SEC Offseason Burning Questions, Part I
Posted by Greg Mitchell on April 12th, 2016The SEC will be a very different league next season, in no small part as a result of losing its two most influential players to the NBA — Kentucky’s Tyler Ulis and LSU’s Ben Simmons. Here are five burning questions looking ahead to next season, as the league will once again try to put #SECBasketballFever to bed.
Can Mike Anderson Survive Another Year?
- Can Kentucky start completely from scratch? It’s become played-out sarcasm: the Wildcats lose a lot of talent; how ever will they recover? We should assume that Coach Cal will seamlessly mold a group of elite freshmen into a team deserving national consideration, and next year will be no different. Top-10 recruits Malik Monk, De’Aaron Fox and Bam Adebayo lead another stacked class headed to Lexington, but consider this: The Wildcats have not truly had to start from square one in three years. The 2014-15 (Harrison twins, Willie Cauley-Stein, Dakari Johnson, Alex Poythress) and 2015-16 (Ulis, Poythress) teams each returned major contributors from Final Four runs. The Isaiah Briscoe/Marcus Lee/Derek Willis trio figures to be a solid core but lacks the star power of the previous groups. We know Calipari is up for the challenge, but it has been a few years since he’s had this much inexperience in key roles.
- Is Mike Anderson under pressure? The prodigal son has gotten Arkansas to the NCAA Tournament only once since returning to Fayetteville five years ago. Given that Stan Heath earned twice as many bids in his five years before being shown the door, Anderson’s performance thus far has come in well under expectations. This year could be considered a write-off after Bobby Portis and Michael Qualls left school early, but patience is clearly wearing thin in Fayetteville. Anderson without question feels the pressure, as he signed four JuCo players in this year’s class, including well-regarded guards Jaylen Bradford and Daryl Macon. They’ll pair with returnees Dusty Hannahs and Moses Kingsley, both of whom should be in the running for preseason all-SEC honors. Losing Monk to the Calipari Machine was a huge blow no matter the circumstances, but it’s even more damaging for a coach that might be advocating for his job next season.
- Will Kentucky have a challenger next season? It looks like next year could be another season where the SEC champion is never really in doubt. Texas A&M will return three quality rising sophomores in Tyler Davis, D.J. Hogg and Admon Gilder, but the Aggies lose four important seniors. Georgia figures to have a great one-two punch in J.J. Frazier and Yante Maten, and South Carolina should have a chip on its shoulder after its Selection Sunday snub. A Florida team returning a number of key pieces also cannot be dismissed. But none of these teams — again, at least on paper — seem to have the quality depth to keep up with the Wildcats.
- Where is Florida’s program heading? This year represented a successful debut season for Mike White, even if the Gators didn’t ultimately make the NCAA Tournament. With largely the same group of players from a season ago, Florida added five wins, played faster and raised its offensive efficiency from 151st to 84th in the country, all while maintaining its great defense. The question now is whether White can make the next step and actually take a team to the NCAA Tournament. Remember, all of his great work at Louisiana Tech resulted in trips to the NIT. Florida’s fate next season will hinge in part on the development John Egbunu‘s raw post game and KeVaughn Allen‘s growth into a role as a featured scorer. White has the Gators’ program on the right track, but Billy Donovan set an extremely tall measuring stick in Gainesville.
- How much longer does Johnny Jones have at LSU? Or to put it another way, how much longer will Jones be the target of choice for SEC basketball Twitter (however small a community that may be)? Simmons left only disappointment from a standpoint of team success. Keith Hornsby ran out of eligibility and Tim Quarterman decided to forgo his senior year. All of these combine to seriously complicate the team’s outlook for next season. So much will depend on whether Antonio Blakeney returns to school, but even then the Tigers will need big steps forward from Jalyn Patterson, Brandon Simpson and Aaron Epps. Craig Victor will also need to morph into a primary offensive option. The pieces are there for the Tigers to remain a competitive group, but Jones has never been known for getting the most out of his teams. How much does he need to show next year in terms of progress to improbably continue his tenure in Baton Rouge?
