College basketball expert sounds off on Georgia's preseason ranking

Earlier this week Georgia basketball attended SEC Media Days ahead of the start of their season (which by the way is only about two weeks away). While at Media Days, the SEC preseason rankings were released, and somehow Georgia was slotted at No. 12 out of 16 teams.

I previously wrote about this and how it's impossible to make sense of it, but to be fair I am extremely biased so of course I would feel that way. But Jon Rothstein, a college basketball insider with CBS Sports, is equally as confused as I am.

There are only two explanations I, and likely Rothstein as well, can come up with for why Georgia is ranked so low. One is that the media is being lazy and not actually taking the time to do their homework before submitting their rankings. The second is that the media quickly forgot that Georgia is fresh off a run to the NIT Final Four while also reloading their roster with impact transfers and high ranking high school recruits.

But anyone who took just a little time to truly evaluate Georgia would see that they belong in the top half of the SEC preseason standings.

Georgia is bringing in the No. 15 recruiting class this year, led by five-star Asa Newell and four-star Somto Cyril. It always takes freshman a little bit of time to adjust to college basketball, but there is a high chance both are at worst solid contributors throughout the season.

Mike White also brought in five transfers this offseson, with guard Tyrin Lawrence being the best acquisition of them all. Last season at Vanderbilt, Lawrence averaged an impressive 13.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. He will be the starter this year at UGA and has a chance to have an even better season this year.

Now I won't sit here and claim that Georgia is going to compete for an SEC championship this season, but I won't let people suggest they are 14th in the conference either. So give this team a few weeks and I bet people are going to start viewing Georgia basketball a little differently.