SEC
Southeastern ConferenceExactly seven weeks ago today, new Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl said of the Southeastern Conference's NCAA tournament prospects this coming March, "This year I guarantee five, and I think there could be as many as six, NCAA teams."
Roughly a month into the season, it again appears as if the conference might be closer to last year's three invitees than Pearl's hoped-for six.
In fact, take away unanimous No. 1 Kentucky and the league not only has no other team in the Top 25 for the first time this season, but Florida -- which began ranked No. 7 -- didn't get a single, solitary vote in the latest Associated Press poll.
In fact, if Selection Sunday was this weekend instead of March 15, it's not inconceivable that UK might be the only SEC team chosen, though LSU, which has a road win over a ranked West Virginia, and Texas A&M, which has beaten both New Mexico and Arizona State, should also march into the Madness. So might Ole Miss, which has won at Oregon, beaten a ranked Creighton and topped Cincinnati.
As for the Gators, who ran the table during last year's regular season and league tourney, reached the Final Four and got that lofty preseason ranking, they're 4-4 and struggling with inexperience, though if anyone can rattle Kentucky within the league, it might yet be the Rowdy Reptiles.
Even the RPI numbers hint of an SEC again in flux. Though eight schools are among RealTime RPI's first 69, any team past 40 is living on the edge, and half of those eight are doing just that -- Ole Miss (69), Mississippi State (63), South Carolina (61) and A&M (56) all outside the comfort zone currently enjoyed by UK (2), LSU (20), Arkansas (21) and Alabama (35).
Still, if America's most storied football conference isn't again Kentucky and the 13 dwarfs come winter, the Wildcats appear to be so good at this point that talk of a perfect 40-0 season title run doesn't seem nearly as nutty as it did last season.
Then again, though Big Blue ultimately lost 11 games last year, it did play for the NCAA championship, losing by six points to UConn in the title game.
"I think about that game every day," UK sophomore guard Aaron Harrison said recently. "That's one reason why we (Aaron and twin Andrew) came back. Unfinished business."
Through the Wildcats' first nine games heading into tonight's visit from Columbia, such single-mindedness shows. Especially on defense, where Kentucky has its nine victims to date -- including Top 10 foes Kansas (72-40) and Texas (63-51) -- to a ridiculous 27.9 percent shooting from the floor while winning by an average of 31.8 points.
Big Blue got the attention of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Will Wade, whose Mocs were in the Bahamas at the same time over the summer, though they neither faced nor watched the Wildcats.
"They're obviously the best team in the country right now," said Wade, who counts UK assistant Barry "Slice" Rohrssen among his closer coaching friends. "They've got great players who play really well together, which is difficult to do."
At least it should be. But UK boss John Calipari has thus far convinced his nine McDonald's All-Americans -- tied with this year's Duke roster for the most in history in a single year -- to play in two platoons, no player averaging more than 23.7 minutes a game (Willie Cauley-Stein), though all of the first 10 play at least 13.8 minutes.
That has kept individual scoring down -- among the first nine, no one averages more than 10. 3 points (Cauley-Stein) or less than five points -- but as Wade says, the pros equate all stats as they would relate to a full game.
"Everything in the NBA is per minute," he said. "Quantity of minutes doesn't matter as much as quality of minutes."
Yet Wade also praises Calipari for thus far being able to keep everyone happy.
"Depth is both a gift and a curse," the second-year Mocs coach said. "When it comes to keeping all those guys happy, Calipari is a magician. He doesn't get nearly enough credit in that area. Chemistry is just as important as X's and O's. A lot of coaches could be handed that much talent and not be able to get that talent to sacrifice for the betterment of the team."
There are those who think the platoon system will pass. That Cal will dial it back to eight or nine by tournament time. Even within the Big Blue Nation, former Final Four MVP Tony Delk, the school's all-time 3-point leader, said this week that the team's chilly 3-point shooting of late might be the fault of the platoon system, which might not give shooters time to get in rhythm before returning to the bench.
Though UK has hit at least one 3-pointer for 909 straight games -- second only to UNLV's 916 -- the Wildcats haven't hit the first one in their last three games until less than four minutes remained.
But if there's always something to worry about in Big Bluesville, especially with bitter rival North Carolina arriving in Rupp for a high-noon showdown this Saturday, there's also this from Eastern Kentucky coach Jeff Neubauer, whose otherwise capable Colonels lost 82-49 to Numero Uno on Sunday night.
Said Neubauer after his team was held to 26.1 percent field-goal shooting by a team surrendering a nation's best 45.8 points per game: "They're the best defensive team in the modern era of (college) basketball."
If defense really does win championships, UK looks more than primed to claim NCAA title No. 9. As for the rest of the SEC, keep hope alive for five -- Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss and Texas A&M. Just don't be surprised if it's less than that.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.