1. Is Kentucky is a potential juggernaut just waiting for their kids to grow up or does this group have more serious flaws? The narrative is murky at best. Last week’s losses to Notre Dame and Baylor (the latter ending the nation’s longest home winning streak) made for the ugliest stretch of John Calipari’s tenure in Lexington, with questions over the Wildcats’ point guard play again playing a major role. Archie Goodwin saw most of the time at point, but he committed five turnovers and frequently looked out of control when attacking the basket. Ryan Harrow had a promising stretch toward the end of the game, providing fans with a minor positive talking point, but Calipari probably wouldn’t agree with that assessment, though. After being asked about the transfer point guard on Saturday, he said “We are happy he’s on the court. He was 1-for-9.”
2. Last week’s biggest off-the-court news from SEC country came out of Columbia, Missouri, as senior guard Michael Dixon announced his intention to transfer. Dixon had not played this season because of a violation of team rules, the details of which had not be released, but it appears that allegations of forcible rape from two separate accusers (one in 2010) are driving the situation. Many questions remain, however, as Missouri officials aren’t eager to talk about Dixon’s departure. The circumstances surrounding the case may be drastically different, but the Dez Wells fiasco at Xavier is tough to ignore when considering Missouri’s actions. Over the summer, Wells was expelled from school for a similar accusation, although he was cleared of all criminal charges (and even earned an impassioned public defense from the local district attorney).
3. Arkansas fans came out in droves to support their Razorbacks against Big East power Syracuse, leaving Jim Boeheim very impressed with the atmosphere in Bud Walton Arena. “This is a tough, tough place,” he told reporters. “You have to play 40 minutes. You have to play every minute. You make a couple of mistakes and they’re going to take it away from you.” BJ Young and Marshawn Powell combined for 44 points to give #6 Syracuse a scare, but a monster night off the bench from James Southerland ensured that there would be no upset in Fayetteville. The senior forward was unstoppable, scoring 35 points on a 9-13 effort from long range.
4. Few can argue that Florida is the class of the SEC, but the battle for the position of conference cellar-dweller is a tight one, and Vanderbilt has a pretty compelling case. The Commodores have only two wins, and can point to a résumé-bolstering 17-point loss to the MAAC’s mighty Marist Red Foxes. Coach Kevin Stallings believes offensive deficiencies are to blame. “I thought the difference was their ability to generate more easy baskets than we could generate,” Stallings said after Saturday’s home loss to Villanova. “We didn’t run very crisp offense, and when we did run crisp offense, we missed quite a few open looks that we certainly could have made.” Against the Wildcats, Vanderbilt wasn’t shy about shooting from distance, putting up 26 attempts. They’ll have to make more than nine though to give themselves a chance to steal wins in conference.
5. The 2012 SEC/Big East Challenge was tied at two apiece after the event’s opening night, but the Big East went on a tear on Friday and Saturday, finishing with a 9-3 edge. The SEC’s only victory on those two days came out of Oxford, Mississippi, as Marshall Henderson continued his blistering pace to start his Ole Miss career. The JuCo transfer has transformed the Rebel offense, providing deadly outside shooting for a team that desperately needed it. Henderson is averaging almost four made three-pointers per game, while the entire Ole Miss team averaged only 4.4 makes last season. The senior frontcourt duo of Murphy Holloway and Reginald Buckner were expected to be one of the league’s strongest, but Henderson’s presence diversifies the offense, which will make the Rebels much tougher to defend when conference play rolls around.

DPerry (53 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2012 at 6:31 am by DPerry and is filed under microsites, morning 5, sec. Tagged: archie goodwin, arkansas, bj young, john calipari, kentucky, kevin stallings, marshall henderson, marshawn powell, Michael Dixon, missouri, ole miss, ryan harrow, vanderbilt. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.