Kentucky head coach Mark Pope yells to his team as they face Alabama during the first half of a Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinal game at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, March 14, 2025. Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Kentucky basketball needs to get back to dominating the SEC

Originally posted on Kentucky Wildcats on SI
By Andrew Stefaniak | Last updated Sep 4, 2025 6:45 PM ET

Over the last decade, there have been a lot of changes in the SEC when it comes to basketball. Back early into John Calipari's time in Lexington, the SEC was no powerhouse, and the Wildcats dominated the conference, winning a ton of SEC Regular Season Championships and SEC Tournaments.

The last time Kentucky won a regular-season SEC Title was in 2020, when the season was canceled because of COVID, and the last time the Wildcats won the SEC Tournament was in 2018.

It is great that the SEC has gotten so much better over the years, as this helps the Wildcats, but it is time for Kentucky to start winning SEC titles again. Kentucky fans often joke that they don't care much about SEC regular season titles and SEC Tournament wins because they have so many, but it has been a long time since the Wildcats have won one.

Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

This season, once again, the SEC is going to be absolutely stacked. The National Champion Florida Gators look great, Calipari has a solid team at Arkansas, both of the Alabama teams will be great once again, and Tennessee will find a way to be competitive.

While all of these schools and frankly every team in the SEC are going to be competitive, so are the Wildcats, and this is the season Kentucky needs to hang some sort of SEC banner.

Knowing that the changes in NIL with each athletic department deciding how the $20.5 million will be spent could help the Wildcats get back to dominance, as the basketball team is going to get more than most other teams in the SEC.

A competitive SEC is a great thing and helps TV viewership because anytime the Wildcats take the floor in SEC play, there is a chance they could lose, and that was not the case ten years ago.

When Coach Pope got to Kentucky in his introductory press conference, he discussed how he wants to hang SEC banners, and when his team goes to Nashville each year, they want to win it all.

Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

Some teams in the SEC are starting to lose the respect and fear that comes with playing Kentucky in basketball, and it is time for this to change. The conference is going to be deep once again this season, but Coach Pope has a team not only capable of hanging SEC banners but winning a National Championship.

The goal is to get Kentucky basketball back to dominating the SEC, and Coach Pope will look to make this happen.

This article first appeared on Kentucky Wildcats on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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