UK freshman phenom John Wall, who was picked to the second team along with AJ Ogilvy of Vanderbilt, Chris Warren of Mississippi, Tasmin Mitchell of LSU, and DeWayne Reed of Auburn. Kentucky and Ole Miss were the only teams to have two players elected as first or second team.