Southeastern Conference basketball is more than Kentucky

Southeastern Conference basketball is more than Kentucky
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/01/post_23.html


It only took one season for the Southeastern Conference to return to men's basketball power. Last season, there was much angst over how many, if any, SEC teams were even worthy of at-large slots into the NCAA Tournament. Only three teams overall made it and none seeded higher than No. 8 LSU.

That won't happen in 2010. The focus is on undefeated (18-0, 3-0) Kentucky, but at least six teams are building solid postseason resumes.

Say what you want about coach John Calipari's recruiting methods, and take whatever odds you can get that at some point his 2009-10 Wildcats will raise an investigative eyebrow with the NCAA. But on the court, Kentucky once again has basketball blue bloods. Freshmen John Wall (17.3 ppg, 7.1 apg), DeMarcus Cousins (15.3 ppg, 9.2 rpg) and Eric Bledsoe (11.3 ppg, 3.1 apg) have lifted the bar back to potential SEC and NCAA championship heights at UK.

Yet Cal's Cats are not alone in the SEC. Tennessee (14-2, 2-0), Mississippi (13-4, 1-2), Florida (12-5, 1-2), Mississippi State (15-3, 3-0), Vanderbilt (14-3, 3-0) and potentially South Carolina (11-6, 2-1) all join Kentucky as postseason tournament hopefuls. The short-handed Volunteers have a victory over then-No. 1 Kansas to almost assure a dance ticket.

The wild card is Mississippi State, which is not nationally ranked yet, but is first in the SEC's West Division. This team is still waiting for the NCAA to say mega-recruit Renardo Sidney can play. If the word comes down favorably for the 6-10, 260-pound pivot, particularly before powerhouse Kentucky visits Feb. 16, then look for the Bulldogs to not only be a serious player in the SEC, but also in the postseason.

Teflon lips: Those would belong to Tennessee's Bruce Pearl, who has twice already this season had to apologize for some of his outrageous comments. Before the season started, the coach of the Vols said: "I've got guys from Chicago, Detroit. . . . I'm talking about the 'hood. And then I've got guys from Grainger County, where they wear the hood." He later apologized.

Pearl and his team looked be derailed when Jan. 1 arrests for possession of weapons and suspected drugs led to the dismissal and/or suspensions of four players. Yet in the midst of that, Pearl spoke up again, saying his team would not wither back to the SEC pack.

"We've got weapons," he said. "We've still got weapons." After which Pearl realized his comments and said, "That's terrible." Only now, Pearl and his Vols have welcomed back to the team two of the four players previously arrested in Melvin Goins and Cameron Tatum. Beyond a release, the coach has yet to say much about that. Ohio players: Last season, the state of Ohio sent more teams -- Ohio State, Xavier, Dayton, Cleveland State, Akron -- than any other state to the NCAA Tournament. This season, it looks like the state will be well represented again as Xavier (12-5, 4-0) and Dayton (13-4, 2-1) both look strong in the Atlantic 10 Conference, along with Ohio State (13-5, 3-3) in the Big Ten and Cincinnati (12-6, 3-3) in the Big East. The Horizon League's Cleveland State and the Mid-American Conference's Akron, and Kent State are also viable through conference tournaments. On the Horizon: The question now is, does anybody have a chance late in the season against Butler? The Bulldogs (14-4, 7-0) still maintain a two-game lead over the field and have rarely been challenged in conference action. One of the few HL teams that can at least hold out hope of an upset is Cleveland State.

The Vikings at least put up a fight with Butler in Hinkle Fieldhouse last week before falling, 64-55. So even at 7-12, 3-4, CSU must be considered capable of pulling a home-court upset over Butler at the Wolstein Center on Feb. 13 or better yet, in the Horizon League Tournament at the end of the season.

Another team that could pull an upset over Butler is Detroit (12-7, 5-3). The Titans lost at home to Butler in overtime, 62-54, last week. They still have a game to play at Butler, Feb. 4. MAC attack: What a difference a week makes. Seven days ago, Kent State was considered in excellent shape for the MAC's East Division race. The Golden Flashes opened league play with a road win at Ohio and had what looked like another solid road opportunity at Miami, followed by three straight at home. Now two games later, Kent has slipped back to the pack with back-to-back losses to Miami and Bowling Green.

Layups have proven costly for Kent in recent weeks as the Flashes missed a layup to win against Northeastern before league play, missed a layup to win against Miami before falling in overtime, and only made 11 of 33 shots in the lane against Bowling Green, including critical misses in the paint down the stretch.

That combined with poor overall defense has coach Geno Ford ready to make some moves.

"We're going to look at lineup changes," Ford said. "We won't start the same five guys [Wednesday against division-leading Buffalo]. We may not start any of them."