The first recipient of the 2011-12 SEC Player of the Week was not one that most SEC basketball wonks would have predicted: Tennessee’s Trae Golden. The sophomore guard earned the award with 29 points, six rebounds, nine assists, two blocks and a steal in 27 minutes against UNC Greensboro last Friday. Golden gunned his lofty point total by being perfect on his two-point attempts (5-5) and deadly everywhere else (3-4 FT, 3-9 3FG). In one game this season, Golden nearly matched the six made three-pointers from the entire season last year. If Golden can continue being the Most Professional Volunteer, Tennessee can exceed the marginal preseason predictions set for them.

Trae Golden has a license to kill opponents from behind the 3-point line (TNJN/B. Ozburn)

On the other hand, pundits expected that the first SEC Freshman of the Week would be one of the four players that make up Kentucky‘s incredible freshman class. This first week features forward Anthony Davis, who tallied 23 points, ten rebounds, five blocks and three assists in just 23 minutes of action versus Marist last Friday. Eight of Davis’ ten field goals were dunks; unofficially Davis may be leading the nation in Fewest Non-Dunk Field Goals per minute played. With Davis’ lauded freshmen classmates Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague and Kyle Wiltjer yet to be honored with a weekly award, the SEC may just consider creating a Kentucky-specific freshman award so that UK fans can celebrate regional recognition while the rest of the conference’s talented freshmen also get spotlighted.

SEC Set Your TiVo will take a look ahead at each week’s key games. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

After the first real weekend of college basketball action, the SEC dives headfirst into the non-conference schedule. The conference will have six teams participating in national tournaments through Thursday. Vanderbilt (TicketCity Legends Classic) and Georgia (Progressive CBE Classic) stay on their home courts for preliminary round games; LSU (DIRECTV Charleston Classic), Kentucky (State Farm Champions Classic), Alabama (Puerto Rico Tip-Off) and Mississippi State (2KSports Classic) travel to neutra court sites. Florida faces its first Top 10 test in non-tournament action.

This will be the national introduction for nearly all of these SEC teams. Which games should you watch live (besides those of your favorite team)?

#2 Kentucky vs. #13 Kansas (at Madison Square Garden) – Tuesday, Nov. 15, 9 PM EST on ESPN (*****)

Kentucky sophomore guard Doron Lamb packs his 3-goggles for a trip home to the Big Apple (pic via http://kentuckybasketball.tumblr.com)

Kentucky gets its first real challenge at the State Farm Champions Classic in New York City. This Kansas team looks different than the team who ran into the VCU buzzsaw last March in the NCAA Elite Eight. The only returning Jayhawk starter is senior point guard Tyshawn Taylor; the experienced bench from last season — junior forwards Travis Releford and Thomas Robinson, junior senior Jeff Withey and junior Elijah Johnson — now becomes the experienced starters. Although they started this season with questions about their bench depth, the Jayhawks played nine players for 14 minutes or more in their 100-54 victory over Towson on Saturday. In just 14 minutes, junior transfer forward Kevin Young tallied 13 points and seven rebounds.

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Throughout the season, RTC’s Gerald Smith will be bringing you off-the-cuff and odd recaps of games: Quick, Fake Summaries. This first one of the season involves Vanderbilt‘s shocking 71-58 home loss to Cleveland State Sunday afternoon.

Vanderbilt was flying high into this season. Despite another early NCAA Tournament exit, the Commodores returned seniors Jeffery Taylor and John Jenkins to a team that led the SEC in scoring last season. They opened up their gym to two teams of green; one (Oregon) self-destructed with unforced turnovers on Friday. Today, the other green team was glowing and sapped the strength from the Super-Seniors.

Cleveland State’s quick guards hindered Jenkins (5-14 FG, 2-8 3FG, 5-7 FT for 17 points), preventing him from getting comfortable shooting behind screens. Those quick-as-a-Flash guards nullified senior point guard Brad Tinsley (two asists, three turnovers) by making him a defensive liability; head coach Kevin Stallings was forced to play Tinsley only 21 minutes and sophomore guard Kevin Fuller (three turnovers) fared little better. The senior forward Taylor was practically nonexistent with just nine points, four rebounds and six turnovers.

The Vikings’ broad-shouldered Aaron Pogue out-muscled senior forward Steve Tchiengang (five points, ten rebounds, one block). With senior center Festus Ezeli out with an injury and suspension, Vanderbilt had no inside-out post game. Well, no post game completely: the Commodores scored just 10 points in the paint. Without any offensive push and no ability to stop the Viking’s constant scoring, Vanderbilt wimpered all the way into the pool of defeat.

Kentucky 108, Marist 58

The Kentucky team that coach John Calipari claims could be beaten a hundred other NCAA teams appeared in the first half of their contest versus a physical Marist team. Perhaps the team stayed up too late worried sick about Terrence Jones, who had quite the Thursday night on his own. The Red Foxes used forward Andy Kemp to facility an inside-out game that sliced and shot-over the sluggish Wildcats defense. Calipari said after the game that without Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (11 points, five rebounds and nearly every positive defensive play in 1st half) and Anthony Davis (ten points, five rebounds in 1st half), “we are down at halftime.”

Kentucky forward Anthony Davis' ability to dunk nearly any lob pass let the Wildcats stay ahead of Marist. (Photo via 247 Sports.)

In the second half, as Marist coach Chuck Martin said afterwards, “the No. 2 team in the country showed up.” With ten blocks and five steals and eight forced turnovers in the second half, Kentucky held Marist to just 22 total points on 17.1% FG. Kentucky’s Davis finished with 23 points and should have a special stat created for him called, “Points Not Scored On Dunks.” Wildcat point guard Marquis Teague finished with 16 points, four assists and three turnovers.

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1. Feeling a bit more chipper and joyful than usual? It wasn’t that extra hour of sleep Sunday morning; it’s because today is the start of the 2011-12 basketball season! Tonight Mississippi State will face Eastern Kentucky in a game that actually counts! Tonight’s untelevised matchup is part of a regional round of play for the 2011 2K Sports Classic. Even though you can’t see the Bulldogs play until their ESPNU appearance against Akron on Wednesday, your basketball-loving soul should be soaring.
2. At long last, the adoption is official: The SEC has new brothers in the Missouri Tigers. The latest school to be nabbed in SEC Expansion 2011: ALL YOUR TEAMS ARE BELONG TO US, Missouri made the official announcement with SEC Commissioner Mike Slive yesterday. Slive said that effective July 1, 2012, the Tigers would compete in the SEC East division. Parting is not such sweet sorrow for the Big 12: Interim commissioner Chuck Neinas said in a statement that Missouri’s decision was, “disappointing… I personally believe this decision is a mistake.” By leaving the Big 12, the long-standing rivalry game between Mizzou and Kansas may be dropped.We hope that Jayhawks and Tigers can overcome their differences and continue the Border War Border Showdown.
3. But why stop at just 14 teams? That’s what Kentucky coach John Calipari has been asking this whole time of SEC Expansion. Coach Cal told ESPN’s Andy Katz that the SEC should just go ahead and grab two more teams for a total of 16 since he expects other major conferences to do the same. We’re not for sure which schools would be the next two schools to join the SEC since the Big 12 & Big East have raised their conference exit fees. The Big East is also attempting to force West Virginia to fulfill its 27-month exit period. Perhaps the SEC should just wait until things settle down before grabbing another group of teams.
4. There is one place that is not expanding currently in the SEC: basketball rosters in the state of Mississippi. Ole Miss will be without the services of freshman guard LaDarius White until at least the end of the fall semester. White has not met NCAA academic standards and will be ineligible for competition until he’s brought his grades back up. Mississippi State’s Kristers Zeidaks was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for the entire 2011-12 season and the first 11 games of the 2012-13 season. The suspension is two games longer than the one imposed on current MSU forward Renardo Sidney for when he had to sit out the entire 2009-10 season.
5. One roster change may be imminent in the former SEC East. As we mentioned Wednesday morning, Kentucky sophomore Stacey Poole is considering a transfer to another school. Poole sat out of the Wildcats’ exhibition game last week but remains on campus. Theoretically if Poole can complete his coursework for the fall semester he will become eligible for basketball in the spring semester of 2012-13 and have two more seasons of eligibility. The 6’4″ guard is behind Doron Lamb, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Darius Miller on the Wildcats’ depth chart. For his part Kentucky coach John Calipari said he would support Poole even if he decides to transfer: “I don’t blame him,” Calipari said. We hope for either a happy ending of Poole’s career at Kentucky or a happy new beginning.

1. Exhibition Fever: Catch it! This part of the season ramps up the scrimmages that aren’t secret and that make money for the athletic department. Exhibition results aren’t meant to be true measures of a team’s effectiveness but usually fans can glean one or two interesting items from the results. On Tuesday Auburn beat Paine College, 86-60. Sophomore guard Chris Denson’s team-high 21 points was complemented by junior center Rob Chubb’s 14 points and 8 rebounds. Head coach Tony Barbee expressed his pleasure with the exhibition results post-game: “I like that we outrebounded them by 17. I was proud that we had a 2-to-1 assist to turnover ratio. Those are goals of ours for every game.” Now every TV commentator has their Auburn Keys of the Game written for them. Thanks, coach!
2. Yesterday Billy Donovan scored 13 points in a losing effort against Billy Donovan. No, they have not made a cloning breakthrough at the University of Florida; Coach Donovan’s son Billy plays for Division III Catholic University. As the exhibition opponent, the younger Billy’s team was drummed to the score of 114-57 at the O’Connell Center Thursday evening. The Cardinals were overwhelmed by the Gators’ relentless press (50 points off 23 turnovers) and long-range shooting (20-40 three-pointers). Freshman guard Bradley Beal scored 20 points and redshirt junior guard Mike Rosario scored 18 in their first exhibition game as Gators.
3. A little further north, Division II Kentucky Wesleyan College suffered a similar but less-intense three-point storm from South Carolina. In Wednesday night’s exhibition game, the Gamecocks made it rain with 10-of-19 three-point shooting and thundered to a 69-59 victory. Freshman forward Anthony Gill led all scorers with 14 points. Sophomore forward Damontre Harris tallied five blocks helping USC’s zone bother KWC’s shooting. Gamecocks coach Darrin Horn focused on the surprising positives after the game: “I think our guys are confident in each other. And that’s why you see 14 assists on 23 buckets the first time out.”
4. Tennessee’s Jordan McRae is a key component for his already-limited team. If McRae can contribute at both ends of the floor, the Volunteers will have a successful and entertaining transition into the Cuonzo Martin era. During yesterday’s 73-52 victory over Carson-Newman College, McRae led all scorers with 17 points and added three blocks and two steals. Former Marquette player Jeronne Maymon pulled down 15 rebounds with ten points. Renaldo “Swiperboy” Woolridge had four points, two assists and two blocks in just 18 minutes of play. We wonder if he’ll play better once his official Swiperboy shoes are on store shelves across Knoxville.
5. With the loss of Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie to the NBA, one would expect Georgia coach Mark Fox’s biggest worry would be replacing those two forwards. Thompkins and Leslie provided roughly 43% of the Bulldog’s points, 47% of all offensive rebounds and 40% of all defensive rebounds last season. Instead of finding the next Trey and Travis, the current crop of Bulldogs are focusing on using the frontcourt players they have: Junior John Florveus and freshmen John Cannon and Nemanja Djurisic. Fox said in a Wednesday interview session, “they all have different traits that you like. But none of them are complete yet, and they just have so much to learn and experience as they start to get their feet wet.” While we don’t expect any of Georgia’s frontcourt players to contribute heavily in offensive sets, they will need to approximate Leslie’s and Thompkins’ rebounding productivity to regain their 32nd-best national rebounding margin ranking from the end of the 2010-11 season.

1. While we keep an eye on the Opening Night countdown timer on the top-left corner — anybody got a magical Hylian Ocarina? — we are squeezing every drop out of the SEC Media Days. This morning’s informative drip involves Georgia coach Mark Fox pouring out accolades for freshman guard and McDonald’s All-American Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Citing his great demeanor and team-first attitude, Fox expects upperclassmen Dustin Ware and Gerald Robinson to mentor Caldwell-Pope and help him adjust and contribute immediately to the Bulldogs. The team will need Caldwell-Pope up-to-speed quickly, as the Bulldogs will need to replace the scoring output of Travis Leslie. Quick: double-time it!
2. After being suspended from the Florida basketball team for his part in breaking into a car last April, junior forward Erik Murphy needed a mentor. Erik’s father contacted former McDonald’s All-American point guard Chris Herren — the subject of the ESPN documentary Unguarded — about Herren’s spiral into drug and alcohol abuse and subsequent recovery. Herren spent the summer with Murphy in Rhode Island working out their basketball games and their personal demons. Murphy tells Gatorsports.com that he is in the best physical shape of his career thanks to Herren’s workouts. His Florida teammates hope that he’s matured enough to handle his supporting role on a team that could crack the Top 5 this season.
3. It’s likely that Tennessee won’t be cracking any Top 25 lists this season (even with a Megaton Hammer). The Vols are short on the kind of talent necessary to succeed in coach Cuonzo Martin’s motion offense system. The pieces are coming into place, though; junior college transfer D’Montre Edwards announced he will sign with Tennessee as a member of the 2012 recruiting class. Edwards led Brevard Community College last season with 15.4 PPG, 6.8 RPG and hitting 37% of his three-pointers. If Martin can secure a few more members of the 2012 class — complementing Edwards and 2012 recruit Derek Reese — the Vols will have a solid foundation for competitiveness next season.
4. Another member of the 2012 recruiting class announced for a SEC team yesterday. Willie Cauley, a four-star player ranked #36 overall by Rivals.com, committed to Kentucky. The seven-foot Cauley seems like the perfect player for Coach John Calipari’s weakside inside player. Cauley picked the Wildcats over Florida and a few other non-conference teams. The basketball and football star might also draw the attention of Kentucky football head coach Joker Phillips, who is desperate for a tall wide receiver who can catch the ball.
5. The Associated Press preseason All-American list released yesterday features just one SEC player: Kentucky sophomore forward Terrence Jones. The preseason SEC Player of the Year joins Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger, Harrison Barnes of North Carolina, Jeremy Lamb of Connecticut and Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor on the team. Jones’ campaign for Player of the Year honors will be enjoyed by increasing numbers of SEC fans. Joe Dorish of Yahoo.com reports that the SEC had the third-highest average attendance for college basketball in 2010-11.

1. On this All Hallows’ Eve, Southeastern Conference teams prepare to survive yet another season where they are removed one-by-one from NCAA and SEC title contention in horror-movie style. Typically Auburn is the first victim, going missing early in the season and then tripping up other SEC Survivors late in the season. To avoid a similar fate head coach Tony Barbee will need to find more offensive production. Returning junior guard Frankie Sullivan from injury last season is a good start. Sullivan averaged 12.7 PPG when he was healthy during the 2009-10 season. Sullivan will be paired up with sophomore guard Varez Ward, who scored 18 points in an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday. Sullivan and Ward, a transfer from Texas who recovered from a ruptured right quadriceps tendon last season, must be two of the Tiger heroes that can last until the climax of the season to give Auburn a fighting chance.
2. Alabama also didn’t survive to the NCAA Tournament last season. The Crimson Tide spent most of the conference schedule fighting off mortal wounds inflicted upon themselves with some terrible non-conference losses in November 2010 and a weak non-conference schedule overall. (Losing to Saint Peter’s is like the horror-movie hero running from the villain only to impale himself on a pitchfork.) This season’s non-conference schedule is improved; but to truly survive Anthony Grant’s team will need production from its newest members, including freshman phenom Trevor Lacey, to provide much-needed perimeter scoring and fill other roles.
3. LSU is also piecing together the right combination of players and coaching in order to survive the SEC and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009. The Bayou Bengals have a more talented roster, including freshman forward and McDonald’s All-American Johnny O’Bryant to provide immediate playmaking. LSU coach Trent Johnson has apparently found some improvement for himself when reflecting on last year’s team. In SEC Basketball Media days, Johnson admitted, “last year with some injuries there were some games that got away from us. And I thought that it wasn’t them; I suppose it was me.” The coach compared this season’s team favorably to his 2008-09 NCAA Tournament squad. Perhaps with a clear heart Johnson and his Tigers can replicate the success they’ve had in previous versions of the SEC Horror Picture Show.
4. Florida coach Billy Donovan is doing the time-warp again! Donovan is the SEC’s longest-tenured coach starting his 15th season. (Check out Alligator Army’s 15-for-15 season-preview series written in honor of the Gator coach.) The coach recently reflected on his tenure for reporters, including sharing his reasoning on turning down a second round of interest from SEC East rival Kentucky in 2009.
5. Speaking of Kentucky, freshman forward Anthony Davis says “OOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!”

Vanderbilt’s hopes to challenge for a high NCAA Tournament seed have become a little more complicated. Senior center Festus Ezeli sprained the MCL and PCL ligaments in his right knee during Tuesday’s practice. Luckily for the preseason All-SEC Second-Teamer, the injury does not require surgery and he should return within six to eight weeks.

We Hear Ya, Big Man. Get Better Soon.

Senior forward Steve Tchiengang will likely replace Ezeli as the starting center. Redshirt freshman Josh Henderson was already planning to see more action due to Ezeli’s NCAA-mandated six-game suspension for ineligible benefits. Now Tchingang and Henderson will need to extend their roles through nearly every significant non-conference game for the Commodores: November 21 vs. either Texas or Oregon State in the TicketCity Legends Classic Finals; November 28 vs. Xavier featuring the recently reinstated 7-footer Kenny Frease; and December 2 at Louisville where Ezeli was expected to be productive against Cardinal centers Gorgui Dieng and Stephan Van Treese.

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The Big 12 offered the last rose to West Virginia. Sad tears are shed in Louisville’s limo while happy tears and embraces punctuate the official Big 12 press release.

Another feline in the SEC family! (Image via http://hewhowalkswithtigers.deviantart.com/)

Wait… In that press release, where’s Missouri in the list of ten Big 12 schools that’ll comprise the conference in 2012-13? Nothing official has been announced — well, nothing that wasn’t an error by a web vendor — but it appears that Mizzou has finalized its move to the Southeastern Conference. With Big 12 ex-pats Texas A&M also joining in the 2012-13 season, the pesky scheduling problem that comes with having thirteen basketball teams might have gotten easier.

We’ll update this post with any official news about Missouri to the SEC if it breaks later today. Otherwise, time for some Tiger hugs!