A panel of media members who cover SEC Basketball have selected Georgia's Trey Thompkins as the league's preseason player of the year. Thompkins received 18 of 20 first place votes and was also named to the all conference team along with teammate Travis Leslie. 

Thompkins is a six foot ten inch forward who was a unanimous ALL-SEC selection last season while averaging 17.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. One of the big reasons that Georgia is looked at as a program on the rise was due to Thompkins returning to school for his Junior season and putting off the NBA draft for at least one more year. 

The media also predicts Georgia to finish third in a rugged SEC eastern division finishing behind Florida and Kentucky but ahead of Tennessee. That is a big step for a program like Georgia that has finished dead last in the SEC east for the three seasons and six of the last seven.