SEC preview: League's reputation will only improve when its second tier does
Yahoo Sports will break down the top 10 leagues for the upcoming college basketball season working backward from No. 10 to No. 1. Here's a look at our No. 5 league, the Southeastern Conference.
Moments after all three teams from the SEC advanced to the NCAA tournament's second weekend last season, Mississippi State coach Rick Ray gloated with a tweet dripping in sarcasm.
"7-0 in NCAA tournament and 3 out of 3 teams make it into the Sweet 16," he wrote. "Yep, SEC Conference is a bad and weak league."
Sending three teams to the Sweet 16, two to the Final Four and one to the national title game was an impressive accomplishment, but the notion that the SEC as a whole was underrated last season is flimsy at best. The SEC finished seventh in conference RPI, landed only three teams in KenPom's top 50 and suffered more head-scratching November and December losses than any other prominent league did.
Tennessee's unexpected NCAA tournament success aside, last season reflected a disturbing trend for the SEC. While Kentucky has reached the Final Four three times since 2010 and Florida has advanced to the Elite Eight or beyond each of the past four seasons, the SEC has only averaged 3.6 NCAA bids the past five seasons because the rest of the conference isn't pulling its own weight.
For the SEC's fortunes to change this season, the league desperately needs other teams to achieve national prominence. Ultra-talented Kentucky begins the season as the favorite to win the national title and Florida is a preseason top 10 team despite having to replace four starters, but there's little consensus regarding who the SEC's third best team is.
One possibility is Arkansas, which may be primed to return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008 thanks to a roster that blends experience, talent and depth. Six-foot-11 NBA prospect Bobby Portis and high-flying wing Michael Qualls highlight a group of seven rotation players returning from last year's NIT team. The Razorbacks will also benefit from the arrival of junior college transfer Jabril Durham and skilled freshman Anton Beard, both point guards who will address the team's greatest position of need and enable Ky Madden to play more off ball.
Another candidate is LSU, which boasts maybe the league's best frontcourt besides Kentucky despite the departure of All-SEC Johnny O'Bryant. Standout forwards Jarrell Martin and Jordan Mickey both are candidates to earn all-conference honors this season and coach Johnny Jones can go big by pairing them with promising 7-foot-1 freshman Elbert Robinson or small by putting them with 6-foot-5 sophomore Brian Bridgewater. The key for LSU will be whether high-scoring junior college transfer Josh Gray and freshman Jalyn Patterson can solidify a backcourt that lost starters Andre Stringer and Anthony Hickey.
Also worth paying attention to is Georgia, which finished a surprising third in the SEC last season but did so against maybe the league's easiest schedule. Nonetheless the core of that team returns including standout guards Charles Mann and Kenny Gaines, both of whom averaged just over 13 points per game last season. The Bulldogs return 6-foot-8 Nemanja Djurisic and 6-foot-8 Marcus Thorton up front and add some more size with a frontcourt-heavy recruiting class.
Those three are the most obvious candidates to demonstrate the SEC isn't all about Kentucky and Florida, but there are a handful of other dark horses who could surprise.
Alabama could be a factor if Tulane transfer Ricky Tarrant can help replace Trevor Releford's perimeter scoring. Jarvis Summers is ready to emerge from Marshall Henderson's shadow at Ole Miss. Auburn has K.T. Harrell back, several promising newcomers and tons of recruiting momentum under Bruce Pearl. And Tennessee, Missouri and Texas A&M each have some promise, though all three are more likely a year away.
Coaches in the SEC have said for the past two years that they're tired of the perception the league isn't any good besides Kentucky and Florida. For that criticism to vanish completely, however, the rest of the league is going to have to do something about it.
MAKING A LIST
More from Yahoo Sports' 2014-15 Season Preview:
• Oct. 3: Eight key questions as practice begins
• Oct. 6: Preseason Top 25 with best-case and worst-case scenarios
• Oct. 7: WCC Preview: Newcomers may tighten Gonzaga's grip on the league
• Oct. 8: To become a more well-rounded player, Kyle Wiltjer changed his body and his game
• Oct. 9: Ranking the 15 transfers who can make the biggest impact
• Oct. 10: A-10 Preview: As VCU ascends, much of the league rebuilds
• Oct. 13: Atoning for last March's costly gaffe drives VCU's JeQuan Lewis.
• Oct. 14: Ten freshmen who will make the biggest impact
• Oct. 15: Mountain West Preview: Who will emerge to challenge San Diego State?
• Oct. 16: Cody Doolin could be the ideal antidote to what has ailed UNLV
• Oct. 20: Ten coaches under the most pressure to win this season
• Oct. 21: Big East Preview: To raise its stature, the league needs a big March
• Oct. 22: Chris Holtmann aims to guide Butler through period of uncertainty
• Oct. 23: The 25 most intriguing non-league games of the new season
• Oct. 24: American Athletic Conference preview: All eyes on UConn, SMU
• Oct. 27: Six teams on the rise entering the season
Best shooter: Michael Frazier, Florida. The only returning starter from Florida's Final Four team is also the SEC's most dangerous outside shooting threat. Frazier sank 44.7 percent of his threes last season, but the Gators will need him to expand his all-around game this season and become more comfortable creating off the dribble when opponents run at him behind the 3-point arc. A whopping 77.3 percent of Frazier's field goal attempts last season were threes.
Best playmaker: Jarvis Summers, Ole Miss. The SEC's active leader in points and assists looked for his own shot more often last season after serving as more of a distributor the previous two years. The result was both an uptick in scoring and efficiency as Summers averaged 17.3 points per game and shot 48.6 percent from the field while still dishing out 3.8 assists a night. Can Summers match or better those numbers without Marshall Henderson to distract opposing defenses? That's a big key for Ole Miss.
Best defender: Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky. It will be difficult for John Calipari not to give Cauley-Stein plenty of playing time because of the impact he makes on defense. The 7-foot junior averaged 2.9 blocks per game last season and showed the quickness and athleticism to defend on the perimeter as well as in the paint. He also has worked this offseason to become more of a threat offensively besides on the glass.
Top NBA prospect: Karl Towns, Kentucky.The 7-foot freshman is one of a few prospects capable of unseating Duke's Jahlil Okafor as the potential No. 1 pick in the draft next June. His skill level and ability to make shots from the perimeter are impressive, but he has a tendency to coast too often out there. The key will be whether Towns can show the aggressiveness and physicality in the paint to impact the game on both ends of the floor
Best backcourt: Kentucky. You could make an argument for Florida or Georgia here, but Kentucky still has the most perimeter talent. Wing Aaron Harrison will try to build on his brilliant postseason last March, freshman Devin Booker will provide much-needed outside shooting, Andrew Harrison will look to bounce back from a mildly disappointing freshman season and distributor extraordinaire Tyler Ulis will push him for minutes at point guard if he can't. The only issue for the Wildcats is the lack of a prototypical small forward. Calipari seems inclined to go big at the start of the year with Alex Poythress or Trey Lyles, but look for a three-guard look at some point with Ulis allowing both Harrisons to move off ball.
Best frontcourt: It's Kentucky, and it's not close. All six of the Wildcats' top big men could play in the NBA someday. The key will be finding enough playing time to satisfy everyone — especially if the experiment of playing Poythress or Lyles at small forward backfires and both wind up eating up minutes at power forward too.
Best recruiting class: Kentucky. If you have to ask, you're probably not paying attention. Four more elite freshmen join the Wildcats this season. Towns is the top prospect, but Lyle is a skilled college-ready forward, Booker is an elite shooter with enough athleticism not to be one-dimensional and Ulis is a pure point guard with the quickness and court vision to make an immediate impact. He doesn't have the size of a prototypical Calipari point guard, but that will make him an ideal change of pace with the Harrisons.
Coach on the rise: Donnie Tyndall, Tennessee. He recruited Kenneth Faried to Morehead State and took the Eagles to an NCAA tournament upset of Louisville. He took Southern Mississippi to 56 wins the past two years. Now Tyndall brings his brand of enthusiasm to a big-time program after Tennessee hired him to replace Cuonzo Martin this past spring. The Vols are probably too inexperienced to accomplish a whole lot this season, but it shouldn't be too long before Tyndall has them back in the NCAA tournament.
Coach on the hot seat: Anthony Grant, Alabama. One day after Alabama concluded its first losing season in 14 years last March, athletic director Bill Battle expressed support for Grant. "This is a program that is not adrift, and is not devoid of leadership and talent," Battle wrote. "I believe this is a program that has better days ahead." Between lingering disappointment over last year's 19-loss season and the arrival of Bruce Pearl raising rival Auburn's stature, Grant needs those "better days" to arrive soon. He must hope the return of four starters and the addition of high-scoring Tulane transfer Ricky Tarrant can propel Alabama back to the upper half of the SEC.
FACTS AND FIGURES
New coaches: Kim Anderson, Missouri. Donnie Tyndall, Tennessee. Bruce Pearl, Auburn.
Regular-season winner last season: Florida
Tourney winner last season: Florida
League RPI rank in each of past 3 seasons: 2013-14: 7th, 2012-13: 8th, 2011-12: 4th
NCAA bids the past three years: 10 (Florida 3, Kentucky 2, Missouri, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Alabama)
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
