Finally, with Florida’s suprisingly ugly loss to Michigan yesterday,  we can toss the last bit of dirt on the 2012-13 SEC basketball season.  It seems the league’s disappointing season had one last disappointment to deliver before we could lower it into the ground.

For those who care about such things, the Southeastern Conference has now fallen to 9th in conference RPI rank behind the Big Ten, Big East, Mountain West, ACC, Big XII, Pac-12, Atlantic 10, and Missouri Valley.  Ouch.

But despite a poor season on the whole, there were some solid coaching jobs turned in by a few of the league’s coaches.  In our view, offseason attrition — not poor coaching — should be counted as the main reason for the conference’s woes this past season.  That said, below are the final marks from MrSEC.com for all 14 of the conference’s head instructors.

Billy Donovan, Florida — A+

Record: 29-8 (14-4 in SEC)

RPI Rank: 9

Florida was picked to finish second in the SEC this year, but the Gators were in fact that cream of the conference.  Donovan’s squad — for much of the season — featured one of the nation’s most suffocating defenses.  At 6-5, the Gators were the only SEC team to finish with a plus-500 record against the RPI top 50.  The team wobbled a bit while sixth-man Will Yeguete was sidelined, but the Gators did reach their third consecutive Elite Eight.  UF fans are probably smarting today, but there’s no question Donovan still places among the top five or 10 coaches in all of college hoops.  Make the Elite Eight, get an A+ on the report card.

Andy Kennedy, Ole Miss — A

Record: 27-9 (12-6 in SEC)

RPI Rank: 45

This one was a toughie.  Kennedy took a chance on Marshall Henderson and, despite some bad pub, that worked out well.  His two forwards — Murphy Holloway and Reginald Buckner — made up one of the league’s best frontcourts.  The Rebels reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time under Kennedy and they guaranteed their slot in the field by getting hot in March and cutting down the nets at the SEC Tournament.  That’s all good.  But.  It must be stated that the Rebels had a horrible non-conference schedule and they suffered a pair of what could have been bubble-bursting losses to sub-200 RPI teams.  In the end, however, Kennedy managed the chemistry on his team well — no easy task with a lightning rod like Henderson present — and he led them past the opening round of the NCAA tourney.  That’s pretty good work from a guy who might have been fired had his team missed the tourney altogether.  Oh, and victory-wise it was Mississippi’s best record ever.  A solid A grade for Kennedy is the result.

Johnny Jones, LSU — B+

Record: 19-12 (9-9 in SEC)

RPI Rank: 93

The Tigers’ first-year coach left many on the Bayou wondering what he might have been able to do with the team Trent Johnson had a year earlier.  Jones’ team jumped out to a 9-2 start against so-so non-conference competition, but unlike so many other SEC squads, his team didn’t turn into a pumpkin when league play began.  After an 0-4 start, LSU finished 9-5 in its last 14 conference games (10-6 if you count the tourney) to finish mid-table in the SEC standings.  With a top recruiting class coming in, Tiger fans should be happy about what they’ve seen from their alumnus/coach in his first season.

Anthony Grant, Alabama — B

Record: 22-13 (12-6 in SEC)

RPI Rank: 64

Meh.  Solid, but not special.  Good, but not great.  It’s likely that had senior guard Andrew Steele been healthy all season, the Tide might have been an NCAA Tournament team.  But he was lost for the month of December and Alabama went 2-5 during that non-conference stretch.  He then missed eight of Alabama’s last 12 games and he was less than 100% in at least four more contests.  Despite Steele’s absence, Grant managed to work his team into the NIT where a one-point home loss to Maryland cost it a trip to Madison Square Garden.  Again, good, not great.

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Sophomore guard BJ Young announced via twitter on Thursday he plans to enter the NBA draft.

I will be officially entering the 2013 NBA #DRAFT thank you ARKANSAS for everything I have unconditional love for this place and people here

— bj young (@bjyoung_money11) March 28, 2013

Young, who led Arkansas in scoring this season at 15.1 points per game, is the second Razorback this week to leave early for the draft. Forward Marshawn Powell announced Tuesday he will skip his senior season and enter the draft.

Young finished No. 11 on our list of the SEC’s most productive basketball players this season.

Arkansas coach Mike Anderson released a statement Thursday following a meeting with Young:

“This is his dream and as a coach I encourage him to pursue that dream.”

The departure of Powell and Young leaves forward Coty Clarke as Arkansas’ leading scorer next season. He averaged 7.6 points per game as a junior.

Congrats on reaching the middle of the workweek, America.  Congrats to Andy Kennedy for getting a much-needed win at Ole Miss.  Congrats to Missouri fans for vanquishing ex-coach Mike Anderson in loud and rowdy fashion.

And there’s plenty more SEC news on the way today.

As for the thought/lyric of the day, it came to my attention when this song popped up on the MrSEC.com iPod today that we push a lot of blues around here… but not a lot of blues by women.  Time to change that.  So please enjoy the supercharged sound of Ms. Koko Taylor.

“…When the reflection in the glass that I held to my lips revealed the tears that were on my face.”

Good Lord, that woman could sing.

Alabama 59 — Arkansas 56

Alabama improved to 5-2 in the SEC despite blowing a double-digit lead and committing a season-high 21 turnovers.

The Tide is making a habit out of winning close games at home… their last four home victories have been by a combined 11 points.

It was yet another road loss for Arkansas, but the Razorbacks took this one to the final seconds.

Mike Anderson on the Hogs’ loss: “I told our guys, I love the effort and they didn’t lose it.  We just ran out of time.”

1. Alabama coach Anthony Grant

2. Arkansas coach Mike Anderson

3. Auburn coach Tony Barbee

4. Florida coach Billy Donovan

5. Georgia coach Mark Fox

6. Kentucky coach John Calipari

7. LSU coach Johnny Jones

8. Mississippi State coach Rick Ray

9. Missouri coach Frank Haith

10. Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy

11. South Carolina coach Frank Martin

12. Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin

13. Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy

14. Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings

Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long met with a number of rabid Razorback fans at the Little Rock Touchdown Club yesterday.  Naturally, the state of his coaching search was a hot topic.

Asked what “phase” his coaching search is in, Long said: “Just research at this point.”  Just a few weeks ago he told another booster group that he’s had no contact with coaches or their representatives.  Here’s hoping he’s lying his rear end off, ’cause if he’s spent the time from April til October simply looking at resumes, he’s wasted a lot of valuable time.  (For that reason, we suspect he is lying his rear end off and has talked to representatives for coaches and perhaps a few out of work ones like Butch Davis and Jon Gruden one-on-one.)

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Ask an Arkansas fan and you’ll learn that their coach, Mike Anderson, left Missouri with a Top 10 caliber team.  Ask a Missouri fan and you’ll be told that Anderson fled town out a back door without taking questions and that he’d recruited so poorly that new coach Frank Haith has had to build his new squad with transfers.

Needless to say, there might be some bad blood when Anderson and Arkansas face Missouri twice in hoops this season.  Just don’t suggest that to Anderson:

“It’s going to be another conference game.  It just got a little more interesting because me and my staff coached there, and we still have some players over there as well.”

Actually, those games will be a lot more interesting due to Anderson’s departure from Columbia for Fayetteville.  No spin can change that.

Arkansas guard Julysses Nobles won’t be back in Fayetteville for his senior year of basketball next year.  Mike Anderson and the school announced Noble’s plans to transfer yesterday:


“I appreciate everything that Julysses did for the Razorback program during his three years.  He is a good young man who will continue to grow and mature.  I wish him the best as he pursues another opportunity to play basketball and earn his degree.”


Nobles started 28 of 32 games last season, averaging 8.7 points and 3.1 assists per game.  His high school coach, Wayne Brent, told ArkansasNews.com that Nobles would transfer to another Division I school to play his senior season after being told that he would be the backup — not starting — point guard next season.

He is the fourth players to transfer out of Arkansas since Anderson’s arrival from Missouri a year ago.

New Mississippi State basketball coach Rick Ray explained his background and rang the traditional cowbell at an introductory presser in Starkville yesterday.  As expected, after hearing him speak, State fans are feeling better about the hire (more in a minute).

Ray — who’s drawn positive reviews from those who’ve worked with him — opened with the usual “here’s what we’re gonna be” comments that all coaches use at their introductions:

“The program that I’m going to run is going to be a situation where guys are going to flourish.”

“All I ask you to do this whole time is, throw away your doubts, throw away your fears and get two feet into Mississippi State basketball.  Then see what happens.  If it doesn’t happen they you can start being judgmental, but don’t be judgmental right now.”

“I’m telling you this: We will be successful.  I don’t know how to lose.  The only thing I’ve ever done is win ballgames.  I don’t care if you’re an assistant coach or associate head coach — if you come from a winning program, you know how to win.”

“The system we will run is based on integrity.  I believe you win by doing things the right way.  I want to make sure we put a team on this court that you guys are proud of.”

“I’ve got to get our players believing this is the right way to play basketball, making them better as a basketball player.  Rest assured that all those things will happen.  It will take some patience, but it will happen.”

Ray also explained that he believes in a motion offense with a lot of “screens, moving, popping and cutting.”  He spoke of trying to keep Rodney Hood and the rest of his six scholarship players in Starkville.  He credited predecessor Rick Stansbury for giving him a program to build on and yet he also said the off-court shenanigans would have to stop.

It was a Day One win for Ray.  Of course, all but about 1% of opening pressers are wins.  “He has a commanding presence,” MSU president Mark Keenum said yesterday.  “He’s going to bring a high level of intellect and knowledge to the game.”

As noted above, State fans are gradually getting onboard with the hire.  Especially that, “The only thing I’ve ever done is win ballgames” line.  That’s quite a statement.

The Bulldog fansite ForWhomTheCowbellTolls.com — great name, by the way — now gives a thumbs-up to the man they’d likely never heard of a week ago:

“… I think Rick Ray will be a great fit at State.  He isn’t who was most wanted, but in the end none of the candidates, wanted or unknown, were guaranteed to come in and be successful… The sky is the limit (with Ray), he’s sitting at 0-0 right now.”

True enough.  Ray may turn out to be an A-1 head basketball coach.  But for now he’s a lifetime assistant who’s never run his own program.  He steps into a 14-team league that features coaches like Billy Donovan, John Calipari, Mike Anderson, and Frank Martin.  Oh, and Frank Haith, the reigning National Coach of the Year is coming in, too.  Ray’s taking over a program that will have serious depth issues next year and he’ll have to replace a guy who — even though he was the winningest coach in school history — was forced into very early retirement.

That won’t be easy.  Now, that doesn’t mean State fans shouldn’t be hopeful and supportive.  But buying in hook, line and sinker?  Everybody does it right after a coach is introduced.  But, boy, there sure are a lot of coaches introduced each year, aren’t there?  Not every guy who wins the presser by telling the fans exactly what they want to hear goes on to win enough games to keep his job.

So the jury is still very much out on Rick Ray, the only SEC coach who’s never run a program before.  We wish him well.

His deal: four years, $1 million per year plus incentives.  He also announced that he will retain at least one Stansbury assistant.

Frank Haith was not exactly the first choice of Missouri fans when he took over the program from Mike Anderson.  Now he’s not the first — or even second choice — of the Big 12′s coaches for Coach of the Year honors.

Doing what Mizzou fans will tell you Anderson couldn’t do, Haith has led the Tigers to a 27-4 record, a Top 10 finish and the most wins in school history.  That was good enough to be named the Associated Press’ Big 12 Coach of the Year.

But the vote among Big 12 coaches?  Uh, no.  Earlier this week they split their Coach of the Year award between Bill Self of Kansas and Fred Hoiberg of Iowa State.  That’s quite a snub for a man who’s had to use just a seven-player rotation all season long.  You don’t think any of that had to do with lasting bitterness over Mizzou leaving the Big 12, do you?  Surely the Big 12 wouldn’t intentionally not give its award to a man who’ll be in another league next year, would it?

Oh, well.  See you in the SEC, Coach.