We’ll have a much deeper look at basketball in a couple of weeks, but yesterday’s media preseason picks deserve some mention.

Highlighting the news is the selection of Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie to the preseason first team. Thompkins was also tabbed the preseason SEC Player of the Year, receiving 18 of the 20 first-place votes cast.

The outlook for Georgia in 2010-2011 can be summed up by this fact: despite two first team all-conference players on the roster, Georgia was picked a distant third in the SEC East. While there’s a lot of excitement entering Mark Fox’s second season, Georgia’s top players will only go so far as the rest of the supporting cast allow. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the newcomers, but there are many important roles for them to fill right away.

Georgia should be better than last season’s team that finished 5-11 in the SEC, but the preseason picks remind us that climbing through the standings towards an NCAA Tournament bid won’t be easy. Florida returns all of its starters. Kentucky emptied its chamber and has reloaded with another talented roster. Picked just below Georgia is a Tennessee team that went deep into the NCAA Tournament a year ago.

RELATED: Georgia lands third commitment for 2011 basketball signing class: 7′ JUCO C John Florveus