Early and often in his tenure as Kentucky’s basketball coach, John Calipari lamented the top-to-bottom level of competition within the Southeastern Conference.

Calipari’s teams were really good. Billy Donovan and Florida were only a couple of years removed from back-to-back national titles (with another Final Four ahead of them). Bruce Pearl, then at Tennessee, had the Vols in a good spot, but he was on his way out soon. And there were other good teams here and there, but certainly no consistently dominant ones.

UK’s newish coach at the time was correct. The SEC was behind in basketball.

And now? Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.

Calipari is currently looking around at a league where — and South Carolina proved this in Rupp Arena last season — any team can beat any other team at, quite literally, any time.

The results of this year’s SEC media preseason voting drive home just how much things have changed in this conference.

Kentucky ended up fourth — fourth?! — and, on paper, that looks just about right.

Tennessee, Texas A&M and Arkansas were all positioned in front of the Wildcats in the SEC media poll. Those same three teams finished ahead of UK in the first AP Top 25 rankings.

Just how big of a change is this?

Well, Kentucky has been picked to win the SEC in each of the previous two seasons. In 2020-21 — when UK ultimately finished 9-16 and ended up eighth in the league — Tennessee was the media pick to win. (Though Kentucky was still picked second). And before that? UK led the SEC preseason voting in nine consecutive years, going all the way back to when the league still had two divisions.

The perception of Kentucky as king of SEC basketball didn’t always match reality in those days, but it was the case often enough. In Calipari’s first eight seasons, UK won five SEC championships. Donovan’s Gators won three SEC titles. But things were starting to change. More and more SEC schools were investing heavily in men’s basketball. More money for better facilities and better coaches ended up turning into better players and, surprise, better results.

Last season, eight SEC teams made the NCAA Tournament. No league had more bids than that. A few months ago, 10 SEC players were picked in the NBA Draft. More than any conference.

“It makes every game a hard game,” Calipari said from SEC media day Wednesday. “I mean, arenas are packed. Players are getting drafted. It’s not just our players. Now you got other schools having draft picks. It’s an exciting time in the SEC.”

Exciting, yes. Challenging? Absolutely.

Since that initial Calipari-era run over the rest of the SEC competition, Kentucky has fallen on relatively hard times. Nationally, no Final Fours since 2015. Locally, just one regular-season title in the past six years. And five other programs have captured the league crown during that time.

“If you look at the coaches in the league, if you look at the talent level, if you look at the number of draft picks, I mean, I truly believe this is the premier basketball conference right now,” said Arkansas coach Eric Musselman. “Looking at the league, compared to the small portion size that I have of four years, I think the league is as good, probably better, than any year since I’ve been in it. The coaching continues to get better and better each year. … It’s a challenge every night.”

That AP poll released this week had a total of five Top 25 teams (defending champ Alabama was in there, too). And four other teams — Auburn, Mississippi State, Missouri and Florida — were among those also receiving votes. That makes nine.

“That’s more than half the league that some people consider to be Top 25,” said Gators coach Todd Golden. “When you put that together, it’s going to be really tough.”

Kentucky will have its own unique challenge, a roster (mostly) filled with star freshmen in a league with top teams that are (mostly) led by upperclassmen.

“They’re all five-stars, McDonald’s All-Americans. They’re all in the top 20 on the draft board,” Pearl said with a grin. “Nobody is feeling sad for John.”

Pearl, who is entering his 10th season at Auburn after six previous years at Tennessee, noted that he has more collective experience than any head coach in the league. (Calipari is entering season 15 in Lexington.)

“I’m really proud of the SEC. I’m proud of this league,” Pearl said. “I remember coming in at Tennessee, obviously Kentucky was the dominant program. Billy Donovan had Florida right there. Everybody else was sort of just everybody else. Then when I came back to Auburn, the league had already begun to start to get deeper. …

“The league went ahead and said, ‘Look, we have to figure this out.’ They brought in really good administrators to help Commissioner (Greg) Sankey to figure out the schedule — what tournaments do we need to play in, what do we need to do to elevate our brand? They’ve done it.”

And now Kentucky has a lot more competition. Eighteen dates per season, it’s anybody’s game.

The Cats know that. It doesn’t mean they’re not just a wee bit ticked off to be the first UK team in more than a decade to be picked this low in the preseason.

During UK senior Antonio Reeves’ session with the media Wednesday, he said of the slight: “They’re sleeping on us.” A veteran SEC basketball reporter noted that he didn’t think he’d ever heard a Kentucky player say such a thing.

“We definitely have a chip on our shoulder,” Reeves replied. “We’re young. We got a lot of work to do that needs to be done. That’s OK. Because we’re just going to show the world what we can do.”

Fellow fifth-year college player Tre Mitchell — the only other scholarship upperclassmen on UK’s roster — had similar thoughts.

“It’s definitely an added chip to all of our shoulders,” Mitchell said. “But I think — with the guys we have — we all naturally have that chip. Because now you have people saying the young guys can’t get it done. And that alone is pushing these dudes to go above and beyond every single day.”

Mitchell acknowledged that he hadn’t heard star freshmen like D.J. Wagner or Justin Edwards explicitly say that. “But you can tell,” he added. “You can see it in the way they approach everything.”

The games themselves will dictate whether this preseason standing is slight or right. Whatever happens from January through March, the landscape of the SEC has certainly shifted. And while Kentucky might still be its ceremonial king, plenty of others are actively chasing the crown.

“Well, first of all, I got to tell you that there’s nowhere I go in the SEC where I’m more honored to step onto the floor than Rupp. I honestly sometimes feel like I’m not worthy to have the opportunity to coach in that building with that history in front of those fans,” Pearl said. “So Kentucky has and will lead the way in men’s basketball in the SEC. That’s never going to change.

“But what has changed is there have just been more programs that have invested in it and taken it more seriously. The game has grown, and the SEC has grown along with it.”

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