The SEC and Big East released the 12 pairings for its annual challenge on Friday, but lacks the powerhouse matchups one blogger expected. The scheduled games are as follows:

Thursday, November 29

• Marquette at Florida
• Seton Hall at LSU
• Kentucky at Notre Dame
• South Carolina at St. John’s

Friday, November 30

• Syracuse at Arkansas
• DePaul at Auburn
• Tennessee at Georgetown
• Georgia at South Florida

Saturday, December 1

• Alabama at Cincinnati
• Rutgers at Mississippi
• Mississippi State at Providence
• Villanova at Vanderbilt

Where are the headliner games? Where is Kentucky versus Syracuse? Louisville versus Florida? Missouri versus Notre Dame? Well, these games don’t exist because of the fine print in the conferences’ two-year agreement. After digging down into the logistics, the pairings make more sense, but it still doesn’t excuse the fact that this challenge lacks the firepower of the ACC/Big Ten matchup.

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1. A few weeks after it was first reported that Kentucky and Indiana would end their annual rivalry, The Indianapolis Star reported that Indiana athletic director Fred Glass attempted one final time to continue the series. He offered up the idea of playing “the game in 2012 and ’13 at Lucas Oil Stadium, then Rupp Arena in ’14 and Assembly Hall in ‘15[. . .] Tom (Crean) and I had continued to talk after the thing had blew up in early May as to whether there was a way to save the series and at the same time keep our value of having a game at Assembly Hall,’’ Glass said. “That’s when we came up with the idea of going to a four-year rotation. Those ideas had come to us from random people writing in and people I know suggesting that. ’’
2. As part of the SEC Spring Meetings, The Kansas City Star reported Thursday that Kansas City and the Sprint Center are in the running for a future men’s basketball tournament. The 2017 and 2018 tournaments are the first ones available as Nashville and Atlanta “I’ve had the opportunity to say we have two cities in the state of Missouri that are interested in hosting those championships,” Missouri Athletic Director Mike Alden said. St. Louis is also being considered for those two years. “People are really bidding on those things in a strong fashion, so it will really be important for St. Louis and Kansas City to step up and bring their ‘A’ game to get them.”
3. Scheduling dominated the meetings earlier in the week. On Wednesday, word leaked of an 18-game conference schedule that would involve each school playing one another once, playing four rotating schools in home-and-home contests and playing one “permanent rival” home-and-home every year. The athletic directors will finalize the schedule on Friday, but the rumored rivals will be Florida-Kentucky, Tennessee-Vanderbilt, Auburn-Alabama, Georgia-South Carolina, Ole Miss-Mississippi State, Texas A&M-LSU and Missouri-Arkansas. The last of those rivals feature a twist of former Tiger head coach Mike Anderson now serving as Razorback head man. “I used to coach at Missouri and all that. Some of the kids I recruited still play there. But with that being said, it adds a little drama to it, especially for the media. I think” the hype is “more from the media than it is from fans.”
4. Former Kentucky standout Anthony Davis made the media tours on Thursday after the New Orleans Hornets won the NBA Draft lottery. On the Dan Patrick Show, he “called out” Kobe Bryant leading to the following exchange. “You know, Kobe, he’s a monster,” Davis said. “So I want to just go out there and try my hardest. You know, there’s a lot of guys who can’t stop Kobe. So if I stop him, I’ll be one of them guys who can say, ‘I shut Kobe down.'” To which Patrick said, “Be careful what you ask for, Anthony. He listens to the show, and he’s got a great memory.” Davis replied with a laugh, “Tell him I’ll be waiting.”
5. At long last, Devonta Pollard, ESPN’s highest remaining recruit, will make the college decision at 6 p.m. on Friday. Alabama and Missouri have long been tied to Pollard, but Missouri has no available scholarship. From that account, “According to mom, Devonta signed four national letters of intent on May 16. With the post-dated letters of intent, there’s a window to turn them into the clearinghouse and Pollard’s national letter of intent should bind him to the program of his choosing.”

1. The biggest splash this week in the SEC again came from the defending champion Kentucky Wildcats and its scheduling choices. First, some group of stuffy faculty members chastised John Calipari’s decision to move toward more neutral site games. So what does Calipari do? He announced that UK has added Baylor to its schedule in a Rupp Arena game in 2012-13, but the Cats will travel to play the Bears in Cowboys Stadium in 2013-14. Now that’s an “experience.” But it’s not about playing Baylor. This move, as is seemingly everything Calipari does, is a strategic move to advance his program. First, four members of the 2013 high school class play in Texas, and all four are considering Kentucky. This is in part a recruiting move to gain an edge on his competitors. But first and foremost, Cowboys Stadium just happens to also be the host site for the 2014 Final Four. Calipari wants a practice run in the venue where his Cats hope to cut down the nets again in two years. That’s what scheduling huge neutral site games are all about — giving his squad a simulation of the biggest stage possible to prepare them for when the time comes.
2. While Kentucky is adding Baylor to its schedule, another SEC school is calling off its match-up with the Bears. Mississippi State and Baylor have agreed to cancel the two remaining games on their contract. New Bulldogs coach Rick Ray realizes he has a rebuilding year ahead of him. “We play in the toughest tournament known to mankind out at Maui and then we come back from that and our next game is Baylor,” Ray said. “We open up our season at Troy. Our schedule — if I had my say so, we wouldn’t have that type of a schedule. So, that’s a concern.” Mississippi State was set to host Baylor this season in Starkville, but would have been required to travel to Waco in 2013 to return the favor. The decision to cancel was mutual.
3. Yahoo Sports published a list of the top newcomers gracing the SEC with their presence next season, and a couple of Kentucky Wildcats were joined by a new member of the Missouri Tigers at the top of the list. Shouldn’t all of Missouri’s team be up for inclusion? Regardless, senior center Alex Oriakhi, a transfer from Connecticut, joins Kentucky freshmen Alex Poythress and Nerlens Noel as the players most likely to make an impact next season. From the article: “Noel is a defensive difference-maker. While he lacks bulk, he is athletic and already has advanced shot-blocking skills. His offense is raw, but his defense and rebounding make up for that.” Hey, that sounds familiar. Here’s what the site said last year at this time about Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis: “His shot-blocking and rebounding ability make him a game-changer defensively. His offensive skill set is good and continues to improve.” Not a bad person to be compared to at this stage in his career.
4. Arkansas added juco forward Coty Clarke to its roster earlier this week. Clarke averaged 14.5 points and 13.0 rebounds per game with Birmingham (AL) Lawson State Community College last season. Razorbacks coach Mike Anderson is excited about the addition. “Coty is excited about being a Razorback and that excites me,” Anderson said. “He is an athletic forward who can impact on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively. Coty has a blue collar mentality which is needed on this team. He is an excellent fit for the ‘Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball.’” Depth is an important issue for this year’s Arkansas team, as injuries impacted how far Anderson could go down the bench last year.
5. Our very own Rush the Court profiled a couple of former SEC players in our NBA Draft Profiles. Vanderbilt senior Festus Ezeli is viewed as a late first round pick in the mold of current Houston Rockets center Samuel Dalembert. RTC compared him to the big man, saying, “Ezeli has a similar skill set as a defense-first center with ideal size who can protect the rim. Dalembert, though, transitioned from a raw prospect to a 10-year NBA veteran who has averaged 8.0 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks in a strong career thanks to the ability to adapt to the speed of the NBA game.” Kentucky senior Darius Miller is hoping to get picked up in the second round and RTC says he has at least has the look of an NBA player. “While his three-point percentage dropped from the blistering 44.3% he shot as a junior to a merely good 37.6% as a senior, he’s shown NBA range and a willingness to step into the right shot when needed. Throw in the fact that at 6’8” and 235 pounds he’s got the frame to handle the big boys at the next level, and Miller looks the part of an NBA wing.” Good luck to both of the seniors as well as the rest of the SEC athletes hoping to be selected.

John Calipari and his Kentucky Wildcats ended its traditional rivalry with Indiana this offseason because of squabbles over where the game would be played in future years. But as a whole, the SEC should strive to play at home if it is seeking victories. That is the goal, after all? While Kentucky’s stated goal is to prepare itself for the NCAA Tournament while playing in large neutral site arenas to simulate the experience of the Big Dance, the Wildcats and the rest of the SEC did very well in the comforts of home during the 2011-12 season. The NCAA released 2011-12 men’s basketball attendance numbers a couple of weeks ago, and the SEC was amongst the leaders. All twelve SEC teams finished in the  top 100 of men’s Division I attendance. Below is how each SEC team ranked in terms of overall attendance:

But as we all know, size matters, and some venues are larger than others. I broke each attendance figure down into the percentage of capacity filled over the course of the season:

Some notes thus far:

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1. Kentucky missed out on a pair of the blue-chip forwards left in the recruiting period, Anthony Bennett and Amile Jefferson so now it appears that they will attempt to land Montrezl Harrell, who will be leaving Virginia Tech before even playing a game. Harrell committed to the Hokies before they let go of Seth Greenberg. Despite attempts by the school to change Harrell’s mind and keep him with the program, they eventually granted Harrell his release allowing him to explore his options.
2. Additionally on the Kentucky revolving-door roster situation, earlier in the week, the Wildcats landed one-year transfer Julius Mays from Wright State. May started his career at North Carolina State, where he averaged around five points per game over his two seasons. In one year at Wright State, he averaged 14.1 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. Mays will be able to play for the Wildcats next season as he is set to graduate from Wright State after the Spring semester and will enroll in a graduate program at Kentucky.
3. Kentucky maintained its place atop the college basketball attendance figures, leading the nation in average attendance for the seventh straight year (and 16th time in the previous 17 years). From the CBSSports.com article on the achievement, “Kentucky also set an single-season record for overall fans-per-game, as the team’s 22,148 number for its 40 games came out to a total of 885,953 fans. The previous record? Held by Syracuse, of course. The Orangemen saw 855,053 fans flock to their games back in 1989.”
4. Mike Anderson bolstered Arkansas’s non-conference slate as the Razorbacks will be part of the 2012 Las Vegas Invitational. The field includes Wisconsin, Arizona State, and Creighton. While Arizona State probably will still continue to struggle, the other two members of the field will be solid even if they are adjusting to the loss of some significant senior leadership in their backcourt.
5. With most of the uncommitted recruits making their decisions in the past week, some SEC schools still hold out hope they may land the top available prospect, Devonta Pollard from DeKalb, Mississippi. According to The Sporting News, three SEC schools remain in the mix as “he is believed to be down to Texas and Alabama but hasn’t ruled out Mississippi State, Missouri or Georgetown.”

1. The New York Times reports that incoming Kentucky freshman Nerlens Noel is being investigated by the NCAA for relationships among his inner circle. While some point fingers of allegations because of John Calipari and Kentucky’s involvement, CBSSports.com reminds us that this issue will continue to be a problem with many of the top recruits regardless of school affiliation. “Just change the name and you’ve got a new story,” a high-major assistant coach said to Jeff Borzello this week. But coaches like Bob Knight (long-time Calipari critic) and media members like Pete Thamel (author of the NYT story) continue to point to Calipari as what is wrong in college sports. “People want to say Calipari is the problem with the system,” said an SEC assistant coach. “They want to point their finger at him. But he’s no different than any of these other guys.”
2. Despite the buzz of allegations, Noel feels very confident that he will be eligible to play for Kentucky next season. He says that at this point the NCAA has not contacted him or his immediate family, and he feels that he is in a “great position to qualify,” even though he is aware of the investigation. “I don’t want to be too specific, but I’m in a good position to qualify,” Noel said in response to the NYT story. A Kentucky spokesman declined to comment, but Noel’s confidence has to be good news for the Cats.
3. While many of the nation’s top recruits end up in Lexington, Wright State transfer shooting guard Julius Mays may end up rejecting Cal’s Cats. Mays shot an impressive 42.4% from beyond the arc last season, but rather than use those talents for Kentucky he is looking instead at Matt Painter’s Purdue squad. “I would have a chance to score the ball and play guard with a great group of guys,” Mays said. “I feel like I could play for coach (Matt) Painter. I watch a lot of basketball, and any time Purdue is on, I watch them. You never know if this is my last visit. If I’m ready to choose, that’s what I will do.” Kentucky needs depth for next year’s team, and of course, a deadeye shooter wouldn’t hurt either.
4. Big guard Ralston Turner is considering a transfer and has been granted a release from LSU’s new coach Johnny Jones, who was hired to replace Trent Johnson this offseason. Turner indicated that he would like to take some time to think about his decision, but his release does not necessarily mean that he is leaving the Tigers. “I have been given my release and I will be taking a visit (to another school),” Turner said. “That’s all. I didn’t say I was 100 percent leaving (LSU). It’s something I have thought about for a while and Coach Jones is allowing me to do it. I am going to take a visit and when it’s over I will weigh my options.” Turner averaged 9.1 points and 3.0 rebounds per game in his sophomore year with the Tigers, and would be a solid returning player for Jones in his first year on the bench for LSU.
5. A lot of talk has centered around non-traditional schedules and Calipari’s desire to play at neutral sites, and now Indiana coach Tom Crean is defending his position regarding the recently dropped rivalry between the Hoosiers and the Wildcats. “First off, someone asked me do you not want to play neutral sites? We have neutral sites,” Crean told reporters. “When the Crossroads Classic came in, that became something that was going to be locked in every year. Even though it’s in Indianapolis, it’s a neutral site. It’s not a home site. You always want to have the ability to play in exempt tournaments. We’ve done that in the past. We have it this year, playing in New York. So there’s three right there.” It is a shame that Indiana and Kentucky cannot find a way to play considering the history and tradition that goes into that rivalry, but ultimately Calipari and Crean (and obviously the rest of the athletics staff involved) have to do what is perceived to be in the best interest of their program. Both head coaches have done enough recently (Cal with a National Championship and Crean with rebuilding IU from shambles) that trust in terms of whether or not each program is going in the right direction should not be an issue.

1. Due to a rash of injuries that has hit four of Team USA men’s basketball Olympic team original 20 finalists, recent Kentucky Wildcat Anthony Davis is reportedly set to be added as a finalist. He will join another former Wildcat, the Kings’ DeMarcus Cousins, plus Piston center Greg Monroe and Jazz center Al Jefferson. “We’ve said that the strength of the team is going to be athleticism, wing players, the backcourt, but we’ll see,” Jerry Colangelo told SI.com on Saturday. “We’re going to have to consider a lot of things. The good news is that so many people wish and desire to play that we will be very deep regardless of what happens here — unless there’s another rash of things happening here. I pray that it’s over.”
2. Davis and the rest of the national champion Wildcats will meet the most powerful college basketball fan in land on Friday as President Barack Obama invited the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team to the White House to celebrate its 2012 NCAA championship.  “The amazing thing is the first thing that was said when the horn sounded in New Orleans was, ‘We’re going to the White House!'” UK Coach John Calipari said in a statement. “I’m excited about the opportunity for them to meet the President of the United States, the leader of the free world and someone who is trying to make a difference in their lives.”
3. In the wake of the growing transfer controversy/discussion, Georgia head coach Mark Fox – who has an “open release policy” that allows players to transfer within the SEC – offered his thoughts. Among the highlights: “I think as coaches, as long as there hasn’t been tampering, I don’t see why you should preclude a kid on going somewhere where they can pursue their lifelong goals.” On the perceived injustice that players must sit out a year while coaches can move freely: “That’s not true. Coaches can’t move around freely. Coaches are bound by buyout agreements and everything else. That’s not accurate. If I wanted to leave Georgia, which I don’t and never want to … there’s a buyout in my contract that discourages that from occurring. For those who say coaches go wherever they want to go, that’s not true.”
4. Among the remaining high-profile transfers is former Xavier guard Mark Lyons. He has three traditional powers on his short list: Kansas, Arizona, and Kentucky. He visited Kentucky on Monday. “I’m looking for a program that wins where I could play a major role,” Lyons said. While Lyons had a tumultuous season last year and Kentucky has no shortage of talented players, picking up a player with the experience and talent of Lyons would be a major boost for another title run in Lexington.
5. According to a study by Ryan Brewer, an assistant professor of finance at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus, that ranked the nation’s college basketball programs by their “intrinsic value” and Kentucky placed only 16th… and more surprisingly, Louisville topped the report. “When you look at the revenue being produced from men’s basketball, the University of Louisville is far outperforming everyone else,” Brewer said. “It’s not just Kentucky. Kentucky spends a lot, too. In my evaluation, that (negatively) impacted their standing.” As you would expect Louisville fans are taking quite a bit of pride in this result. Kentucky fans will have to settle for their national championship trophy.

1. Surely you heard that number one recruit and flat top fashionista Nerlens Noel committed to the University of Kentucky, but what you may not know is that Noel and his fellow incoming freshmen are helping to recruit other top talent to Lexington. Noel has led the charge, via Twitter of all places, to recruit Anthony Bennett, another top player in the class of 2012, to join him in the front line in the 2012-13 version of the defending national champions. Bennett is deciding among Kentucky, UNLV and Florida, with many experts believing it is down to the Gators and the Wildcats. Kentucky saw a lot of scoring walk out the proverbial door to the NBA, and another stockpile of freshmen talent is a must for the Wildcats to consider defending its current title.
2. Noel isn’t the only one recruiting for Kentucky. Wildcat coach John Calipari has hit the recruiting trail and he has been forced to be slightly more creative than he has been in the past. Cal is looking to add depth to the backcourt  with 6’5″ shooting guard Mislav Brzoja. Never heard of Brzoja? I told you Calipari was getting creative. Brzoja is a shooting extraordinaire who helped Croatia defeat the USA in the U-19 FIBA World Championships.
3. While Kentucky is completely overhauling its roster after losing seven players, Vanderbilt is undergoing a similar process with far from the same results. The Commodores lost their top six scorers, three of whom expect to be drafted, but they haven’t replaced their big three with top talent.  The biggest disappointment for Vanderbilt and coach Kevin Stallings has to be when in-state talent Alex Poythress chose to play at Kentucky after Vanderbilt recruited him for almost four years. “The staff invested an enormous amount of time and effort into recruiting (Poythress)… that was the watershed event,” Nashville-based recruiting analyst Jerry Meyer said. “It’s safe to say it hasn’t been a good recruiting year for Vandy. Exactly why, I don’t know. Sometimes you get unlucky.” Like the Wildcats in Lexington, a lot of scoring leaves Vandy this spring, and it seems to be a much more difficult challenge to envision who will put the ball in the bucket in Nashville with John Jenkins, Jeffery Taylor and Festus Ezeli no longer on campus.
4. New South Carolina coach Frank Martin insists he didn’t come to the Gamecocks simply to run away from his troubles at Kansas State, but rather because of his excitement to be part of the USC program. “I’m just telling you, (Gamecocks AD) Eric Hyman put his arms around me and it was hard for me not to feel the passion that he had for building the men’s basketball program,” Martin said. “I’ve never been through this before.” Martin inherits a team that finished last in the SEC, but he has taken little talent and done something with it before. Martin took over the Kansas State job on the heels of an NIT appearance and had the Wildcats in the Elite Eight within three years.
5. Scheduling is always one of the joys of the college basketball offseason, and Indiana coach Tom Crean claims that Kentucky no longer wants to play the Hoosiers in a home-and-home series. Kentucky is pushing to move the series to neutral court sites again, possibly in Indianapolis and Louisville. After the heartbreaker suffered in Bloomington this past December, who can blame the Cats for wanting to change things? But one has to wonder how long top-tier programs can continue to avoid playing difficult games (or really any games) on the road? Kentucky is slowly limiting any true road games from its schedule, joining the likes of arch-nemesis Duke as teams that don’t typically play in hostile environments until conference play. That hasn’t exactly been a recipe for success for the Blue Devils. With Kentucky’s propensity for freshman-heavy rosters, doesn’t it make sense that Calipari would want to challenge his team on a rival’s home court to prepare for the rigors of March rather than take a guaranteed paycheck from an inferior opponent in a blowout win at Rupp?

On Tuesday evening, the worst kept secret was revealed as Kentucky’s five heralded underclassmen, Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Terrence Jones, Doron Lamb and Marquis Teague all declared for June’s NBA Draft. The five brings the total to 15 of John Calipari recruits to leave early since 2008.

It Was All Smiles For This Group in Lexington

Eight of the previous 10 went on to become first round picks and two (John Wall and Derrick Rose) went No. 1 overall. Both the mock drafts at NBADraft.net and on ESPN.com have all five Wildcats going in the first round. DraftExpress.com lists four Wildcats going in the first round with Lamb currently an early second-round choice. According to all three sites, Davis will join Wall and Rose as top overall picks. They also agree that Kidd-Gilchrist projects as a top three pick and two (ESPN.com and DraftExpress.com) put Jones in the lottery.

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Spring signing day takes place Wednesday and several of the nation’s top prospects have withheld making a decision until the spring. The SEC, notably Kentucky, looks to add some of these blue-chippers. Here now are six of those top-level prospects and the SEC schools pursuing their talents.

Nerlens Noel – 6-10, C, Tilton, N.H. (No. 2 Rivals.com/No.1 Scout.com/No. 1 ESPN.com) – Noel was added to the 2012 class in early February setting off a mad recruiting scramble for this coveted big man. His list is rumored to be down to Syracuse, Georgetown, and Kentucky. All three boast great traditions of shot-blocking big men, but Kentucky certainly featured to most recent with Anthony Davis. When ESPN calls him “An absolutely incredible shot blocker with uncanny defensive instincts” it is not hard to imagine Calipari envisioning a Davis 2.0.

Shabazz Muhammad – 6-6, SG/SF, Las Vegas, Nev. (No.1 Rivals.com/No. 2 Scout.com/No. 2 ESPN.com) – Kentucky appears locked in a tight three-way battle with fellow blue-bloods Duke and UCLA for the left-handed scorer. Reports had him committing to UCLA last week, but nothing official came from the mouth of Muhammad. Like Noel, he make his announcement on Wednesday on television.

Where Will Shabazz End Up Going?

Anthony Bennett – 6-8, PF, Henderson, Nev. (No. 7 Rivals.com/No. 7 Scout.com/No. 7 ESPN.com) – Both Kentucky and Florida are in the power forward who is not likely to commit on Wednesday and could possibly delay his decision until May. He said in article earlier this week that “Yeah, it is tough (making a decision). That’s why I haven’t made my decision yet, but hopefully after I take all my visits it won’t be so hard.” In addition to the Gators and Wildcats, he has Oregon, Washington, and UNLV on his final list.

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