SEC Hoops notebook

Two topics dominated the discussion: the anticipated improved reputation of the SEC next season and the arrival of new Kentucky coach John Calipari.  Nearly every coached was asked to weigh in on the two topics, and here are the highlights.

The SEC suffered through a down year last season, culminating in only three teams being invited to the NCAA Tournament.  Perhaps the biggest insult was that SEC East Co-champion South Carolina was not invited.  Coaches seem to agree that the poor reputation was the product of youth and poor performance on the court.  They expect that to change next season.

“For some reason or another there was a perception that became a reality at the end of November, early December,” Arkansas head coach John Pelphry, whose team was for lack of a better term bad last year.  “The media started talking about the league being down, and we never really got that off us, at all.  We weren’t able to shake it with our play, either.”

 “I think the league was down a little bit more than I expected,” Vanderbilt head coach Kevin Stallings said. “If you go back and check, we’ve had six teams in the NCAA Tournament six of the last eight years, so it’s not going to stay like that.  It was just a year when a lot of people were caught in major periods of transition.  We just had a year where a lot of our programs were young, and you’ll see the exact opposite this year.”

“I think the biggest hurdle our league had to overcome was the youth in the league,” Mississippi’s Andy Kennedy said.  “We were so young top to bottom, and as a result we had some growing pains.  That was reflected at the end of the season with only three teams being in the NCAA Tournament.”

“These things have a way of ebbing and flowing,” Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl added.  “A lot of it doesn’t have to do with whether the league is up or down, it has to do with the influx of players.  For us last year, we had very few senior players that were the best players in our league.  It was a league that was dominated by underclassmen and young players.  With the vast majority of those players coming back, […] obviously our league is due.  […] Last year the league was down.  That doesn’t mean SEC basketball was down.”

As with the strength of the conference, most of the coaches were asked about Calipari.  Calipari built a powerhouse program at Memphis with relatively limited resources, and now moves to Kentucky, where the resources are nearly unlimited.  The other coaches were not as eager to promote Calipari’s arrival as they were to tout the improved league, but Tennessee’s Pearl summed up the general feeling.

“John has raised the bar tremendously for all of us,” he said.  “It’s going to bring great credibility to our league, and John being in our league is going to make us all better.  It’s going to be more difficult to win a championship, and it’s going to be more difficult to finish ahead of Kentucky.”

QUICK HITTERS

- One of the teams that should be better next season is Vanderbilt.  The Commodores return several key players from last year’s squad, including standout center AJ Ogilsvy.  Ogilsvy struggled with injuries and illness last season, and when he was less than full strength, the Commodores struggled as well.  A healthy Ogilsvy should mean a much better Commodore team.

“If we can keep AJ healthy and free from injury, we’ll see a tremendous improvement in him,” said Stallings.  “Last summer became a lost summer because he tried to make the Australian national team and didn’t make it.  Then it was really too late to get him back to campus for summer school.  This summer he’s going to be on campus all summer and that’s going to pay dividends for him.  The key for him is, he’s gotten a significant case of the flu each season that he’s been here, and we’ve got to keep that from happening.”

- Former South Carolina assistant Ken Potosnak, who was out of basketball last season, was hired this summer at Auburn, where he joins Jeff Lebo’s staff.  Potosnak was the key recruiter on Dave Odom’s staff, and he will be expected to provide a boost to the Auburn recruiting efforts.

“I’ve know Kenny for a long time and we’re excited to have him,” said Lebo.  “Kenny is a long time vet – 20 years of coaching, at The Citadel as an assistant and then Furman and South Carolina.  Kenny can do a little bit of everything and will have a lot of responsibility on our staff, not only recruiting-wise but coaching on the court, scouting.  We’re real excited about having him join our program, we think he’ll bring a lot of fresh ideas.”

- For the second straight year, one of the SEC’s new coaches comes to the SEC after replacing one of the league’s other coaches.  Last year, it was Darrin Horn, who replaced then-Georgia coach Dennis Felton at Western Kentucky.  This year, it is new Georgia coach Mark Fox who replaced LSU coach Trent Johnson at Nevada (Johnson coached at Stanford in between leaving Nevada and joining LSU).  Unlike Horn and Felton, whose relationship was somewhere between frosty and non-existent, Fox and Johnson are good friends.

“Obviously I have a lot of respect for Mark,” said Johnson.  “We know each other very well.  I think he has all the ingredients not to be a good coach, but a great coach.”

- Although the SEC was largely spared from losing players early to the NBA Draft this summer, there were a lot of nervous coaches as players like Devan Downey, Dominique Archie, Tyler Smith, Jarvis Varnado, Marcus Washington, and Patrick Patterson all tested the waters before returning to school.  Several coaches expressed a desire to change the one and done rule, which requires players to attend college for one year before entering the NBA Draft.  As expressed by Johnson, several coaches would like to see a rule more like that in football or baseball.

“I’m in favor of what football and baseball have done,” he said.  “If they’re good enough to go [out of high school], let them go, but if they come back to school, they’re in it for three years.  You can look at the pros and cons of it from the NCAA, or you can look at the pros and cons of it from the NBA, but I tend to look at it from guys who are out on the street not playing basketball and are living productive lives, and obviously an education benefits that.”

- It would not be right to go around the league without a few words from the man himself.  Calipari’s segment on the teleconference lasted longer than any other coach’s.  For a man known as a tireless recruiter, it probably should not be surprising that he used his time primarily as a recruiting pitch.

“The only more important days than those first 90 when you take over a program are game days.  Those first 90 are vital that you get off running and you do so many things.  One of them is just learn, and I’m learning as quickly as I possibly can, about the campus, I’m having to learn about the SEC.  We’re having to use this time to evaluate facilities, looking at your schedule, looking at recruiting, looking at your staff, your office setup,” Calipari said in his opening statement.  “You’re touching as many people as you can touch.  These 90 days have been hectic but exciting.  I’ve had a lot of fun with it, but it’s been an absolute whirlwind.”