Four Thoughts From Greensboro…

Posted by mpoindexter on March 18th, 2012

Looking back at Friday’s action in Greensboro, what was most illuminating was sitting only a few feet behind the bench used by Alabama, North Carolina, Duke, and Xavier. Television broadcasts have given us an intimate view of almost every aspect of the game, but they still haven’t provided an insider’s experience of what goes on in the huddle (and due to the likelihood of FCC fines, they probably won’t). Here are four observations of Greensboro’s benches up close.
  1. Despite losing in the last seconds to Creighton, everything is looking up for Anthony Grant at Alabama. Significantly, Grant was able to take one of the youngest teams in America from of a basketball-apathetic state to the NCAA Tournament. Even down the stretch, leading up to Alabama’s last-second shot, Grant was soft-voiced and encouraging with his team. During timeouts, Grant would briefly consult with his assistants before relaying the plan to a group of players who sat quietly hung on his every word. Of all the coaches I saw up close on Friday, Grant was by far the closest thing to a teacher. Currently, it doesn’t appear that Grant has anyone on his roster that is likely to bolt for the NBA ahead of schedule. Expect the Crimson Tide to compete near the top of the SEC very soon.
  2. In local media, North Carolina’s John Henson is often portrayed as a goofy, baby-faced manchild. In North Carolina’s blowout win against Vermont, though, Henson showed himself to be a cerebral and intuitive future coach. Sidelined with a wrist injury for the third straight game, Henson was constantly stepping off the bench to give freshman big men James Michael McAdoo and Desmond Hubert instructions when they were on the court. It would be easy for Henson to get down, missing out on some of the most important games he’s ever played, but he’s finding a way to contribute to the Tar Heels even without playing.
  3. Each March, for as long as the NCAA tournament is played, we will see Lehigh beat Duke over and over again. What is likely to go unmentioned, though, is how remarkable it is that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski got his team to the position of a #2 seed. While the Blue Devils are undeniably talented, they are far from being anything close to a balanced team. Despite lacking a true point guard or small forward, Duke was able to beat teams like Michigan State, Kansas, and North Carolina. In the huddle, Krzyzewski was just as he is billed to be: in the first half, trying to wake his sluggish team up, profane and angry; in the second half, morphing into stirring motivational speeches that made me even believe I could accomplish anything. Sure, Mike Krzyzewski’s biggest advantage at Duke is that he can bring in superior talent every year. Never, however, will Krzyzewski get anything less than the optimal performance out of that talent.
  4. With six minutes to play in their win against Notre Dame, Xavier forward Andre Walker caught a blow to the face that laid him flat on the court. Walker eventually made his way to the end of the bench, where he received constant attention from the Xavier medical staff. At times, Walker was doubled over in pain, barely able to lift a cup of water to his lips. By the game’s end, Walker sat, head in hands, with a towel draped over his head as his shoulders shook slightly. Walker is expected to play against Lehigh, but his scary injury is a prime example of just how physical college basketball really is. Viewed up close, as opposed to on television, big time college basketball is almost violent: players are scratched, gouged, elbowed, and slapped on every single play. As fast and powerful as today’s players are, it’s a miracle that more players don’t suffer severe injuries.
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SEC Morning Five: 03.15.12 Edition

Posted by Brian Joyce on March 15th, 2012

  1. Alabama’s first round opponent will feature a clash in style from the Crimson Tide’s defensive philosophy. Creighton, the #9 seed matched up with Alabama in the round of 64, features a fast-paced offense ranked fifth in adjusted offensive efficiency and the third highest scorer in the nation in Doug McDermott. “Their defensive numbers are very impressive, holding teams to under 30 percent from the 3-point line and under 40 percent shooting for the year,” said Creighton coach Greg McDermott. “They are obviously are going to provide some difficulties for us as we try to get into our offense and try to score at the rim. Anthony Grant has done a great job wherever he’s been and, obviously, what he’s done with the Alabama program in a short period of time is no exception.” Alabama may be a well oiled machine on defense, but its offensive numbers are the largest concern. The Tide are shooting 45.2 percent from the field and an alarming 28.5 percent from beyond the arc. Alabama’s defense has to be good to overcome those abysmal statistics.
  2. After 14 seasons with the Bulldogs, Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury may be on the hot seat for his team’s performance over the last two years. After an infamous fight amongst teammates in the Diamondhead Classic last year in Hawaii, the conflict didn’t improve much this year for the disappointing Bulldogs. After starting out at 19-5 and climbing as high as #15 in the AP poll, Mississippi State imploded on its way to losing seven of its last nine games. In response to being on the hot seat, Stansbury said, “You know, I haven’t given it any thought and I think you know this: what we’ve done through 14 years speaks for itself. That’s all I can say about it.” Too often, unrealistic expectations fail to take into account a successful history and reputation. It is a shame to see long term success at one school go out the window in a ‘what have you done for me lately’ society that focuses on the immediate past.
  3. Vanderbilt enjoyed unprecedented success with its second SEC Tournament championship ever. After hitting an emotional high on Sunday with their win over the Kentucky Wildcats, many wonder if the Commodores will be able to regain their composure and focus for the NCAA Tournament. Kevin Stallings is feeling good with where his team is at mentally. “We had a long talk about the need to do just that, the need to refocus our energy and refocus our minds,” Stallings said. “We were off (Monday), so we just got finished practicing (Tuesday morning). They’ve had a good focus about them. They weren’t hung over from Sunday, I don’t think.” Vanderbilt opens tournament play with #12 seed Harvard. Harvard is a good defensive team, holding opponents to a 40.6 percent field goal percentage on the year, but the Commodores’ porous defense of year’s past is much improved as they held Kentucky to just 35.9 percent shooting from the field during Sunday’s victory.
  4. One doesn’t need to be a basketball expert to decipher that Kentucky freshman Anthony Davis is good at basketball, but analyst Jay Bilas saw Davis’ potential at a Nike skills camp and came away most impressed with his hands. Davis attributes his time playing as a guard before hitting a growth spurt as the key to his soft touch.  “When you’re a guard, you’re going to have great hands,” Davis said. “Most ‘bigs’ will not have great hands. That’s a great attribute I have. It really helps, especially when they throw lobs or quick passes. To be able to catch it and finish around the rim.” While Bilas is impressed with Davis’ hands, I am impressed with the development of his offensive game throughout the course of the season, in some part due to his soft touch around the rim. The freshman center went from scoring almost exclusively on lobs and offensive rebounds to where he establishes himself on the low block with a variety of post moves. Davis has scored in double digits in 12 of his past 13 games and 21 of the past 23, including a double double in six of the last seven games.
  5. Tennessee won its first NIT game against Savannah State even with forward Jeronne Maymon not playing. “You’re talking about an all-league player, a guy who rebounds, a guy who posts really strong, a guy who helps facilitate the offense,” Vols coach Cuonzo Martinsaid. “You’re talking about your team leader.” Maymon averages 12.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game and is currently being evaluated on a day-to-day basis. The Vols face a tough Middle Tennessee State team in the next round in Knoxville, and will need Maymon’s rebounding ability after he grabbed 10 offensive rebounds in his last game against Ole Miss. Tennessee finished on Tuesday with an offensive rebounding percentage of 22.9 percent, which was its third lowest output on the season.
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SEC Season Wrap-Up

Posted by EMoyer on March 8th, 2012

Eric Moyer is the RTC correspondent for the Atlantic Sun Conference and Southern Conference and a contributor to the RTC SEC Microsite. You can find him on Twitter @EricDMoyer.

The Year that Was

  • Kentucky pulled off its 12th undefeated SEC season in history (and 16th overall by any school) with an incredible scoring margin of 16.4 points per game against SEC foes – the widest margin since at least 1996-97. 
  • For the first time in the three years that John Calipari has coached the Wildcats, one of his many talented freshmen did not lead EC freshmen in scoring. That honor went to Arkansas’ B.J. Young. The first-year Razorback averaged 15.3 points per game.
  • While no Wildcat freshman led the league’s rookies in scoring, no  one would argue that his freshest class of Blue Chippers lacked impact. Anthony Davis shattered Kentucky, SEC, and NCAA records in the paint and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist produced some of his best efforts against the nation’s best.

    John Calipari Has Had A Lot Of Reasons To Smile So Far This Season (AP)

  • The league’s two new coaches, Mike Anderson (Arkansas) and Cuonzo Martin (Tennessee) each came from the “Show Me State” and both showed glimpses of excellence during the course of the season. Anderson and the Razorbacks started 17-1 at home before some late faltering has them starring at the NIT. Martin’s tenure opened with a 3-6 start that included losses to Oakland, Austin Peay, and College of Charleston. The season turnaround began with a home upset of Florida on January 7 and the team received an influx of talent when Jarnell Stokes (9.1 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 54.7% FG ) joined the team one week later. The Volunteers closed with eight wins in their last nine games and into “bubble talk” conversation.
  • A year ago, Alabama was left out of the NCAA Tournament despite winning in the old SEC Western Division. This season, Anthony Grant scheduled up, playing and most importantly, beating Wichita State, Purdue, and VCU. The Crimson Tide improved their strength of schedule from 114 last season to 19 this year entering the SEC Tournament. The Tide should easily return to the Big Dance for the first time since 2006.
  • Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins led the league in scoring at an even 20.0 points per game. He became the first repeat scoring champ in the SEC since LSU’s Ronnie Henderson in 1995 and 1996. He firmly established himself as one of the nation’s top shooters, connecting on an NCAA-leading 118 3-point field goals. That total ranks second in Commodore history, and him tied for the second-best single season total in SEC history with Tennessee’s Chris Lofton.
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SEC Morning Five: 03.06.12 Edition

Posted by Brian Joyce on March 6th, 2012

  1. Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes earned his first SEC Men’s Basketball Player of the Week award for averaging 14.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, three blocks, and 1.5 steals on the week. St0kes put together an 18-point, seven-rebound performance in a win over LSU. The freshman forward hit 9 of 10 from the field against the Tigers. National Player of the Year candidate Anthony Davis was named the SEC Freshman of the Week. The 6’11” center averaged 15.5 points, 10 rebounds, and four blocks while recording his 14th double double on the season. Davis moved up the ladder to eighth on Kentucky’s all time blocks list.
  2. Auburn’s offensive struggles resurfaced in the second half against LSU on Saturday, but the Tigers built up a large enough lead to carry them to victory. “What happens to us is, we let down defensively when we get up 10, 12, 15, whatever the case my be,” Auburn head coach Tony Barbee said. “That’s what happened today. We just got lax … But we used a couple timeouts and just told those guys, ‘We got to get back to staying persistent and guard, regardless if we make shots or not.’” And Auburn’s defense rose to the occasion. The Tigers held LSU to just over 30% shooting in the second half. Now if Barbee can find a little offense, the Tigers would feel a lot more confident going into Thursday.
  3. Another team from the state of Alabama is struggling on offense. The Alabama Crimson Tide scored just 17 first half points in a 60-51 defeat to Ole Miss. When asked about his team’s performance, Tide coach Anthony Grant was critical of the team and himself. “Disappointing,” Grant said to describe Alabama’s game. “My job is to make sure our team is prepared. We were not.” Similar to Auburn, Alabama’s defense played well limiting the Rebels to just 42.9% shooting. The problem for the Tide is they aren’t going to win any games when they shoot 34.5% no matter how stifling the defense plays.
  4. Florida couldn’t pull off the victory on Sunday over number one ranked Kentucky, but Billy Donovan knows what it will take to beat the Wildcats. “A real, real physical team,” Donovan said. “There would have to be a presence at the basket constantly in post-ups and duck-ins. Three out (on the perimeter), two in. Straight smash-mouth basketball. … I don’t think a finesse team.” Who would Donovan suggest could pull off such a feat? He thinks North Carolina or Vanderbilt has what it takes to take down the Cats. Kentucky has beaten both teams this year (Kentucky took down Vanderbilt twice), but I’m sure the Cats would love to see UNC grab a #1 seed in order to avoid a potential re-match until the Final Four in New Orleans.
  5. Despite not falling far from preseason expectations, the Arkansas faithful are disappointed in the outcome for the Razorbacks under first year coach Mike Anderson. Razorbacks blog, Arkansas Expats, reluctantly admits, “now that the regular season is over, I have to admit, I’m disappointed. I’m pretty sure it’s unfair to feel that way considering youth, injuries, coaching transition, preseason predictions, etc, but I am.” Should Arkansas fans be disappointed this season? It’s hard not to be disappointed with what could have been, but as it was pointed out, it’s unfair to make a judgement just yet. Anderson needs a deeper bench to run his patented style, and it will take time to build that kind of depth. And time is exactly what Razorback fans need to give Anderson and the new coaching regime.
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SEC Morning Five: 03.02.12 Edition

Posted by Brian Joyce on March 2nd, 2012

  1. JaMychal Green’s role has been somewhat limited as of late because of a suspension handed down from coach Anthony Grant, but Green stepped up in a big way on Senior Night. “For this to be my last game at the Coliseum, that’s the way I’d like to go out,” Green said. “I really didn’t think of it as my last game, I just thought about winning.” Green scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half, including a tip in with just 34 seconds remaining in the game as the Crimson Tide went on to beat rival Auburn. For Alabama to be effective in the NCAA Tournament, Green will be a key reason why.
  2. Arnett Moultrie is now praising his team for its togetherness, just days after he blasted them for an inability to turn the season around. After the Bulldogs’ win over South Carolina, Moultrie said, “The team is together. It’s always been together since Day 1. We’re enjoying this win right now and hopefully it’ll start a streak and get us going so we can make a nice run in the NCAA Tournament.” Moultrie was a big reason for the victory. The power forward finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds for his 17th double double of the season. This win ended a five-game losing streak for the Bulldogs, and hopefully squashed some team turmoil that seemed to be brewing from within.
  3. After two straight losses, Florida is focused on getting better, even if it is March. While UF’s next opponent, Kentucky, played Georgia Thursday night, the Gators were able to focus on making improvements in practice. “I think the next 11 to 12 days for our team will be critical because we do have some periods where we can practice and focus on ourselves,” coach Billy Donovan said. Florida looks to avoid its first three-game losing streak since the 2009-10 season.
  4. Tennessee kept hope alive for a first round bye in the SEC Tournament. After beating LSU on Wednesday night, the Volunteers need to beat Vanderbilt on Saturday to avoid playing next Thursday in the conference tournament. Coach Cuonzo Martin stressed the team’s desire as the primary reason for its victory Wednesday, and of its key ingredient for success moving forward. “The key was heart,” said Martin. “We’ve been through these situations plenty of times before, and we had the heart and mental toughness to win it.” Martin’s team may have a lot of heart, but it also has a lot of freshman Jarnell Stokes. Stokes came up big on Wednesday with a career high 18 points.
  5. Kentucky has come a long way since 2009 when Georgia came to Lexington and spoiled Senior Night. On March 4, 2009, the Bulldogs beat the Wildcats 90-85 while UK was under head coach Billy Gillispie. What a difference a couple of years make. At the end of Gillispie’s era at UK, the Wildcats’ future was in question as they were coming off a 3-5 end to the SEC season and a trip to the NIT. Now, the Cats are fresh off a Final Four trip, and are hoping to attend another one this year. And of course, the Wildcats are looking to go a perfect 16-0 in conference play for the first time since 2003. A lot has changed, and John Calipari deserves way more credit then he gets for that transformation.
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SI Story Highlights UCLA’s Downfall Through Ben Howland’s Shameful Lack of Control

Posted by EJacoby on February 29th, 2012

Evan Jacoby is a regular contributor for RTC. You can find him @evanjacoby on Twitter. 

The historic UCLA basketball program is in a shocking lull right now, and Sports Illustrated magazine has an upcoming feature story on why it’s not just because of poor performance on the court. George Dohrmann’s piece has been released on SI.com for an early look, and it is a must-read for all the telling details and anecdotes about the Bruins’ culture from the past five seasons. We’ll give you our reaction to the investigative piece and why coach Ben Howland might not last another season in Westwood.

Here's The Magazine Title Page of the Upcoming Story in Sports Illustrated (SI App)

Mike Moser, UNLV’s star player and the nation’s sixth-leading rebounder; Chace Stanback, the Runnin’ Rebels’ second-leading scorer with the nation’s seventh best three-point shooting percentage; Drew Gordon, New Mexico’s dominant forward and double-double machine; and Matt Carlino, averaging 13.0 points and 4.7 assists for BYU. What do they all have in common? Each of these players was once a highly touted recruit for coach Ben Howland at UCLA before transferring from the program to become star players elsewhere in the West. The departure of these four players is one of the reasons why the Bruins currently sit in sixth place in a weak Pac-12, looking at missing the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years and just four years removed from a run of three consecutive Final Four appearances. The feature story in Sports Illustrated set for publication later this week details why these players left campus, what kinds of unfortunate treatment other former players received, and how UCLA has struggled so badly recently, referencing mainly the ignorance of head coach Howland towards detrimental player actions.

Dohrmann’s piece, which includes interviews with over a dozen former players and team managers, highlights a general culture of recent disarray surrounding the Bruins’ basketball program. Dohrmann’s interviewees offered “a detailed inside account of how seemingly minor problems, if left unaddressed, can quickly sabotage even a storied program led by one of the nation’s most respected coaches.” The piece details how Howland, though incredibly knowledgeable of the game, fostered poor relationships with his players both on and off the court. The coach ran practices with a double standard, often ridiculing lesser players for mistakes they made while letting similar errors slide when made by stronger players. The reason, as some in the article suggested, was that Howland was afraid of upsetting star players to the point that they might transfer or leave for the NBA as soon as possible. Off the court, players would go out of their way to avoid Howland, such as one player opting to take the stairs if he ever saw the coach waiting for an elevator.

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SEC Morning Five: 02.23.12 Edition

Posted by EMoyer on February 23rd, 2012

  1. LSU extended its longest SEC winning streak since 2008-09 by holding off Georgia last night. The four-game winning streak has the Tigers “pushing for a bid” in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since that same season. They still must overcome bad non-conference losses to Coastal Carolina and South Alabama, though. As Storm Warren said in advance of Wednesday’s contest with Georgia, “We don’t want to slip up again.”
  2. After a hiccup against Alabama, Tennessee continued its late-season surge by beating fading Ole Miss on Wednesday. Prior to their loss to the Rebels, Volunteer guard Skylar McBee said Tuesday in regards to any potential postseason aspirations, “We’ve just got to take care of business one day at a time, and I think if we keep trying to get better, then everything else will take care of itself… I think you see a lot more people trying to figure where they’re going to be at the end of the season. You can kind of work the numbers a little bit better because you can see who has to go play at this place and who’s got who and what teams you’ve got left. But I think it’s a mindset you’ve got to have every day that, ‘I know I can’t look forward.'”
  3. Despite being reinstated to the team by head coach Anthony Grant, Alabama’s JaMychal Green will not play in Thursday’s critical contest at Arkansas. When asked what went into the decision, Grant said, “”He’s not playing Thursday. We’ll see how the week goes this week, and we’ll make some decisions after Thursday.” The Tide enters the game as a #10 seed in the latest RTC Bracketology. Arkansas’ slide started with a 72-68 loss at Alabama on January 28 starting a 2-5 slide that has seen the Razorbacks’ RPI fall from inside the Top 50 to #88.
  4. One Birmingham News columnist, Kevin Scarbinsky, wrote of Grant’s decision: “It’s the first sign of clarity for the remaining players in weeks,” and “Grant has earned the benefit of the doubt by putting this entire season at risk to teach a lesson that should last long past March Madness.” When Alabama cooled an improving Tennessee team on Saturday, “It gained the confidence of knowing it could win without Green and Mitchell if it applied pressure on defense and took the ball to the rim on offense.”
  5. Alabama’s opponent Arkansas has battled through the fatigue that manifested in a 19-point loss to Tennessee and a 30-point blowout at home to Florida. “I think sometimes fatigue is a factor and it might be even with our guys fatiguing now with having… only eight guys, eight scholarship guys for a period,” head coach Mike Anderson said Tuesday. Anderson has cut back on practice and weight rooms sessions for players have also been shorter.
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SEC Morning Five: 02.21.12 Edition

Posted by EMoyer on February 21st, 2012

  1. The final two Alabama players enduring suspensions, senior JaMychal Green and junior Tony Mitchell, reached some level of closure as Green, who has missed the past three games, was reinstated to return to practice. Mitchell, who has missed the past four games after being suspended for conduct detrimental to the team, will remain suspended for the rest of the season, head coach Anthony Grant said on Monday.
  2. Kentucky hosted the newly reclassified star recruit Nerlens Noel during Saturday’s 77-62 victory against Ole Miss. On Twitter (@NerlensNoel3) he said “Kentucky trip went well. Them fans are suttin else, showed alot of love.” Noel took an unofficial visit to Syracuse last weekend for the Orange’s 85-67 win over Connecticut. He’s also slated to make upcoming trips to Florida , Georgetown and North Carolina.
  3. In his weekly teleconference, Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury said Renardo Sidney might sit out his second consecutive game with back spasms when Mississippi State hosts No. 1 Kentucky on Tuesday.“I’ll probably know at game time, if you want to know the truth,” Stansbury said. “It’s very obvious we need his big body out there, especially with our lack of depth. That’s the thing. We missed him over there Saturday with just giving us another guy you can throw in the block who can score. We need that depth defensively in there, body-wise. It’s very obvious — against a Kentucky team, as talented as they are — you need everybody you can possibly get. We don’t just need his body, we need his body to play well for us to have any chance at all.”
  4. Florida head coach Billy Donovan said he’s hopeful Mike Rosario will return for Tuesday’s game with Auburn. “I would say that he can sometimes be a little bit over-cautious, whether it be his lower back dealing with a disk problem or a sprained ankle,” Donovan said. “He gets worried a lot of times mentally, himself, that he’s going to re-injure himself or hurt himself where he doesn’t feel right.” Rosario, who has missed six games this season, returned to practice last week but pulled himself out when the hip pointer started to bother him.
  5. The SEC announced its weekly awards with Vanderbilt junior John Jenkins earning his third career Player of the Week award (his first of 2011-12) and Florida’s Bradley Beal claiming his sixth Freshman of the Week honor. Jenkins, who won twice during his sophomore campaign, averaged 27.0 points per game in wins at Ole Miss and Georgia. He shot 81.3% from the floor (13-16), 83.3% from three (10-12), and 85.7% from the free throw line (18-21).  Beal averaged 17.5 points per game in helping the Gators score a pair of road wins at Alabama and Arkansas. He also averaged 8.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 2.0 blocks and 2.0 steals per game.
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Morning Five: 02.21.12 Edition

Posted by nvr1983 on February 21st, 2012

  1. While Seth Davis is one of the better college basketball journalists out there he normally is not one that you find taking controversial stances, but this week he decided to shake the hornets’ nest by doing the unthinkable–defending the RPI. Seth’s defense is not an attempt to say that the RPI is a perfect tool as it is far from it, but he believes it is a solid tool that should be used with a variety of other tools including your own eyes when judging a team. Still Seth’s column generated quite a bit of discussion on Twitter yesterday, which for the most part was fairly civil. We are sure that this will continue to be a point of contention going forward, but with the way many bubble teams are playing late in the season if they don’t make the cut they have no reason to complain.
  2. In his latest blog post, Nerlens Noel talked about his recent visits to Syracuse and Kentucky and his impressions of those visits, but the bigger news is that he has still not officially reclassified as a member of the class of 2012. He says that his paperwork should be finalized by early March. Other than that it is mostly a couple of anecdotes, talking about visiting schools in the future, and his decision to turn down an invitation from Duke, which is what most Kentucky fans will probably fixate on.
  3. With the season winding down and their NCAA fate hanging in the balance, Anthony Grant finally made a decision on his two leading scorers/rebounds. Yesterday, Alabama announced that it was suspending Tony Mitchell for the rest of the season while allowing JaMychal Green return to practice. We still do not know what Mitchell did that led to his eventual dismissal for conduct detrimental to the team while Green, who has been suspended twice before, was allowed to return after being held out for three games for violating unspecified team rules. Although Green is able to practice with the team he will not play on Thursday at Arkansas so the earliest he would return to action would be this Saturday against Mississippi State.
  4. Florida, which has struggled to find enough guards to fill their minutes, may get Mike Rosario back for their game tonight against Auburn. Rosario has missed the last three games after sustaining a hip pointer in practice. We are not sure what Rosario’s role is on this team going forward as he is probably their 7th man and he was pretty far behind the top three guards even before he was injured. Perhaps he can fill in when he has a hot hand or if they have foul trouble, but we would not expect too much out of Rosario going down the stretch.
  5. Since this past October, Connecticut has been waiting to hear from the NCAA on its potential 2013 NCAA Tournament ban due to its low APR score. The committee that would make that ruling met yesterday and. . .they pushed it off to the next meeting, which is from April 23 to 25. The decision is particularly big for the Huskies because they already had their waiver brushed aside and a postseason ban would probably mean a departure for several key figures including Jim Calhoun, Andre Drummond, Jeremy Lamb, and Alex Oriakhi.
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SEC Morning Five: 02.15.12 Edition

Posted by Brian Joyce on February 15th, 2012

  1. Georgia’s Gerald Robinson and Kentucky’s Marquis Teague were honored with SEC Men’s Player of the Week awards. Robinson was named the SEC Men’s Player of the Week after averaging 20 points, 4.5 rebounds, and three assists this week. The Bulldogs won both games with victories over 20th-ranked Mississippi State and Arkansas, in which Robinson added a career-high 27 points. Teague has steadily improved as point guard for the top-ranked Wildcats, and was named Freshman of the Week.  Teague contributed 12.5 points, 9.5 assists, and 3.5 rebounds and achieved his first double-double in Kentucky’s win over Florida.
  2. The Wildcats have run the table twice in the SEC, going a perfect 16-0, and could do it again this year. “When one of the ways (of winning) is not working for you, you can rely on something else,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. ” … What makes a really, really special team is when you have a variety of ways to win. (The Cats) can win almost any kind of situation they’re in.” Wildcats coach John Calipari isn’t as concerned with a 16-0 record as he is with improvement. “My concern is, are we improving as a team?” Calipari said. “What I’m seeing right now is we are.” The only two teams since the 1956 season to go undefeated through league play were Kentucky’s 1995-96 team and the Wildcats again in 2002-03. The 1996 team, of course, won the National Championship for then coach Rick Pitino, and that is a very realistic goal for the 2012 version of Kentucky, regardless of the final conference record.
  3. It may be hard to define what swagger is, but a coach will know it when he sees it.  “When players walk with a certain type of swagger, a level of confidence — not cockiness, not arrogance — they can play, and they can compete,” Vols coach Cuonzo Martin said after a win at Florida. “Before, we just weren’t mentally ready.” Tennessee knows it is a much better team than the 11th place finish that was predicted in the preseason, and two wins over Florida along with playing close with Kentucky prove Martin has the Vols playing to win. However, the Vols need help. “We need our fans, and we need their support to help get us over the hump,” Martin said. “If our guys are giving effort, and they are leaving everything out on the floor, they deserve that support.”
  4. Depth is a major concern for Florida and coach Billy Donovan. “Dire is probably a pretty good word,” Donovan said. “We’re going to have to do some different things both offensively and defensively, certainly going into Alabama without Will (Yeguete) being there. There is a tremendous void for us defensively at the basket.” In fact, the Gators are without their two leading scorers off the bench in Yeguete and guard Mike Rosario. The Gators will be ready to respond. “We just have to react appropriately and come together as a team,” guard Scottie Wilbekin said. And after two straight losses, Florida needs to come together quickly.
  5. The Gators are not the only team dealing with depth issues. Alabama, Florida’s opponent on Tuesday night, welcomed back Trevor Releford and Andrew Steele after suspensions from the team for a violation of team rules.  “When you look at Andrew Steele — he’s been probably the finest student-athlete that I’ve coached — he made a mistake,” Alabama coach Anthony Grant said. “His body of work speaks for itself in terms of who he is as a person and what he’s been all about. I was a former student-athlete. You are faced with a lot of different things and you have to make decisions. Sometimes you make the wrong one. I don’t think that’s any indication of who he is as a person. Same thing with Trevor Releford. He’s a young man that’s in his sophomore year in college and made a bad choice. I think his teammates understand that. Certainly as a coach, I don’t condone it, but I’m not going to condemn him as a human being for making a bad decision. We will move on and get ready to play.” Grant has continued the suspensions for forwards JaMychal Green and Tony Mitchell, the team’s top two leading scorers. When asked about those situations, Grant responded that the situations were “different.”
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