With college basketball tipping off around the country tonight, let’s take a look what to watch for involving SEC teams this weekend.

Who are they playing? There’s no better way for the league to boost its dwindling reputation than by winning non-conference games against quality opponents. It’s only one weekend, but it doesn’t look like the SEC has much opportunity to start changing minds right out of the gate. Overall the league has, to put it lightly, an uninspiring slate of games on tap. There’s nothing wrong with that — you don’t necessarily want to schedule opening games with the Kansases and Dukes of the world right off the bat. This just means that the onus is on the league to not drop an embarrassing game this weekend, especially for teams with NCAA aspirations like Arkansas and LSU. Tennessee and Georgia have tricky games as well, but other than those (vs. VCU and Georgia Tech, respectively), you would expect the league to get to Monday unscathed. One note: Kentucky and Missouri are doubling up and face considerably tougher competition on Sunday, at least according to KenPom. The Wildcats shouldn’t have a problem, of course, but Valparaiso might be a sneaky upset pick against Kim Anderson’s young team. The full list of games involving SEC teams is below.

It’s all about platoons. Of course this piece contains a few words on the platoon system, and how could it not? There are so many questions about the system John Calipari plans to run this season: how will the minutes work out on a team of future pros? Will Coach Cal stick to it throughout an entire game? A month? An entire season? Will everyone stay happy? Kentucky has a quick turnaround with a game tonight against Grand Canyon and another on Sunday against Buffalo, which should allow the platoon system to pay immediate dividends. The most interesting question will be what happens when future games get tight and the Wildcats need to close out better opponents. Unfortunately, we’ll probably need to wait until Tuesday against Kansas for a better answer to that question.

Get ready. The platoon system is coming to a television screen near you (ESPN Photo).

Pearl Jam. One of the most anticipated debuts this weekend will be Bruce Pearl’s first game on the sidelines at Auburn. The Tigers sold out their season ticket allotment for the first time since 1999, and it’ll be interesting to see if that level of buzz fills the arena right away. There’s a sentimental angle at play too, as Pearl faces off against one of his former teams, Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The Tigers will be without Matthew Atewe for some time, putting virtually all the frontcourt weight on JuCo transfer Cinmeon Bowers, and Panthers junior forward Matt Tiby could be a challenge (12.0 points per game, 17.7 PER, 20.4% defensive rebounding rate) for the thin Auburn frontcourt.

Who is Dorian Finney-Smith? For my money Finney-Smith is the biggest X-factor on a Florida team full of X-factors. Chris Walker and Devin Robinson have high ceilings based on sheer talent alone. Finney-Smith has a high a ceiling based on what we’ve seen during his two years playing Division I basketball. He’s one of the SEC’s best rebounders, can guard virtually any position on the floor, and is a great distributor at the forward position. The key to his game is his outside shooting, and if he can knock down the three as he did at Virginia Tech (36.6%) better than he did last season (29.55), the Gators have a bona fide two-way star. So who is Dorian Finney-Smith? Can he take a leap forward? We’ll begin to find out tonight, especially with frontcourt-mate Walker suspended.

Can Dorian Finney-Smith go from role player to star? (Getty)

What’s up with Kenny Gaines? Georgia’s second-leading scorer from last season has been battling mononucleosis. Mark Fox originally said he wouldn’t suit up tonight against Georgia Tech, but he’s practiced the last few days and could play “a little bit.” This isn’t college football, so a loss to the Yellow Jackets won’t ruin the Bulldogs’ season. But SEC schools have such a small margin for error that any loss could be what puts a team on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. Will the committee excuse an opening game loss with a less-than-healthy Gaines? Probably not. Of course the Bulldogs can avoid that situation by winning tonight in Atlanta, but that’s easier said than done without one of their best players.

Greg Mitchell (@gregpmitchell) (231 Posts)

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2014 at 2:45 pm by Greg Mitchell and is filed under microsites, sec. Tagged: auburn, bruce pearl, dorian finney-smith, florida, georgia, john calipari, Kenny Gaines, kentucky, sec. 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.