Now that declaration day for the NBA draft has come and gone, you can expect to see a lot of way-too-early, pre-preseason college basketball polls popping up from site to site.  CBSSports.com has posted theirs today.

According to Jeff Goodman and Gary Parrish, SEC fans shouldn’t expect much more in terms of ranked teams than they witnessed last year.  Here’s the rundown for CBSSports.com’s top 25:

1.  Kentucky

5.  Florida

17.  Tennessee

And, well, that’s it.  Three ranked teams and no more.

Now, again, this is incredibly early and preseason polls typically aren’t worth the pixels they’re displayed upon — Kentucky was #1 in several polls last year, too.  But if you’re looking to set your SEC expectations for 2013-14, you might want to place it kinda low.  Again.

Five Kentucky basketball players will announce their plans regarding the NBA draft at a press conference on Tuesday at 2 p.m. Eastern time.

Sophomores Terrence Jones and Doron Lamb and freshmen Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague will all attend the press conference. So will coach John Calipari.

All five players are expected to announce they’re leaving Kentucky, according to Gary Parrish of CBSSport.com. Each player, along with departing senior Darius Miller, has a chance to be drafted in the first round.

As Kyle Tucker of the Louisville Courier-Journal pointed out, the fact that all five players are announcing together could be a sign of their plans.

Not out of the question, but sure is harder to imagine any one of UK’s five guys saying, “I’m staying!” sitting beside all others leaving.

— Kentucky Sports – CJ (@KyleTucker_CJ) April 16, 2012

And if all five players decide to leave, Calipari will be just fine with it.

Kentucky’s basketball signing class for 2012 moved to No. 1 in the nation on Wednesday night when center Nerlens Noel from Everett, Mass., announced he would play for the Wildcats.

“It was the toughest decision of my entire life,” said Noel, who chose Kentucky over Georgetown and Syracuse.

Noel, who’s ranked the No. 1 player in the nation by ESPNU, helped move Kentucky’s class to the No. 1 ranking by ESPNU. Guard Archie Goodwin, forward Alex Poythress and center Willie Cauley signed with the Wildcats in the fall.

Noel said he noticed the recent success for young players at Kentucky under the guidance of head coach John Calipari.

“Coach Cal recruited me real hard,” Noel said. “He is a good person who cares about his players, he helps them reach their goals and the team’s goals. They play as a unit and are very unselfish. Also the fans were incredible on my visit. They are behind the program 100 percent.”

Kentucky’s 2012 class might not be 100 percent complete. Forward Anthony Bennett from Henderson, Nev., is still on the board and considering Kentucky. The Wildcats will have to battle Florida, Oregon, UNLV and Washington for Bennett’s services.

Evan Daniels of Scout.com/FoxSports predicted on Wednesday that Bennett’s recruitment will come down to an SEC battle.

The top uncommitted prospect is now Anthony Bennett. My take? It’ll come down to Florida and Kentucky. Visits soon.

— Evan Daniels (@EvanDanielscout) April 12, 2012

Wednesday wasn’t a complete success for Kentucky. The Wildcats lost out on forward Shabazz Muhammad, who announced he will play at UCLA. But that news shouldn’t be surprising when you consider the influence of Adidas, writes Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com.

Just check out this tweet from Jeff Goodman, Gary Parrish’s colleague at CBSSports, shortly after Muhammad made his announcement.

Adidas, um I mean UCLA, wins the Shabazz Muhammad Sweepstakes. Shabazz stayed loyal to adidas entire way.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanCBS) April 11, 2012

Ah, college basketball recruiting.

At least one person believes highly-touted basketball prospect Alex Poythress will attend Kentucky.

The forward from Northeast High School in Clarksville, Tenn., is considering Kentucky, Florida, Vanderbilt and Memphis.

And Keith Easterwood, who John Clay of the Lexington Herald-Leader writes is a “noted AAU insider,” believes Poythress will choose the Wildcats. That’s what Easterwood told Gary Parrish on his radio show in Memphis.

“He’s going to Kentucky,” Easterwood told Parrish.

Poythress would be a big get for Kentucky. Rivals.com ranks him the nation’s eighth-best power forward and No. 19 prospect overall for the class of 2012.

He’s expected to attend Kentucky’s Big Blue Madness on Oct. 14, according to the Herald-Leader.

“Kentucky is a good school,” Poythress told FiveStarBasketball.com this week. “Coach Cal (John Calipari) is a good coach. He’s a pretty good guy. He knows what he’s talking about. He’s been around basketball a long time.”

Kentucky has one commitment for 2012 – guard Archie Goodwin, who’s a five-star prospect from Little Rock, Ark.

You haven’t made the NCAA Tournament in three years.  Attendance is dwindling.  Some fans are placing ads in newspapers to voice their displeasure with you.  Your squad dropped its last two games to blow a shot at a bye in the SEC Tournament.

If you’re John Pelphrey facing a must-win game against Tennessee tonight, could things be any worse?

Yes.

Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com has posted a photo of Pelphrey smiling beside junior recruits Trey Smith and Archie Goodwin at an off-campus event.

The photo appears to violate NCAA Bylaw 13.1.1.1 which states that coaches can’t make off-campus contact with prospects (or their relatives or guardians) until after July 1st heading into that recruit’s senior year.

Smith told CBSSports.com that his mother took the picture.  “My mom was like, ‘Hey, go get a picture.’  So we snapped a picture.” 

And added to Pelphrey’s misery in doing so.

“As with any potential compliance issue, the institution will gather information and review to determine where a violation has occurred,” said an Arkansas statement this morning.  “If, after a thorough review of the facts, it is determined a violation has occurred, the University of Arkansas will take appropriate action in reporting the information consistent with all established procedures.”

Bottom line: We’re talking about what would have — in pre-internet days — been called a secondary violation.  A quick snapshot of a coach and two players. 

In today’s world, that’s enough to land you in the headlines of a major, national website.

Oh, well.  At least Pelphrey didn’t lie about it.

But it can’t be good for his chances of surviving.


UPDATE — Jerry Tipton of The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that Pelphrey said yesterday that “it takes time” to build a program.  “We’re doing it the right way,” the coach said.  “We have tremendous kids in the program. … We’ve got something we can build on.”

The folks at CBSSports.com believe — not surprisingly — that Bruce Pearl is going to be hit hard when the NCAA doles out penalties to Tennessee in June.

“We could argue for days that buying a player is way worse than lying to the NCAA about a cookout at your house, but it doesn’t matter because the NCAA doesn’t view it that way,” Gary Parrish said.  “Lying is the one thing that can absolutely get you buried, and I think Bruce is going to be lucky to survive this and honestly I’m not sure he’s going to.”

Parrish is joined in a video discussion by Seth Davis, Jim O’Connell and Jeff Goodman.

If you feel you still need a breakdown of what Pearl and Tennessee are facing, this video is an excellent breaker-downer.  (Probably just a pure “downer” for Vol fans.)