LEXINGTON (KT) — Immanuel Quickley has changed and that transformation has been evident during preseason workouts.

“Immanuel (Quickley) is not even the same player,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “I had someone come in and watch us practice and say, ‘he’s not even the same guy.’”

Following his freshman campaign, Quickley was one of the first players to announce his future intentions and those plans didn’t include declaring for the NBA Draft. He wanted to come back for another season and a conversation with Calipari affirmed his decision.

“We talked about where I stood for the season,” Quickley said. “He thought I had a pretty good season. He just wanted me to come back and pretty much round out all the parts of my game. I feel like I have a lot of opportunities this year to show that.”

Quickley’s transformation has included his overall game on both ends of the court. Last season, Quickley played in every game and scored 12 points and made three shots from long range in a win over Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville last season. He tallied 30 points in a three-game period last January, but wanted to make another leap during the off-season.

“I’ve been working on my body, changing a lot of parts of my game, just working to be the all-around best player I can be,” he said. “That’s why you come to Kentucky, so you can play and practice against the best. My mindset has changed. Like last year, playing against guys like Tyler (Herro), Keldon (Johnson) and PJ (Washington) and all them, my confidence has increased. Knowing I can play against them, I know I can play against anyone.”

He has shown that behind the scenes and a big reason for his obvious improvement has been because of a rise in his confidence level.

“(My confidence has grown) a lot more aggressive offensively and defensively, (and I have) a lot better feel for the game,” he said. “Little things like that have helped me a lot this year.”

The coaching staff has noticed, especially Calipari, who said Quickley “seems to be that guy right now (and) he’s building his own confidence.”

“I can’t give him confidence,” Calipari said. “I can help him gain confidence, he’s got to build it himself. Then you got to get into games and you got to have demonstrated performance. You got to do something in the games that convinces you, not me, that I got this. So but he’s done great.”

Calipari said Quickley’s recent change for the good is reminiscent of PJ Washington’s elevation last season. Washington changed his mindset, which led to a substantial improvement on the court.

“He’s in a different frame of mind,” the Kentucky coach said. “It’s kind of like when P.J. (Washington) came back. P.J. came back, it’s not that he just came back, he came back with a different mentality. He came back with a change of how he responded and how he saw things.”

Quickley is already looking forward to Kentucky’s season-opener against Michigan State at Madison Squad Garden.

“It’s going to be crazy. MSG is the mecca for basketball, last year just playing was a crazy game,” he said. “It’ll be crazy just to know that place is going to be sold out, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

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Kentucky has been picked to win the Southeastern Conference on Tuesday in a poll conducted by the league’s media members.

The Wildcats were picked to finish ahead of Florida, LSU and Auburn. Tennessee was fifth, followed by Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Missouri and Vanderbilt.

Florida’s Kerry Blackshear was chosen was preseason Player of the Year, while Ashton Hagans joined Blackshear, Anthony Edwards (Georgia), Berlin Tyree (Ole Miss) and Reggie Perry (Mississippi State) in the All-SEC First-team.

Hagans shared the 2019 SEC Defensive Player of the Year award after inducing 61 steals during his freshman campaign and is considered one of the best on-ball defenders in college basketball. He is also UK’s leading returning scorer at 7.7 points per game. The 6-foot-3 guard was a two-time SEC Freshman of the Week award winner, was named to The Athletic’s All-Glue Team and was a Naismith National Defensive Player of the Year semifinalist.

Tyrese Maxey and EJ Montgomery were named to the second team.