It’s been an exciting season so far. Here are my thoughts on this year and a look at what’s ahead:
The East looks very strong with potential tourney teams in Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Vandy. Georgia a possibility and South Carolina an outside shot. The problem is for teams like Georgia and South Carolina is they get beat up on the road at the other four places so they have to be perfect at home. The other four should be locks.
No.23 Florida (ESPN, 5-1, 16-4, 14 RPI) had an excellent overtime victory over Georgia Tuesday Night. They scored 104 points and showed what a prolific offensive team they are. Billy Donovan’s teams can always shoot the ball and with Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton and Chandler Parsons they have the weaponry this year, too. Vernon Macklin and Alex Tyus give them a solid inside game. Have road wins over UT, Auburn and Georgia in last couple of weeks. Just a solid team. Have Vandy Tuesday Night in the O’Connell Center, which should be a classic.
No.16 Kentucky (3-2, 15-4, 11 RPI) is young again after losing five freshmen to the draft last year. But Terrence Jones and Brandon Knight are excellent players. Doron Lamb is a nice outside shooter. They should be right in the mix come March and definitely in the hunt for the SEC championship.
No. 22 Vandy (3-2, 15-4 20 RPI) looked awesome last night against State against a pretty good State team that should be pretty tough by the end of the season. Jeffrey Taylor looked like the first round draft choice he was projected to be before the season started. He made a steal and a dunk in the last minute that sealed the 81-74 victory for the ‘Dores. John Jenkins showed he can not only light it up from three, but he can also drive to the basket and score and he can flat out shoot free throws. Nine-for-nine last night and 89% on the season. Vandy hosts Arkansas tom (Sat) at 5. I’ll be there. Will give twitter updates from what should be a packed house and an electric crowd. At Florida Tuesday in huge game.
Tennessee (3-2, 13-7 RPI 18) has been doing pretty well even without Bruce Pearl on the sidelines after Pearl was suspended by the SEC for the first eight games of the season. There is a lot of talent there. Scotty Hopson, Melvin Goins, Tobias Harris, Skylar McBee and Brian Williams and a decent bench can put up the numbers. If they can get through this stretch without Pearl–and they’re doing OK without him–they should be pretty strong when he returns.
Georgia (3-3, 14-5, 44 RPI) and South Carolina ( 3-2, 12-6, 81 RPI) are trying to reach the elite level of the conference. Not there yet, but Georgia is getting closer. Mark Fox is doing a good job there and Darren Horn has his team coming along.
The big story in the West is Alabama (4-1, 12-7 128 RPI). They’re RPI is not that good right now, but they are playing pretty good basketball. Need to keep winning to get their RPI up. JaMychal Green playing well as is Senario Hillman. Charvez Davis has been shooting the ball pretty well lately. The defense has been excellent. Leading the conference in scoring defense and in top 10 in the country. The two keys for ‘Bama are (1) Trevor Releford, the freshman point guard. If he can continue to play well, this team could make it to the tourney. The inside game is decent with Green and Chris Hines, and Tony Mitchell can do it both from the inside and the outside. Mitchell is the other key. Exceptional athlete. Can jump out of the gym and make extremely athletic dunks and lay ups. Needs to shoot better from outside. He needs to step up big for Tide to make it to the tourney.
Arkansas has an RPI of 105. Ole Miss has the best at 74. It’s a tough road back for tourney possibilities for the West. ‘Bama playing the best right now. A couple of teams can get in it with strong Februarys. Alabama needs to play very well. AU just having a tough year. RPI is 305; 0-6 in conference and 7-13 overall. They’re trying hard, they just don’t have the horses.
I see four teams in tourney for sure: Florida, Kentucky, Vandy and Tennessee. Georgia has a shot, but lost at home to Tennessee and Florida and that hurt. SC not totally out of it, but will really have to play well. In the West, Ole Miss still in it as is Alabama, but both have to play extremely well in February. Nobody is out of it because there is always the tournament. But it would be pretty safe to say Auburn won’t make it. Football was huge and recruiting in football looks great, but Tony Barbee is starting from scratch. Think he has the guys playing hard though.
One last thought on UAB. Played with a lot of heart and determination in coming back from a nine point deficit with seven minutes left to defeat Marshall. Was at the game with my cousin Craft and two of his boys, John and Edwardo. I think the team was a little deflated from the heartbreaking overtime loss to Memphis, but they showed a lot of character in coming back to beat Marshall. This team has a decent shot at making the tourney. They play so hard and they’ve got talent. Cameron Moore, the five, is an outstanding player and Aaron Johnson is an excellent point guard. Need Jamarr Sanders to shoot well from three and get good help from guys like Ovie Soko and Anthony Criswell inside and Dexter Fields, Preston Purifoy, and Quincy Taylor in the backcourt. Like this team’s hustle and desire. Just need to shoot the ball better. Defense is pretty good and rebounding decent. Needs to keep improving. Play at Central Florida Sat at 7 p.m. on CSS, then next Wednesday Blazers at home against a good Southern Miss team at 7 p.m. at Bartow. If you get a chance, come out and support the team. It’s a 10 minute drive for people in B’ham, it’s a great arena, and a hard playing basketball team. Southern Miss should be a great matchup for Blazers. Central Florida tough this weekend.
Schedule for the next week:
Saturday, Jan. 29
Florida @ Miss. State, noon, CBS
Auburn @ South Carolina, 12:30 p.m., SEC Network
Tennessee @ Ole Miss, 3 p.m., SEC Network
Georgia @ Kentucky, 3 p.m., ESPN
Arkansas @ Vandy, 5 p.m., Fox Sports South
LSU @ Alabama, 7 p.m., Fox Sports South
Tuesday, Feb. 1
Ky @ Ole Miss, 6 p.m., ESPNU
Vandy @ Florida, 8 p.m., ESPN
Wednesday, Feb. 2 (Signing Day)
South Carolina @ LSU, 7 p.m., SEC Network
Ms. State @ Alabama, 7 p.m., SEC Network
Georgia @ Arkansas, 8 p.m., CSS
Thursday, Feb.3
Tenn @ Auburn, 8 p.m., ESPN
Saturday, Feb. 5
Auburn @ Georgia, 12:30 p.m., SEC Network
South Carolina @ Vandy, 12:30, SEC Network
Ms. State @ LSU, 3 p.m., SEC Network
Alabama @ Tennessee, 4 p.m., Fox Sports South
Ole Miss @ Arkansas, 5 p.m. ESPN2
Kentucky @ Florida, 8 p.m., ESPN
(Anthony Grant, left, and Mike Davis trying to will their teams into the tournament.)
Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports wrote a column on Jay that I really don’t agree with that much, but it’s an interesting perspective. I’ve thought about Jay’s actions last Sunday and this season, and realize, like my nephew said, he is not an emotional, rah-rah type guy. But he needs to reach out more to the media and the fans even though his personality is intense and private. He still has a chance to be a great quarterback in this league and his off field demeanor wouldn’t matter as much then, though I still think he needs to try a little harder to display a better public image.