Football is over and in case you just joined us, it’s only 4 weeks and a couple days until Selection Sunday.
In almost no time at all, the grind of February will give way to the greatness of March.
Maybe you’ve been here since November.
Maybe you’re just checking in.
Either way, we’re glad you are here. It’s going to be a fun ride home.
Eight SEC teams enter the final 3-plus weeks of the regular season within 2 games of first place Florida (9-2). The Gators will host second place Kentucky (8-3) on Saturday and the 2 SEC titans will play twice in the next month, with the reigning national champions visiting Rupp Arena for Senior Day on March 7.
For all the complaining about the sport off the court, the product on the court is arguably better than ever. Ratings are higher than ever. A generational freshman class could see 10 or more one and done talents taken in the lottery, but not before they grace arenas and televisions across America next month. And the SEC? No league has more teams in the top 32 of KenPom. Once again, a deep and talented conference appears poised to make its mark in March.
With that framing in mind, here are 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to as the SEC gallops towards the stretch run.
Opening Tip: No, the NCAA should not punish Alabama just because Charles Bediako lost
The Charles Bediako saga is over after 5 games, thanks to Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge Daniel Pruet, who denied Bediako’s motion for a permanent injunction on Monday afternoon.
The outcome was one I predicted and a reasonable one under the facts and the law. Ultimately, Judge Pruet found that while Bediako was appropriately given a temporary restraining order (TRO) permitting him to play, he failed to meet the higher standard required under Alabama law for permanent relief. To earn a permanent injunction, Bediako needed to demonstrate both “irreparable harm” from not being permitted to play in the form of something beyond financial or money damages and needed to show he had at least a reasonable chance to succeed on the merits of his case, which included claims for tortious interference between the contract between Alabama and Bediako as well as commonly advanced antitrust arguments challenging the validity of certain NCAA eligibility rules.
Rejecting these arguments, the Court found Bediako suffered no “irreparable harm” beyond potential money damages related to lost NIL opportunities, all of which could be litigated without an injunction. Notably, the Court wrote that lost income opportunities are quantifiable and not irreparable and given that Bediako was “playing professional basketball in the G League as recently as last month…the case is not about whether Plaintiff can be paid to play basketball, bur for whom.”
On the question of eligibility, the Court ruled that Bediako had made his decision to leave the NCAA and remain in the NBA Draft during a time when NIL was available, and that there was no evidence the NCAA had ever inconsistently enforced the longstanding rule preventing an athlete from leaving college, playing professionally, and returning to collegiate athletics. Absent inconsistent application, the Court was not going to interfere with the NCAA enforcing the rules promulgated by its membership.
It is interesting to note that the Court avoided a sweeping ruling on the difference between G League and NBA players, who are unionized professionals, and European professional players, many of whom have been granted collegiate eligibility. That fight was left for another day, and it’s coming soon to a courthouse near you.
But as soon as Bediako lost, the clarion call for vengeance went out from coaches who lost to Alabama during the 5-game period where Bediako was lawfully permitted to play college basketball. These coaches wanted to know why or if their teams would be punished for losing a game to Alabama during a period when the Crimson Tide fielded a player ultimately ruled ineligible by a court of law.
This “benefit of hindsight” analysis misses the point and is ironical coming from a coach who used courts in Brazos County to fight for Rashaun Agee’s eligibility.
Agee won (rightly, in my opinion) and has played all year on a preliminary injunction. It was Agee, in fact, who McMillan turned to late Wednesday night on the final possession of Texas A&M’s 86-85 loss to Mizzou. Agee was stopped at the rim thanks to outstanding defense by Missouri center Shawn Phillips Jr., but it’s instructive Bucky’s best player is playing on a TRO.
Like Agee, Bediako and his lawyers had every right to fight for their client’s right to play. The fact Bediako lost (a reasonable outcome, given the law) doesn’t change the fact that Bediako was entitled to have his arguments ventilated in court. The standard for a TRO is lower than a permanent one, and Bediako failed to meet the higher standard. But a judge ruling he could play while that was sorted out is hardly unique. A&M wasn’t “wronged” simply because it lost to Alabama with Bediako playing during the pendency of his case anymore than teams that have lost to A&M are “wronged” by Agee playing. The point is both players were able to make their arguments in court.
NCAA eligibility rules are subject to the rule of law. Bediako was lawfully playing under the TRO until a court found he wasn’t allowed to play permanently. Punishing Alabama for the process? That’s foolish. The law and what is equitable isn’t outcome contingent, thankfully.
Should we get back to basketball and what happens on the floor?
The Kentucky turnaround is real. Are the Wildcats better without Jaland Lowe?
Kentucky won for the 8th time in 9 games on Saturday night at Rupp Arena, rallying from a double-digit deficit (again!) to complete a season sweep of Tennessee.
The Wildcats have found a legitimate third scoring option in sophomore Collin Chandler (11 points, 2 assists, 1 steal per game over last 5), easing the immense pressure on Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen and making the Wildcats’ offensive actions, especially off the ball, far less predictable. It was Chandler who hit the go-ahead bucket with under a minute to play at Rupp on Saturday night and it’s Chandler who is now first among the Kentucky guards and wings in offensive rating (123.2, per Torvik).
Also behind the Kentucky turnaround?
The absence of guard Jaland Lowe. A big splash for Big Blue in the transfer portal, Lowe was plagued by injuries and erratic play for half a season before injuries shut his campaign down in early January. Lowe last played on January 10, when he logged just 3 minutes before exiting in Kentucky’s 92-68 win over Mississippi State.
Kentucky ranks 39th nationally in KenPom offensive efficiency and 45th in Torvik heading into Saturday’s seismic showdown at rival Florida.
Those are hardly championship-caliber numbers.
But look under the hood a bit and you’ll see that Kentucky is 34th in Torvik offensive efficiency since January 10 and averaging .12 points per possession more in that span, all without Lowe.
It turns out that Lowe, a ball-dominant guard who is a playmaker but not a quality shooter, wasn’t a recipe for good offense given Kentucky’s other pieces. In Lowe’s absence, Kentucky has played Otega Oweh out of the ball screen at a higher rate and relied more on Denzel Aberdeen’s ability to get into the paint and either finish at the rim or find open teammates. Both Oweh and Aberdeen have played better basketball as a result, and the Wildcats, also boosted by the emergence of Chandler, are playing their best basketball of the season.
Road Warriors!
Mizzou’s big résumé-boosting win at Texas A&M means that SEC road teams won a staggering 12 of the 14 league games contested between last weekend and Wednesday.
If you want to win a conference championship, you have to hold serve at home, and Kentucky certainly did its part on Saturday rallying past Tennessee. But the best teams win on the road. Florida’s won 5 consecutive road contests since losing on opening night at Missouri. That’s the best road record in the league, though both Alabama (5-2) and Vanderbilt (6-2) have been road warriors as well. If only the Commodores didn’t drop a home game to lowly Oklahoma, am I right?
I don’t think we’ll see another week where road teams win 86% of the games, but the number of home losses this past week was eye-opening.
Auburn has the strangest résumé in the sport. Blame bad defense and Bruce Pearl
The Tigers lost 2 résumé-building opportunities at home this week, falling to Alabama 96-92 in the Iron Bowl of Basketball on Saturday and compounding that defeat with an 84-76 loss to Vanderbilt on Tuesday night.
Auburn’s problems continue to be on the defensive side of the ball. Auburn ranks 82nd in KenPom defensive efficiency and while that number improves slightly to 78th since the beginning of SEC play, the Tigers simply can’t get stops consistently enough to reward an elite offense that ranks in the top 10 in America since January 3. Auburn’s deficiencies defensively are especially pronounced against quality competition, as the Tigers rank a putrid 141st in defensive efficiency in Quad 1 and 2 games, per Torvik.
There are no easy solutions, either. The team has just 2 “plus” defenders who rank above the national mean in defensive performance efficiency, per Miya (KeShawn Murphy and Sebastian Williams-Adams). Worse, among SEC 5-man lineups that have played 75 possessions or more together, Auburn has just 1 5-man group (Murphy, Williams-Adams, Keyshawn Hall, Tahaad Pettiford, and Elyjah Freeman) that ranks in the top 20 in the SEC in defensive efficiency ranking. That leaves Steven Pearl with few options outside of hoping his guys can outscore folks.
Auburn is a NCAA Tournament team at present, but at 14-10, very much on the bubble in Year 1 under Steven Pearl.
If you want someone to blame for that predicament, look no further than Bruce Pearl.
Pearl’s late departure meant that Steven Pearl, in his first year as head coach, was saddled with arguably the nation’s most difficult schedule. The Tigers have played more Quadrant 1 games (13) than any team in America and currently rank 2nd in KenPom’s strength of schedule metric.
Typically, in Year 1 under a new head coach, you schedule softer, allowing the team and staff to familiarize themselves with one another before the grind of league play. Pearl’s decision to depart came just before the preseason, though, meaning Auburn’s brutal nonconference slate was set in stone. The Tigers fought valiantly and garnered huge profile-boosting wins over St. John’s and NC State, both likely NCAA Tournament teams, without suffering any “bad losses.” In fact, 9 of Auburn’s 10 losses are in Quadrant 1. Auburn also has the best win in the SEC this season, thanks to its 76-67 victory at Florida, just the third home loss for the Gators in the last 3 seasons.
But a shoddy defense and a schedule concocted for a Bruce Pearl team have Auburn’s NCAA Tournament hopes very much in the balance as the Tigers hit the home stretch.
Florida’s defense makes the Gators Final Four contenders
Since Florida’s above-referenced home loss to Auburn, the Gators have been one of the hottest teams in the sport, winning 4 consecutive SEC games by an average of 29 points. Three of those wins (South Carolina, Texas A&M, and Wednesday night’s 86-66 whipping of Georgia) have come away from the friendly confines of the O’Connell Center.
“For this team to succeed, we have to be elite defensively. We have to embrace being gritty, piling up stops, guarding,” Florida head coach Todd Golden told SDS in early December, after the Gators started the season 5-4 with close losses to Arizona, TCU, Duke, and UConn. “We aren’t consistent enough in that way yet, but to be great, we have to get there.”
The Gators are consistent enough now.
In Florida’s rout at Texas A&M, the Aggies opened the game 1-for-27 from the field. That is not a typo.
Golden loves what he’s seen. He also knows it’s only as good as the next game.
“As we’ve learned over the last couple weeks for our group, when we guard and rebound, we’re pretty tough to beat, and it’s got to be our calling card,” Golden said after Wednesday’s win at Georgia. “If we play like that, we’ll have a chance to win every game.”
Defend like this, and Florida is Final Four capable.
For now? Florida is focused on Saturday’s monstrous tilt with Kentucky, a program that has Golden’s number so far — winning all but 1 of its meetings with the Gators in Golden’s 4 seasons at Florida.
Player of the Week: Mark Mitchell, Missouri
Mitchell appeared on the SDS preseason All-SEC ballot and he’s lived up to the billing, averaging 17 points, 6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game for a Mizzou team that, finally healthy, is playing like the NCAA Tournament team folks believed Dennis Gates had prior to the season.
Mitchell was tremendous this week in 2 Mizzou road wins. First, he poured in 20 points on a tidy 7-11 from the field (5-9 FT) and grabbed 11 rebounds in Missouri’s win at South Carolina. That was Mitchell’s second double-double in SEC action and third this season, and the Tigers are unbeaten in those games.
Mitchell followed that up with a stat-sheet stuffing 9 points, 8 assists, 4 rebounds performance over Texas A&M. He was also the focal point of the Tigers’ offense on the winning basket — a beautifully designed back screen and lob to Shawn Phillips Jr.
Mitchell took a leap of faith when he left Jon Scheyer’s Duke program to head home to Missouri and play for Dennis Gates. He’s now an All-SEC performer on a Mizzou team that’s hitting its stride at the right time. Sometimes the journey is worth it.
Team of the Week: Alabama Crimson Tide
After being embarrassed at Florida, Alabama’s rattled off 3 consecutive wins, including 2 in Quadrant 1 and a huge rivalry win over Auburn last Saturday.
Charles Bediako saved his best for last for the Tide, scoring 12 points on 5-5 shooting and grabbing 3 rebounds in the win over Auburn. Bediako won’t play college hoops again, but going out with a W at Auburn has to ease the pain a bit.
Meanwhile, Labaron Philon keeps filling it up. The SEC’s leading scorer had 25 points and 6 assists in Alabama’s win over Auburn and followed that up with 18 in a dominant win at Ole Miss on Wednesday night.
The Tide also continues to get outstanding contributions from freshman wing Amari Allen, who scored 17 points and added 5 rebounds and 4 assists in the win at Auburn and built on that with a cool 13-point, 7 rebound, 6 assist night against Chris Beard and the Ole Miss Rebels. A mismatch nightmare who can do all the things that impact winning, it’s easy to see why Allen has NBA scouts salivating.
Alabama’s offense ranks 2nd nationally in KenPom offensive efficiency, the highest mark in the SEC. A 2-game homestand, with a midweek showdown against an explosive Arkansas team, lurks around the corner, but Alabama’s 2-win road trip puts it firmly back in the conversation for a protected seed come Selection Sunday.
Stat of the Week: 30-1! Kentucky’s record under Mark Pope when leading at halftime
As fun as the Indiana, St. John’s, Tennessee (twice!) and LSU comebacks have been this season, Mark Pope would love to see his Kentucky team play a complete 40 minutes as March beckons.
Kentucky has proven they can win close games, posting a 4-2 record this season in games decided by 2 possessions or less. But playing from behind as much as Kentucky’s done lately is difficult, leaving the Wildcats with a small margin for error.
Keeping this in mind, it’s worth noting that Kentucky is a staggering 30-1 under Mark Pope when the Cats have led at the half. Kentucky will likely need a fast start on Saturday to extend another streak — 6 consecutive wins for Big Blue over the hated Gators in Gainesville.
Where to Eat on a SEC Hoops Saturday in: Fayetteville, Arkansas
Penguin Ed’s is the second SEC barbeque joint to get a nod this season, but it’s by no means second to anyone in the conference in taste. Ed Knight has been smoking hickory-infused meats for customers for over 30 years and he’s the best doing it.
Some places are legendary for good reasons but as time passes, the service isn’t what it used to be, or there’s a menu change and the food slips a bit, and you become more married to the nostalgia of a restaurant than what’s actually on your plate. There’s a place for sentiment, of course, but great barbeque isn’t that place.
Much like 1775 Pit BBQ in College Station, Penguin Ed’s started life without a building, serving hickory smoked pig and cow cuts out of a tent. Now there are 2 Fayetteville locations, but either one still has succulent, fall off the fork pork shoulder that’s probably the best this scribe has tried anywhere. If you want brisket or pulled chicken, Penguin Ed’s has that too — and there’s an array of in-house sauces that accompany whatever you fancy. A perfect meal before you go hear 20,000-plus call the Hogs.
The SEC’s 11 NCAA Tournament teams will be:
Florida, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas A&M, Georgia, Auburn, Missouri, and Texas.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
