SEC Basketball Not Off To A Great Start
November 25th, 2009 ║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink ║ Tags: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
This was supposed to be a rebound year for SEC basketball. Plenty of starters were returning. Schedules were made tougher for RPI purposes. League coaches speculated that the conference might land six or seven team in the NCAA Tournament.
So far, so bad.
The 2009 season has started much as last season finished — with SEC fans scratching their heads and wondering what’s wrong.
Keep in mind we’re talking about November basketball. It’s a long time until teams start to heat up for their February and March stretch runs.
But if last year taught SEC fans anything, it’s that RPI matters. And the games listed below might be hard to shake when bubble teams start to get popped four months from now.
* South Carolina lost 85-70 to a bottom-of-the-ACC Miami team.
* Georgia lost 60-57 to Wofford and then 72-56 to UAB.
* Mississippi State — the SEC West favorite — was upset 88-74 by Rider.
* Alabama fell to Cornell 71-67.
* Arkansas narrowly escaped Appalachian State last week only to fall 97-94 to Morgan State last night.
* Auburn has lost 73-62 to Missouri State and 84-74 to Central Florida.
* League-favorite Kentucky even needed a last second shot to best Miami (Ohio) 72-70 and they gave up 92 points to Sam Houston State in a 10-point win last week.
It’s still early, but to outsiders looking in, SEC 2009-10 probably looks awfully similar to SEC 2008-09.
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