10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to in SEC basketball after 7 weeks of conference play
Published:
It’s hard to believe, but we are now just 3 long weekends from Championship Week and edging ever so close to the most wonderful time of the year in college basketball: March.
From wildly entertaining basketball games to big-time scoring performances to heated rivalry debates to astounding performances to a tight Coach of the Year race, here are 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after 7 weeks of SEC league play.
Opening Tip: The Game of the Year in the SEC — and maybe college basketball
Every once in a while, there’s a regular season game so good it becomes seared in your memory.
It’s the type of game that can separate a mundane season from a special one, a game where if someone mentions it at an airport bar in a few years you might respond “I remember where I was during that game” or “I watched that with my daughter” with very little need for thought and memory recall.
We all have those games. If we’re lucky, our favorite teams play in them. But it’s almost better to be neutral, observing excellence with gratitude.
Alabama’s 117-115 win over Arkansas on Wednesday night was one of those games.
It had a little bit of everything. Okay, okay. It didn’t have defense. But it had everything else you’d want, a reminder that for all the coaching hijinks, enigmatic star player injury debates, and courtroom drama off the court, college basketball as a product is better than it’s ever been.
In a game with massive SEC title race implications, Alabama rallied from 14 down in the second half at Coleman Coliseum, charging ahead late in regulation behind a 17-2 run led by their star, Labaron Philon Jr., who was sensational with 35 points and 7 assists. Aiden Sherrell, one of the SEC’s most improved players this season, was also brilliant, scoring 26 points, adding 13 rebounds, and posting a game high +16 in box-plus minus.
Indeed, perhaps no basket was bigger for Alabama than Sherrell powering through a triple team to score a late shot clock bucket with just 2:30 to play in the second overtime. In a game with very few quality defensive possessions, Sherrell’s bailout bucket felt immense.
Darius Acuff’s clutch 3 sent the game to the first overtime, and Acuff’s 49 points were nearly enough to help the Hogs escape with a win.
But Alabama never wilted, and the Tide have now won 5 consecutive games since getting clobbered at Florida to open the month of February. Nate Oats’s team doesn’t guard a soul, but when those guards are clicking and Sherrell is cleaning up the glass, they are plenty good enough to make a deep run again this March.
Arkansas falls 2 games behind Florida in the race for the SEC title, but the Hogs are starting to look like the team SDS pegged as a sleeper Final Four contender in this space in January.
After all, Arkansas scored 115 points, had fewer than 10 turnovers, and…lost! That’s tough to swallow, but you move forward.
“We made more 3s than they make, we make more field goals than they make, we only have 7 turnovers. They out-rebound us by a few but we have 6 blocks and they have 1, and you got beat,” John Calipari lamented after the game.
Arkansas got beat, for sure. But college basketball was a big winner on Wednesday night, and the Hogs may be too if they keep playing at this level come March.
Are Arkansas and Alabama Final Four worthy? Here’s the Kalshi market on teams to reach the Final Four. Alabama currently has a 9% chance, while Arkansas is trading at 10 cents per contract:
Josh Hubbard gives the SEC a 2 40-burger Wednesday night – and hands Auburn a crushing loss
If Acuff’s scoring explosion wasn’t enough for you, Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard delivered an encore, pouring in 46 points to help the Bulldogs topple Auburn 91-85 at Humphrey Coliseum late Wednesday night.
Hubbard’s an absolute bucket, and it’s a shame he’s had so little help this season and will likely miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in his State career. But Hubbard can take solace in the fact that he leads the SEC scoring title race over Acuff by a tenth of a point after the win, which helped the Bulldogs win 2 consecutive SEC games for the first time this season.
There’s no question Hubbard is one of the nation’s best shotmakers. But there’s also no excuse for Auburn letting Hubbard get loose that often in a game it desperately needed to remain on the right side of the NCAA bubble. The defeat moves Steven Pearl’s team to a disappointing 14-12 on the season and worse, the Tigers are now just 6-12 against Quadrant 1 and 2. While Auburn’s NET ranking remains in the top 40, and anything inside the top 40 has generally been safe from a bubble standpoint, the Tigers’ massive loss volume will matter to the committee next month. Put plainly, Auburn needs to win more games, beginning Saturday when it hosts suddenly slumping Kentucky.
Blueblood gatekeepers out and loud after Florida thumps Kentucky
Reigning national champion shows poise and polish in holding off feisty, gritty rival who refused to quit.
If you didn’t know the team names and result of Florida’s 92-83 win over Kentucky on Saturday in Gainesville, it would be natural to identify the reigning champion as the blue-blood program in the above sentence. Sure, you’d respect the plucky road underdog. But the team with the poise of a champion who leads wire to wire despite getting its rival’s best shot? That’s blue-blood stuff, no?
Of course, Kentucky’s the bluest of blue-bloods. But Kentucky fans gnashed their teeth and hurled a whirling dervish of insecure insults when, following Florida’s victory Saturday, I dared to write that Florida, with 3 national championships, is SEC basketball royalty, too.
This begs the question, what’s the deal with blue-blood gatekeeping? Why is it so important to fans of schools with rich traditions and histories to guard who has access to the blue-blood label? And why are any parameters or lines of demarcation “arbitrary” unless they are defined by the blue-blood gatekeepers?
These are all snarky inquiries, of course, but the real questions remain: what makes a program a “blue-blood?” Do you need to be a “blue-blood” to be “SEC royalty?”
Let’s examine Florida’s blue-blood credentials, shall we?
First, the bad data points.
The Gators are “only” in the top half of the SEC in all-time SEC basketball win percentage. That number improves to top 4 since integration (an obviously fair and important line of demarcation), but once you include its whole basketball history, Florida isn’t one of the top 2 winningest programs in SEC history (Kentucky, Alabama) and Florida is not one of the 20 winningest basketball programs of all time.
Florida is also a football school. Yes, basketball matters at Florida. The Gators rank third in the SEC in sellouts this decade, for example, and Florida has played in 4 of the most-watched basketball games this decade on television, including Saturday’s contest on ABC, which was the most watched basketball game on ABC this decade with 1.8 million viewers. But football moves the needle at Florida the way it does at every SEC school, save Kentucky and arguably Arkansas.
Can you be a basketball blue-blood and a football school? I’ve heard some, like CBS’s Gary Parrish, suggest no, and I think that’s a reasonable argument, given the list of traditional “blue-bloods” (I have it at Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, UCLA, Michigan State, and UConn) does not include a single football school.
Where does that leave Florida?
“Royalty” seems a fair label. Here are the good data points.
Florida leads the SEC in Final Four appearances, Elite Eight appearances, NCAA Tournament wins, NCAA Tournament win percentage, and national championships (3 to the 1 won by all other SEC programs combined) this century. Florida is also top 10 nationally in wins this century and win percentage. Florida’s advanced to the Final Four under 3 different coaching staffs, suggesting ability to win at Florida is not contingent on one coach’s legacy, and 4 different Florida staffs have advanced to the Elite Eight.
Florida, in other words, profiles similarly to a program like Villanova or Michigan, where winning championships is constantly possible, though the level and periods of sustained winning tend to ebb and flow with time. That’s not a bad place to be, and Florida’s now 3-plus decade run of success certainly warrants the “royalty” label.
Florida won’t ever be Kentucky.
But judging from the sheer volume of Kentucky fans (and journalists like Matt Jones, with this bizarre take, above) in their feelings about Florida’s rivalry win and current program status, the Gators are plenty good enough in their own right, regardless of what the gatekeepers think.
SEC Coach of the Year race heating up
For the first month of SEC action, the SEC’s Coach of the Year race seemed fait accompli.
Bucky McMillan, who less than a decade ago was coaching high school basketball in Birmingham, was going to win the award and every other SEC head coach was fighting for second.
Then Alabama clipped the Texas A&M Aggies in Tuscaloosa, Florida went to College Station and beat the Aggies by 20+, the Aggies lost their mojo, and the SEC Coach of the Year race was wide open again. Here are the 4 coaches who merit consideration for the award as the season heads towards the stretch.
McMillan — Yes, Bucky is still in the fight, especially after the Aggies rallied to avoid a bubblicious upset loss to Ole Miss on Wednesday night. Texas A&M remains on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble and with 18 wins and predictive metrics in the top 40 (38th KenPom, 35th Torvik), the committee likely will keep the Aggies in the field as long as they remain on the right side of .500 in league. Considering McMillan had zero players on his roster in April, that’s impressive stuff in Year 1 and worthy of SEC Coach of the Year consideration.
Todd Golden, Florida — The Gators started 5-4, losing close games to Arizona, Duke, TCU, and UConn in the non-conference. Yes, all 4 of those teams are NCAA Tournament quality teams, but the reigning national champions began the year in the top 5 and fell out of the rankings in early January, causing many to write off any hope of a repeat. What a difference 2 months makes. Florida ranks first in Torvik efficiency since January 4, its guards are finally starting to click, and the Gators lead the SEC by 2 full games with 5 to play. If the Gators win the SEC, do we really need to overthink Coach of the Year?
John Calipari, Arkansas — The Dean of SEC coaches has found himself again in Fayetteville. The Hogs have the SEC’s best backcourt behind Acuff and Meleek Thomas, classic Cal recruiting wins, have a world class glue guy in Billy Richmond, and rank 12th in Torvik efficiency over their last 10 games. Two Marches ago, when Calipari’s last excellent Kentucky team let Jack Gohlke shoot them out of the NCAA Tournament in the Round of 64, another Calipari Final Four team seemed an unlikely dream. Now…
Sean Miller, Texas — Miller has picked up the “impressive Year 1” mantle as McMillan’s team has hit the skids. Miller would need a strong finish (top 4) to firmly get in the discussion, but Texas is playing outstanding basketball of late and at 8-5 in the SEC, Hook ‘Em is 1 of 5 programs tied for third in the league.
And then there are the hot seats
It’s never fun to talk about who might be getting the axe come March, but after last season’s coaching change season came and went with little turnover outside of the Lone Star State, there is plenty of potential movement on the horizon in the SEC next month. Here’s a look at 4 SEC coaches on the hot seat, with projections on their future status come March.
Matt McMahon, LSU: Injuries have soiled another LSU season, and it has to hurt LSU fans to think of what this team might have been had Jalen Reed and Dedan Thomas remained healthy. McMahon is an outstanding coach schematically and he’s hamstrung by LSU’s basketball NIL situation, which isn’t up to par with the SEC elite. Still, at some point, you have to win games, and McMahon is 59-65 in nearly 4 full seasons on campus. The buyout is high and the NIL is middling, which makes this job much less attractive than many think, but McMahon’s seat is scorching. Prediction: Fired.
Lamont Paris, South Carolina: How much goodwill does Paris’s second year, when the Gamecocks won 26 games and finished second in a quality SEC, buy the fourth-year head coach? That’s the question because the other 3 seasons have been failures, with Paris posting a record of 44-56. Like McMahon, Paris is limited by a middling NIL situation. Unlike McMahon, Paris can’t blame injuries for this roster build. It’s on him alone. Prediction: One more year, but a win or you’re gone Year 5.
Porter Moser, Oklahoma: Wednesday night’s blowout loss at Tennessee likely shut down all hope the Sooners would charge their way to the NCAA Tournament with a late flurry this year. Yes, the Sooners are playing better of late, but the 3-10 record in SEC play isn’t good enough in Year 5. Moser’s advanced to just 1 NCAA Tournament in 5 seasons in Norman, and while the Sooners’ NIL ranks near the bottom of the league, more was expected when Moser took over for Hall of Famer Lon Kruger in Norman. Prediction: Fired.
Dennis Gates, Missouri: Missouri’s big win over Vanderbilt on Wednesday night puts Mizzou on the right side of the bubble again and likely eases any pressure Gates may have been feeling after a tough nonconference slate that included a 43-point loss to rival Illinois in St. Louis. Would consistency be a good thing for Missouri to find under Gates? Absolutely. But Gates is bringing in a third elite recruiting class and the Tigers should advance to a third NCAA Tournament in 4 seasons. That’s a positive trendline— which wasn’t easy to see in December. Prediction: Another NCAA Tournament and a contract extension.
Team of the Week: Texas Longhorns
Following a loss to Tennessee on January 6, Texas was 9-6, 0-2 in the SEC, and ranked outside the top 50 in KenPom. All the Longhorns have done since is win 8 of 11, including their last 5, to firmly move from outside the bubble to in the NCAA Tournament field.
That’s quite a feat in Year 1 under Sean Miller, considering he inherited only a handful of pieces from Rodney Terry’s 19-16 consummate bubble team. Throw in the fact that Texas lost a lottery pick to start the rebuild and you get an idea of why little was expected in Miller’s first season in Austin.
Texas capped a 2-win week on Tuesday night with an 88-85 win over LSU in the Moody Center, but it was Saturday’s statement win at Missouri that garners the Horns SDS Team of the Week honors.
Missouri has played well at home all season, even beating league leader Florida at Mizzou Arena on January 3. No matter. Texas waltzed into CoMo and left with a 17-point win that saw the Horns dominate Missouri on the glass, 36-26, and score inside at will, pulling away early in the second half.
Dailyn Swain’s marvelous season continues to trend towards All-SEC honors, and he led the Horns with 25 points and 6 rebounds on an efficient 9-15 from the floor on Saturday night, including 3-of-6 from deep.
But it was the step Texas took defensively that encouraged Sean Miller the most.
“We have to guard like that consistently,” Miller said following the win.
Texas took a step back on Tuesday, struggling to contain LSU in a furious Tiger rally in the second half. That disappointed Miller, who is still looking for consistency.
“I thought we got complacent in the second half, which was predictable,” Miller told the media following the win over LSU. “We have to set the tone. We have to be a two-way team, meaning we have to be able to connect defense with offense and offense with defense.”
The Horns have struggled to guard all season, but on Saturday at Mizzou, Texas limited one of the nation’s best 2-point offenses (40th in America, per KenPom, in 2-point field goal offense) to just 15-of-35 inside, their worst performance in SEC action. Replicate that down the stretch and something might be brewing in the Lone Star State.
With an electric offense ranked in the top 10 in America and outstanding offensive rebounding to help a collection of quality 3-point shooters, the Texas offense is clearly good enough to win a game in the NCAA Tournament.
If the Horns guard the way they did at Missouri, a second weekend may also be possible.
Player of the Week: Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
Was there any doubt?
Well, other than the doubt that Acuff would play on Wednesday night after spending the prior 2 days in a walking boot?
It isn’t just the Wednesday night stat line, though that was literally Kobe-esque, as Acuff Jr. became the first player since Kobe Bryant in a Division I college basketball or professional basketball game to score 45, have 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 turnover or less, and play the entire game (50 minutes!). It’s not just playing through pain.
It’s the entire body of work in a week where Acuff averaged 40 points a game with 6 assists while playing 88 of Arkansas’s 90 minutes of basketball.
On the season, Acuff ranks second in the SEC in scoring (22.3 points per game) and 3-point percentage (44.1%) while leading the league in assists (6.1 per game) and assist to turnover ratio (3.1).
Put plainly, he’s the best offensive basketball player in the deepest conference in America, and this week was his masterpiece.
Did we mention guard play wins close games in March? Is there anyone in the conference you’d rather have with the game on the line than Acuff? Enjoy these final few weeks, Arkansas fans. You rarely see talent this special.
Stat of the Week: 8
As in 8 freshmen with 40-point plus games this season. It’s why it is not an overreaction to call this season’s crop of freshmen “generational,” no matter how much the label is abused by sports fans competing to win “most sizzling hot take” awards on social media night after night. Here are the 8 freshmen who have scored 40 or more in a game this season:
- Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas: 49
- Keaton Wagler, Illinois: 46
- Mikel Brown Jr., Louisville: 45
- AJ Dybantsa, BYU: 42
- Jordan Ellerbee, FGCU: 42
- Kingston Flemings, Houston: 42
- Ace Glass III, Washington State: 40
- Ebuka Okorie, Stanford: 40
Darius Acuff Jr.’s 49 points Wednesday night were the most scored in a single game by a freshman since Alphonso Ford scored 51 for Mississippi Valley State against Texas Southern in 1990. Acuff Jr.’s 49 were also the most by a freshman ever against an AP Top 25 opponent. Incredible stuff.
Where to Eat on a SEC Hoops Weekend in Auburn, Alabama:
The Tigers host Kentucky this weekend (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) and that spotlight game with immense NCAA Tournament bubble implications gives me a chance to riff on Auburn, one of the SEC’s most underrated food scenes, especially if you like southern-style cuisine. Pannie George’s is an institution in Auburn, but the meat and 3 soul food joint is closed on Saturdays, meaning you’ll need to wait for Sunday if you want the best fried chicken in the state of Alabama (they make it from scratch daily). If you go meat and 3, do the fried okra, mac and cheese, and green beans and thank me later. If you can’t stick around on Sunday, The Hound is Auburn’s best restaurant, with choice, locally sourced steaks, a meatloaf that will feel like home, and inventive, delicious takes on southern classics like chicken and dumplings, short ribs, and shrimp and grits. Make sure to try the baked collard green dip as an appetizer. If you didn’t know you needed collards and pimento cheese fondue, you will learn something.
The SEC’s 10 NCAA Tournament teams will be:
Florida, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Missouri, Texas A&M, and Georgia.
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.
