What is going on with the SEC in men's basketball? As of today only 2 teams are ranked in the top 25, Florida at #6, and UK at #22. I don't even think that UK deserves to be in the top 25 right now because they have not shown me much this year. Ole Miss is horrible once again as they lost to Illinois-Chicago yesterday and earlier this season lost by 53 to New Mexico. State hasn't beaten anybody worth talking about and already lost to Northwestern State and Southeastern Louisiana. Auburn was embarassed against a good Pitt team but also lost by 10 to Colorado State, far from a basketball power. Arkansas has done well so far with good games against UConn and Maryland and a good win against Kansas. Bama looks average and seems hard to predict results. UT is 5-0 but has had practically nobody to play yet and we'll see how they do against Texas on the 17th. Georgia beat Tech but also lost to Old Dominion and hasn't beaten anyone else with any name recognition. Vandy and SC are similar in the fact that they beat the bad teams and have lost to good teams. The SEC just a couple of years ago looked like it was primed to start pushing the Big 10 and ACC as a basketball power and today it seems we have regressed in a BIG way. What gives?
Maybe all of the underclassmen leaving, and not even getting drafted. Brandon Bass was the only underclassmen that got drafted that was from the SEC.
I do not think the SEC gets enough national exposure. The ACC and Big 10 have some great cross-conference matchups throughout the years. These are almost always nationalyl televised games. The SEC in general does not do this very well and does not get the same national exposure.
Not a maybe but a definate fact. This trend has been going on for the last 5 years. Each SEC coach has 13 free agents. Some get drafted, some transfer because of playing time and others just happen to stay 4 years and get a degree. This trend will allow mid-majors to continue to have success against the big time powers.
Funny, we're saying the same thing about our teams in the Big Ten. Say what you want about Bobby Knight, but he can coach and the league hasn't been the same since he left.... plus there were kids who came to the Big Ten just to play against the Mr. Knight. Michigan State is pretty much our Kentucky of late... after that there ain't much to crow about. Illinois has had a run, but this year's team is pretty average.
I made post earlier that the NBA has ruined College BBALL as we know it. It is only going to get worse.
College basketball will get better next year because pretty much everyone is going to college. Imagine if they would have put this in back in 2003. LeBron James playing college basketball would have been great to watch.
Agree. This was from an ESPN article on the SEC basketball offseason. "Consider: The SEC was decimated by early entries to the NBA draft. Kentucky (Morris and Azubuike) and Florida (Walsh and Roberson) both saw potential Top 10 teams hurt by the loss of underclassmen who went undrafted. LSU and Alabama lost linchpins Brandon Bass (second-round pick) and Kennedy Winston (undrafted), respectively, a year too soon. Mississippi State was hoping signee Monta Ellis would soften the blow of losing its entire starting five, but Ellis opted for The League (and wasn't selected until the 40th pick). Georgia's rebuilding project should have centered around signee Louis Williams, but he foolishly went pro and also was a second-round pick. (Yes, Arkansas lost one, too, in Famutimi. But he was a single-digit scorer who shot a low percentage and did not rebound or pass with great talent, either. In other words, he's replaceable.)" http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2101016
Kennedy Winston leaving Alabama really hurt us a lot. With him leaving, it left us with a JUCO transfer with some good talent--but he failed to qualify academically and that left us without a 2 period. That has killed Bama. It's really hard to win with a lineup like we do... The players that play the wing are Justin Jonus and Jean Felix. Jonus is a 6'6'' guard that can flat out shoot standing still but really doesn't have much past that. He's slow and cant defend. Also, he cant create his own shot due to bad ball-handling. Felix is more of a SF and he has some upside but is sometimes erratic and just throws the ball up wherever he may be. Felixs' has decent handles, but not too good for a SG. He plays EXCELLENT D though. We also have some nagging injuries that are just killing us. Ronald Steele is bothered by a really sore and stiff back and we aren't very deep at the PG position either. Evan Brock has a sprained ankle and thats really bad for the thrasher/rebounder-type. With Winston, we haven't lost a game--but he's gone and on top of that we have the injury bug. Oh well, it's a part of the game. They just have to play. I hope that the SEC wakes up and starts playing. I'm sick of early SEC exits in the dance!
