As the college football regular season ends, we are in the midst of college basketball season. Over the next few weeks up until conference play jumps into full swing in early January, I will be previewing some of the more interesting conference races. Some of these include the SEC today, Pac-10, Mountain West and Big East along with a couple of more off the radar conferences such as the Big West and Sun Belt.
Team capsules are in order of predicted finish. SEC West will follow tomorrow.
The SEC East is a much better division than the West. Nobody will dispute that and the non-conference results will prove that considering the awful starts by both Alabama and Auburn and the major wins held by Kentucky and Tennessee in the East.
Kentucky – Talent ultimately wins in basketball over the course of a season. Kentucky has the most of it and only Tennessee is really close (the Vols have their own problems looking ahead to conference play. The biggest question about the Wildcats is how the young freshman class faces adversity though they have done a good job overcoming problems so far this season despite the early losses to Connecticut and North Carolina. The other thing I will say is that Terrance Jones is a beast and if the Wildcats somehow get Enes Kanter eligible on appeal they will be a tough out come the NCAA tournament.
Tennessee – Top to bottom, Tennessee has as much talent as Kentucky, but Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris are not nearly as good as Terrance Jones at Kentucky. While I think Tennessee might be able to overcome that under normal circumstances, coach Bruce Pearl being suspended for the first eight conference games will hurt, especially in close road games. The Vols will be fine come March, but I expect a couple of odd upset losses in the first half of the conference schedule.
Vanderbilt – I have been impressed by what I have seen out of Vanderbilt thus far. They probably should have beaten Missouri last night and have a very good win over North Carolina. In particular John Jenkins has impressed me with his ability to get his own shot and while Festus Ezeli has been good, there is still room for improvement from him as he continues to learn the game. The big question I have about this team is the defense which I think is average. I don't expect the Commodores to be able to stop top shelf teams like Tennessee and Kentucky enough to win the road games against them that will be needed to break into the top two.
Georgia – Since Trey Thompkins got his legs under him after missing the first three games and losing their first two with him, Georgia has looked good. No decent team in the league relies on one player to win more than Georgia does with Thompkins. That said, Thompkins is the best player in the SEC and I fully expect him to have at least one huge game against Tennessee or Kentucky allowing his team to pull the upset and sneak into the NCAA tournament.
Florida – It seems Billy Donovan's team has regressed to its pre-National Title run status. Super-talented with chemistry issues and ten cent heads that make dumb plays down the stretch. The problem is that these guys aren't as talented as their predecessors at the beginning of the 2000s and they certainly aren't as talented as the group that won back to back national titles. Even Donovan seems perplexed as he criticized his players for not making anyone else on the team better after a surprising loss to Central Florida last week. These problems aren't going away as long as this group is still in Gainesville (it has been a problem for three years now) and while the talent on the roster still might get the Gators into the NCAA Tournament, they certainly won't make a deep run.
South Carolina – The Gamecocks are still in complete rebuilding mode. They lost their best player and point guard Devan Downey to graduation after last season and aren't expected to do anything though they seem to be much better than previously thought. So far, South Carolina has pushed Michigan St. on the road and beaten Clemson. They also have no bad losses so far (separating them from their conference mates in the West). To make the NCAA Tournament, South Carolina is going to need a signature victory or two and while SEC play will offer those opportunities with games against Tennessee and Kentucky, it would be better for the Gamecocks if they beat Ohio St. and/or Boston College before conference plays next month.
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