League play begins this weekend in Southeastern Conference men’s basketball with more exposure than ever before.
For the first time, all 96 conference games will be televised as part of the league’s new 15-year agreements with CBS and ESPN. The SEC will have 40 games televised nationally, with ESPN or ESPN2 televising 27, ESPNU showing eight and CBS five.
“It’s an incredible package for our league,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said Monday. “I think there is a feeling, at least among the coaches and even the athletic directors and schools, that certainly there is terrific football tradition in the SEC. I think everybody knows that, but there has been a basketball tradition that has been built up over the last 20 or 25 years in this league.
“We’re all very excited about what has been put together, and it should be something that is very beneficial.”
Last season, 72 of the 96 were televised.
The SEC Network, which replaced Lincoln Financial this past fall with the lunchtime football telecasts, will show 37 men’s basketball games regionally as well as the first two rounds of the conference tournament in March. Fox Sports Net will televise 10 contests regionally and CSS the remaining nine.
League coaches hope this can provide a boost after only three SEC teams earned NCAA tournament bids last March, and those at struggling programs could benefit the most.
“Nobody is ever going to have anything better than this, and it’s pretty unique to our schools,” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. “I think it will have a great impact.”
Said Georgia’s Mark Fox: “If I look at our situation and the rebuilding, the more exposure we can get, the better that is.”
Freshmen times two
Fox soon could have his fill of fantastic freshmen, as his 7-5 Bulldogs host No. 20 Georgia Tech tonight and travel Saturday to No. 3 Kentucky.
“I saw something this morning where the top two projected picks in the NBA draft are John Wall and Derrick Favors,” Fox said, “and I get to see both of them in the same week.”
Favors is averaging 12.4 points per game and has 115 rebounds for the Yellow Jackets, and Wall averages 17.2 points and has 102 assists for the Wildcats.
An undefeated run?
Kentucky is 15-0 with wins over No. 9 North Carolina and No. 13 Connecticut, and the Wildcats already are hearing talk of an undefeated run through conference play. Not that first-year coach John Calipari is encouraging such conversation.
“I try to keep guys in the moment,” he said. “I try not to worry about the past or the rear-view mirror. This team is struggling with that a little bit, because if they miss shots, they seem to miss three or four in a row. We talk about dreaming big and those things, but I’m telling them we’re about 9-6 if you look at how we’ve played.”