re: The idea that the SEC cannot be a good basketball league is ridiculous

quote:

---

Do you have evidence otherwise?

---

Yes their resumes.

What in the world is going on here?

Mike White is pretty much the only recent hire that isn't replacing some sort of dumpster fire of a head coach, so the rest will take time to build. Martin and Kennedy are on the right trajectory.

Outside of Kim Anderson, most of the guys really struggling vs. expectations are the established guys like JJ and Stallings. Stallings could be out of a job this summer and we all know the LSU fans aren't happy with Jones.

I didn't read your OP, but thank you for spelling "ridiculous" correctly.

quote:

---

NC 14 doesn't basketball

---

And yet, he appears in most basketball threads.

quote:

---

The bar is pretty low here on the rant

---

I'm about to just morph into a pftcommenter character on here and no one would notice.

To be honest, I think that's what Mike is doing.

Sadly, it's higher that what you'll find on the UK-specific boards. The independent wake board is pretty good, but packed with self-satisfied douches (takes one to know one, I suppose).

quote:

---

I may as well try not to hijack this thing. I think we are a couple of years away from a return to the SEC being a top 3 conference. A few of these teams just need momentum more than anything, it feels like.

I think Howland and Barnes will get it done. I thought Pearl would but this year was a step back, seemingly. I am more reticent to crown Avery, but he has a great chance.

---

Hijack away

I agree with all of that, specifically the coaches. The only one I'm not 100% sure of is Barnes. I think there is a chance he's the guy who coached and recruited the last 5 years at Texas and not the one from the previous 25 years of coaching and that it doesn't work at Tennessee. I think Howland and Pearl are going to be in the NCAAT convo every year starting in 2017. I THINK CAJ is going to be good at Alabama, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit the last 3 weeks of the season gave me a little bit of a gag.

It's probably coachin. I may be misremembering, but maybe cos some of those schools got used to success, they had short leashes with their coaches and started firing good ones. LSU (twice!), Bama, Auburn, UK (although that worked out for them), all fired coaches and hired worse ones. Although ironically Vandy has kept there, but he has under achieved.

Pearl getting fired from Tenn was also a big blow to the conference.

Another issue is a lot of teams have gone with the theory of playing an easy OOC schedule and try to do really well in conference. The committee has obviously caught on.

There may be some talent issues in the league, but making the tournament really isn't THAT hard. Coach up some decent players, and have a decent OOC and conf record, and you get in.

You need talent to get far in the tourney, but I don't think you need a lot of it to make it.