Give it up for SEC coaching

SEC East coaches are building some special resumes this year.  Let us take a look at some of the accomplishments.

John Calapari—Say what you want about the strength of schedule or the RPI compared to the national Top 10.  Kentucky’s record is 19-1 following an NIT season.  Calapari has been profiled ad nauseam this year, so why not have one more blog to give the man some love?  Numerous media outlets have pegged him the frontrunner for coach of the year.  He has masterfully worked in three freshmen starters with an array of holdovers.  His toughest job remains ahead of him–get his freshmen to rebound from their first loss of the season.  Considering we are 20 games into the season, that’s not too shabby.  (**Let’s not forget Calapari’s work with Hoops for Haiti, and the latest on this story from Gregg Doyel is an eye-opener)

Bruce Pearl—Regardless of where you stand on his disciplinary decisions for the suspended players (was the suspension long enough?), he suspended them immediately and kicked their best all-around player off the team.  The coaching job he did in their absence was nothing short of spectacular.  He inspired walk-ons to take the court and play with enough poise to defeat Kansas, still the Jayhawks only loss of the year.  Motivational coaching job of the year so far.

Kevin Stallings—Stallings has received exactly ZERO national publicity, yet he still trucks on and has his team undefeated in conference play.  Nine wins in a row now for Vanderbilt.  49ways is a former college basketball player, he knows more basketball than I’ll ever dream of knowing, and he chooses Stallings constantly whenever we talk about our favorite or most underrated coaches.  That’s good enough for me.  Let’s not forget about his unselfish sacrifice to help his team travel abroad prior to the start of the season.

Billy Donovan—You can scream “what has Billy Donovan done lately?!” until you’re blue in the face, but this is still the guy that is on pace (at his young age) to challenge all-time winning records and he’s still the guy that won back-to-back national championships.  As for this year, the Gators are quietly climbing the conference standings and the team development has been obvious in recent weeks.  While everyone is focusing on Kentucky and Tennessee, this is yet another division school that is quietly improving while nobody seems to notice.

Darrin Horn—Think about what this man has done this year.  His team had every single reason to mentally fold and give this season away following a dismissal and a season-ending injury to two starters.  With Kentucky the national storyline and a host of other teams more equipped on paper to challenge Kentucky, why not use all of that as an excuse to just accept mediocrity?  Nonsense.  Horn has asked his supernatural point guard Devan Downey to carry an elephant sized load and the senior has responded.  Better still, the team has rallied their play around Horn and Downey.  The upset of Kentucky last night was the culmination of extreme hard work in getting your team to believe they can compete with anyone despite in-season hardships.  It is absolutely incredible what Horn did with his team last night.

Mark Fox—Raise your hand if you thought Georgia had any chance of a national sports writer to write a featured column about the Bulldogs this year?  It took Mark Fox until January 12th of his first year for at least one media member to take notice.  Since then Georgia manhandled Tennessee from start to finish–the same Tennessee that upset Kansas.  Georgia has made it clear that their intent is to win games, on the road or at home, this year.  They do not fear anybody.  Credit Fox for changing the culture around almost overnight.

I look at the above list and I’m floored at the high level of coaching going on right now in this division.  The SEC East is absolute murder right now.  There isn’t a single team you look at and say “no chance tonight.”  South Carolina and Georgia have proved that they are up to the task of the other four, and they’ve made that statement in a big way.  Even though the SEC did not turn national heads in the non-conference slate, the brutality towards each other on the football field has made its way to the basketball court where each game is an honest to God battle to the finish.  Credit these six coaches for making this a division worth watching every single time the teams take the court.

Tennessee dismantles UNC-Asheville

Scotty Hopson shooting fireballs Tuesday night

Last night the Tennessee Volunteers destroyed, and I mean DESTROYED, UNC-Asheville 124-49.  So you don’t have to count by tens on your hand, that’s 75 points between the two teams.  The largest lead was, get this–83.  Eighty-three points!  If you’re a Tennessee player what do you say to your teammate when the lead stretches to 83??  How ridiculous is that moment?  I love me some SEC basketball so I put the game on right at opening tip.  I turned it off at something like 41-6.  In that timeframe Scotty Hopson, Tennessee’s ultra-talented wing forward, hit 4 3’s and had his hands on two steals and nearly a third.  Wayne Chism and Brian Williams owned the paint.  The Vols scored on 17 of their first 21 possessions.  It was 41-6.  That’s the final score of an embarrassing college football game, and the Vols were only heating up.  Tennessee would finish the game with a school-tying 16 three pointers, a school record 34 assists and the school record for points scored in a single game.  Talk about clicking on all cylinders.

The knock on Bruce Pearl and his Vols has been their lack of commitment on defense.  While they always score lots of points, there have been too many games in the past where they couldn’t stop a doughnut from rolling 15 feet.  If challenged by a physical team, they have at times backed down and played with a bit too much finesse.  Pearl’s not-so-secret weapon to get physical has been inserting his massive center Brian Williams into the lineup.  When he’s in, he bangs.  Just ask Kentucky’s Patrick Patterson.  I followed Patrick Patterson last year against Tennessee and Brian Williams took it right to the all-american.  With Williams at his disposal, and a variety of athletic guards and wings with a load of experience, Pearl may have his best team yet in Knoxville.  Tennessee will be contending in a rock solid SEC East division with Kentucky, Vanderbilt and South Carolina either highly regarded or extremely experienced.  And then there’s Florida, who nobody seems to be talking about.  With a pummeling of UNC-Asheville the Vols are out of the gate strong.  It’s hard not to notice such an eye-popping victory.

Separated at birth?

Tennessee Volunteer guard Bobby Maze and Detroit Piston Allen Iverson

Tennessee Volunteer basketball coach Bruce Pearl and the Incredible Hulk

Florida Gators coach Billy Donovan and Eddie Munster

Virginia Tech Hokies guard A.D. Vassallo and former Pittsburgh Steeler Rod Woodson

 

Tennessee Dominates USC for SEC East Title

A congratulations is in order for the Tennessee Volunteers.  Just when I thought I was going to witness a real dogfight in a critical game in the SEC, finally, Tennessee decided they would rather blow out USC instead.  Final score is UT 86, USC 70.

Tennessee looked scary good tonight.  In a year when the SEC has struggled to piece together dominating team performances, Tennessee just smacked USC upside the head.  I don’t have the stats in front of me but Tennessee, late in the second half, was outrebounding USC 37-16.  I don’t want to even think about the discrepancy in points in the paint.  Tennessee might as well have been wearing Sherwin-Williams jerseys.  They outhustled, outplayed, outshot and outfought USC and EARNED the SEC East Division title.  All on the Gamecocks homecourt. 

Here is what impressed me the most with Tennessee tonight.  On South Carolina’s Senior Night senior Zam Frederick pumped in 3 early three’s to help give USC an early 13-9 lead in front of a sellout crowd playing for the SEC East title.  Frederick was literally on fire.  I’m sitting on the couch saying this could get out to a 10-point lead in a hurry.  The place was absolutely nuts.  At a time when most road teams make a mistake–a silly turnover or a rushed shot–Tennessee quickly tied it up 13-13.  It was very evident early on that Tennessee came to play.  It were those few posessions following Frederick’s assault that I realized I was watching a different Tennessee team.  Now on a three game winning streak with wins over Mississippi State, Florida and South Carolina, Tennessee is suddenly the “it” team again in the league.  And it may not just be the league tournament.  Tennessee playing like this, at their best, is a tough out for anybody in the ACC or Big East. 

Other notes from the game:

–I can understand USC’s Mike Holmes frustrations (he was fouled a time or two with no-calls), but he flopped twice later in the game.  The first time the ref called him out on it.  Then he had the audacity to do it again, trying to make it look like a UT rebounder elbowed him aggressively.  I had respect for Holmes when he was fighting hard and getting screwed not getting calls.  I lost it all by the end of the game.
–J.P. Prince will have a future, at the very least, as an offensive rebounding instructor. He gets it.
–I really think USC was so surprised that they couldn’t get a cushioned lead following Frederick’s barrage that they lost their composure. I think they were just shocked Tennessee kept coming.
–I predicted South Carolina would win the SEC East and I was wrong. Tennessee played their best defensive game of the season tonight, while South Carolina looked confused on how to guard Tennessee.
–Bruce Pearl still sweats more than a prostitute in church