One thing in new coach Mark Fox’s favor is that expectations can’t get any lower in his first season.

Georgia came in 6th in the SEC East in the media’s preseason voting this week. That wasn’t a surprise, but the vote was unanimous: Georgia was in last place on each of the 25 ballots.

Kentucky was the clear favorite to win the division and conference, and Mississippi State was the media’s pick to win the West. Florida was projected 5th in the East, so they start the year already on the bubble after last year’s flop.

Kentucky’s Patrick Patterson is the preseason Player of the Year. Patterson is joined on the preseason all-conference teams by freshman phenom John Wall who is already second team based on pure hype. Georgia had no players on the preseason all-conference teams.

The news was a good deal better for the Lady Dogs who were projected to finish third in the conference. A return to the top of the conference would be welcome after last year’s disappointing 7th place finish, but I wonder whether the media had time to process the impact of Christy Marshall’s injury.

The Lady Dogs were the only team with two players on the first team all-conference squad: seniors Ashley Houts and Angel Robinson. That the Lady Dogs have two first-teamers but weren’t close to being picked to win the conference illustrates the perceived lack of firepower behind those two stars. Georgia will be counting on a half-dozen newcomers to fill in the gaps this year, and the media seems to think that the young team will go as far as their senior leaders Houts and Robinson will carry them.