SEC hoops notebook: Tennessee impressive, UK possibly turning around?
It’s a new year and the opening of SEC play has seen some of the league’s favorites laid low and some of its weaker members coming up strong. Parity has been the order of the league so far, but a few trends are emerging and we take a look at those in our weekly SEC basketball notebook.
Tennessee steps up
Tennessee has opened league play at 2-0, registering a 4-point win at Ole Miss and an impressive 34-point beatdown of Mississippi State. Tennessee shot 69% in the game, including 57% from 3-point range against a Mississippi State squad that has been one of the best defensive groups in college basketball. UT had 7 players score between 8 and 14 points and rolled to the easy win despite taking just 3 free throws (as opposed to 17 for Mississippi State). Rick Barnes’ team has been the most consistently impressive in the league.
Kentucky stumbles, possibly rights the ship
Kentucky opened SEC play with a dreadful 14-point loss at Mizzou. But the Wildcats rebounded with an easy win over Louisville and an impressive 3-point victory over LSU. That’s the same LSU team that just defeated Arkansas. The common thread through the games is Jacob Toppi, who looked lost in going scoreless against Mizzou, but followed with 24 points against Louisville and 21 against LSU. It Toppin can play with more consistency — and as another scoring threat for the Wildcats — UK might be rounding into something nearing shape after all.
Bama staying strong
The Crimson Tide have looked impressive in taking down both Mississippi schools to open SEC play. Brandon Miller has a legitimate shot to be SEC Player of the Year. He leads the SEC in scoring and ranks 3rd in rebounding, 3rd in free throw percentage, and tops in 3-point shots made (2nd in percentage). Bama is 2nd in the league in scoring, and remains a hot 3-point shooting run away from being as good as any team in the country.
The mystery of Nick Smith
Arkansas opened SEC play with a loss at LSU, but the overwhelming story is the odd saga of Nick Smith. Smith, a 5-star recruit, has been sidelined indefinitely for an apparent right knee injury. At this point, Smith has only played in 5 games, and that includes a 6 minute stint against Troy and a 1-for-8 shooting night against Bradley in the game where he apparently re-injured or re-aggravated his knee. Mum is the word on the long-term situation, and without Smith and Trevon Brazile, who is out for the season, Arkansas goes from the SEC favorite to perhaps a notch below UT, Alabama, and maybe even Auburn. Coach Eric Musselman is a locker-room architect and that aspect of the situation might be harder to govern than the on-court dynamics.
Bracketology
With the New Year, we’ll shift from examining Joe Lunardi’s bracketology to a more global view. BracketMatrix.com considers (at the moment) 36 separate Tourney field projections and gives a composite NCAA field from the bracket projections considered together. That composite NCAA field– which admittedly was projected between Dec. 26 and the present — includes 7 SEC squads.
No. 2 seeds are bestowed on Tennessee and Alabama. Arkansas is slated as the field’s last No. 3 seed. Auburn is a No. 6 and Mississippi State is a No. 7. Missouri was included in all 36 brackets and projects as a No. 8 seed. Kentucky was actually omitted from 3 brackets but still lands as a No. 8 overall seed. LSU would be the first team out of the BracketMatrix field.
For what it’s worth, Lunardi has the same 7 teams in his field and LSU as his 2nd team out. Lunardi has Mizzou as a No. 6, Auburn as a 7 seed, and Mississippi State as a No. 9, but otherwise, his rankings are consistent with the BracketMatrix composite.
Games to Watch
The next week includes plenty of interesting league matchups. Here are the best:
No. 20 Missouri at No. 13 Arkansas (Wednesday): Can the Tigers continue to surprise the league or will the Razorbacks bounce back from their loss at LSU?
Kentucky at No. 7 Alabama (Saturday): Given the upswing in momentum, maybe Kentucky can make this one competitive. On the other hand, Alabama has a chance to make a statement here about a shift in the league pecking order.
Georgia at Florida (Saturday): Not necessarily the best game going, but Mike White returns to Gainesville in what promises to be an interesting scene.
LSU at Texas A&M (Saturday): One of the league’s surprises plays at one of the league’s disappointments. If A&M is going to get it together, this would be as good of a time as any. But that’s a big if.
No. 13 Arkansas at No. 22 Auburn (Saturday): Regardless of how Wednesday goes for the Hogs, Saturday brings another big test. Both teams are guard-heavy, and it’ll be interesting to see which backcourt has the hot shooting touch.
Outside of Alabama, it will take another couple of weeks before we really start to see the pecking order.
Is Mizzou really that good?
Questions about Arkansas and LSU?
Is Kentucky really that bad?
There is a team in Knoxville that is pretty good.
Bama and Tennessee look like the two best teams. Too bad we only play once this season.
The answer to your last question, in short, is yes. The slightly longer answer is that it is a very talented team that any above average coach could get 25-30 wins out of playing basic offense and 2-3 defense; but Cal is not even an average coach by any stretch of the imagination, he is only a recruiter.
He had a title. You got nothing BB.
He had a title in 2012. That was ten years ago. Now let me dumb that down for a feeble-minded simpleton like you–he has brought in top 5 recruting class after top 5 recruiting class and has yet to win another title since 2012. It’s obvious you haven’t followed the Cats long or you would know that UK basketball is expected to win championships.
But keep on beating the drum of mediocrity and enjoying first round tournament losses. I guess when you are nothing you expect nothing.
Kentucky has a 3 point win at home against LSU which is projected as not making the tournament and that’s impressive? We don’t really know what LSU is but KY has been on a free fall out of the Top 25 yet they are an 8 seed.
How long does KY get a pass based on potential?
They should not get a pass… But to LSU’s credit, they only lost by 3 on the road to a team that has a lot of NBA talent. The problem is that the Cats are so inconsistent that you never really know how well the team sponsored therapists are able to massage the egos before each game. Not saying that Kentucky won’t pull it together by March, but there will continue to be clunkers between now and then. Such is the life of Kentucky basketball under Cal.
I mean, I agree with you 100%. But this happens in other sports (especially football) and UK definitely doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt so I’ll take it in an off year. If you’re a name brand you get that benefit of the doubt way longer than the rest.
Also, I wouldn’t sell yourself short at all. You already have an amazing W and if you hit 3’s like you did last night, I don’t see you losing many more games.
It’s been an off decade.
So have my 40’s.
This is one of the best rosters Bama has had in some 20 years. Three true point guards (Q, Bradley, Sears), an elite scorer and All-American type player (Miller Time), a do it all PF (Clowney), size inside (Bediako, Pringle, Gurley), elite perimeter defenders (Welch, Burnett), shooters all over the court, and exceptional length and size from 1-5.
Oats hit it out of the park with his recruiting class and transfer additions. I just hope they continue to get better and gel as a team because this could end up being a really special season in Tuscaloosa.
alabama is a basketball school!
Bama makes the Final Four. Nobody else is Top Ten.
The job the Bama Coach has done is nothing short of amazing.
He will be in the NBA in less than two years.