Arkansas coach Bret Bielema says he was joking when he said over the weekend that Nick Saban’s record while in the Big Ten couldn’t compare to his own
Alabama’s Saban said, “I really don’t have a reaction to it,” when asked about Bielema’s comment
Kentucky freshman G Archie Goodwin has declared himself eligible for the NBA draft
Florida C Patric Young, Kentucky C Nerlens Noel, and Missouri G Phil Pressey are among those SEC stars still weighing their NBA options
Follow the SEC all year long on MrSEC.com

Yesterday, it was announced that sophomore point guard Ryan Harrow will transfer from Kentucky to Georgia State.   Today, UK has announced that freshman Archie Goodwin had declared himself eligible for the NBA draft while freshman Willie Cauley-Stein and sophomore Kyle Wiltjer have decided to stay put. 

With that, the reshuffling of Kentucky’s basketball roster has begun.  Today’s UK press release even added that “No announcement has been made by Nerlens Noel, Alex Poythress, Jon Hood and Jarrod Polson regarding their future at Kentucky at this time.”  Noel has hinted that he will return to Lexington, but that’s doubtful.  Even after suffering a season-ending ACL tear, Noel is projected to be a top-five pick in the NBA draft if not the overall #1 pick.

In the release, Calipari said:

“’I’m excited that Willie and Kyle have decided to return for next season,’ John Calipari said. ‘When we talk about a players-first program, our goal is for each player to reach his dreams. Willie and Kyle believe it is in their best interest to return to Kentucky next season to achieve those dreams, and I fully support their decisions.

‘Although I really wanted Archie to return for his sophomore season, I fully support him choosing to pursue his dreams. He has the drive and desire to be great and I will continue to do everything I can to make sure he succeeds in life both on and off the court.

‘I believe, with another year of hard work and competition, they all can take their games to the next level. I look forward to seeing them all grow into young men.’”

Before next season the Wildcats will add what some are calling the greatest signing class in college basketball history.  As for where they’ll all fit, well, there are at least two new slots available with the departures of Harrow and Goodwin.

SEC Football

1. Shoulder surgery Friday for Kentucky defensive tackle Donte Rumph. Coach Mark Stoops: “We expect Donte to make a full recovery and be back with us in the fall.”

2. Arkansas defensive tackle  Byran Jones weighs more than 300 pounds.  Coach Brett Bielema wants him to get bigger.

3. Florida’s Jeremy Brown has endured four injuries and missed 45 games – he’ll be a sixth year senior this fall.

4. Tony Barnhart on the Gators: Beyond (QB Jeff) Driskel’s improvement, there are a number of other reasons to believe the Florida offense will be better.”

5. LSU sophomore Terrence Magee started as a running back, moved to wide receiver, but has returned to the backfield for the Tigers.

6. Georgia redshirt freshman nose guard John Taylor is now working strictly at defensive end. Malcolm Mitchell is focusing exclusively at receiver this spring.

7. Georgia’s Jay Rome played both  football and basketball for the Bulldogs – but he’s focusing exclusively on football now.

8. After allowing the most points and yards in conference play than any other SEC team, it’s back to the fundamentals for the Tennessee defense.

9. Does experience in Gus Malzahn’s system mean Kiehl Frazier has an advantage over Jonathan Wallace in Auburn’s starting quarterback battle? Malzahn: “Jonathan Wallace played in a similar system in high school, too. We’re just giving those guys equal reps right now, and we’ll see what happens.”

10. Auburn practices in pads for the first time this morning.  Malzahn expects a “very physical” day.

11. JUCO transfer defensive back Justin Cox is expected to contribute immediately at Mississippi State: “A kid that is 6-foot-1 that can run a 4.3 (40-yard dash), it is hard to find those.”

12. Dan Mullen on new Mississippi State cornerbacks coach DeShea Townsend: ”Here’s a guy that has tremendous experience, that’s been through it at every level and had great success at every level.”

13. As one of only two assistant coaches who’ve served at Alabama during Nick Saban’s entire reign, running backs coach Burton Burns has worked with some talented players.

14. ESPN analyst Todd McShay says as many as 11 SEC players could be taken in the first round of the NFL draft – another nine in the second round.

SEC/NCAA Tournament Basketball

15. Florida’s Will Yeguette was bleeding from the mouth after taking a hard shot late in the game last night.

16. How good was Florida’s defense last night? Gators allowed just 35 points in the final 35 minutes of the game.

17. Decision time for Missouri’s Phil Pressey – return for his senior year or enter the NBA draft?

18. ESPN’s Chad Ford on Kentucky’s freshmen not named Nerlens Noel: “None of them are close to being ready for the NBA.”

19. New trend in college basketball?  Coaches staying – not leaving. Why they’re content to stay put.

20. West Virginia – you’ve got company.  Couch fires reported after Michigan State loss to Duke last night.

21. Out of more than eight million brackets – just 19 have the correct Elite Eight.

Florida vs Florida Gulf Coast Friday night in NCAA Tournament basketball…Winner plays in Elite Eight On Sunday
Sophomore Arkansas guard BJ Young announced via twitter on Thursday he plans to enter the NBA draft.
South Carolina’s Bruce Ellington says he will again play both football and basketball for the Gameocks next fall
Injuries along the offensive line have Ole Miss running out bodies in spring practice…four freshmen linemen will join the Rebels in the fall
Kentucky linebacker Alvin “Bud” Dupree moving to defensive end
Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy admits he nearly took the Tennessee job in December…disagreed with OSU AD over scheduling issues
Stay up to date with SEC news year-round at MrSEC.com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/mrsec

1. Vanderbilt defensive tackle Jared Morse is no longer with the team or enrolled in school. Coach James Franklin: “Jared broke a team rule and is not here this spring. We’re hoping that Jared will have a chance to come back. We’ll see.” Depth at defensive tackle a concern.

2. Spring practice starts Friday at Vanderbilt.  Expect a battle at quarterback.

3. The brother of former LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson signed with LSU in February.  Just days before, Rickey Jefferson was charged with resisting arrest.

4. Spring practice begins tomorrow at LSU.  Despite returning top four players, no position will be under the microscope more than wide receiver.

5. Mike Davis and Brandon Wilds are competing to be the feature back at South Carolina. Running backs coach Everette Sands says whoever emerges will get 60 to 65 percent of the snaps.

6. Will Muschamp announces several position changes at Florida.  Cornerback Loucheiz Purifoy will move to wide receiver - at least temporarily – where he’s listed as a starter.

7. Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel: “We’re no longer the underdog, like we were a little bit last year.” More troubles for Florida lineman Jessaman Dunker.

8. New Tennessee running backs coach Robert Gillespie spent four years as a running back at Florida battling the Vols.  ”You never know where life is going to take you.”

9. “Real football” at Tennessee starts Thursday when the players will practice in pads for the first time.

10. Mario Cristobal will make $475,000 as offensive line coach at Alabama.  He earned $522,000 as a head coach in 2012.

11. Auburn’s 2013 coaching staff will make about $1.6 million less than the 2012 staff did.

12. Arkansas had the worst rushing attack in the SEC last year – and with Knile Davis gone to the NFL – is the cupboard looking a little bare?

13. First choice for football coach at East Tennessee State?  Former Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer -was on campus Friday.

SEC Basketball

14. No SEC team generates more basketball revenue than Kentucky.  $21.6 million in 2011-2012.  Ole Miss last at $5.9 million.

15. With Ole Miss guard Marshall Henderson named second-team All-SEC on Tuesday, it marked the first time in twelve years that the SEC’s leading scorer was left off the first team.

16. Peers picked Florida’s Billy Donovan as SEC Coach of the Year – but NBC Sports selected Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy for the honor.

17. SEC Player of the Year Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is ranked the No. 31 overall NBA prospect by ESPN’s Chad Ford.  Georgia sophomore will decide after season if he will leave early.

18. Georgia will face LSU Thursday in the SEC Tournament.  Tigers coach Johnny Jones on Caldwell-Pope: “He’s crafty. He’s excellent with the basketball in terms of his ball-handling skills.”

19. NBA questions surround underclassmen Arkansas players BJ Young and Marshawn Powell – but for now the focus is the postseason.

20. Charles Barkley’s message for most underclassmen? Stay in school.  “I don’t think these guys understand how physically imposing the NBA is. The (Noel) Nerlens kid needs to stay in school. It’s not an easy decision.”

21. Did Tennessee’s Jordan McRae deserve the POY honor? Teammate Jarnell Stokes was second-team All-SEC despite being the only player to average a double-double in league play.

22. SEC Tournament gets underway tonight with Mississippi State playing South Carolina in the first game. Not a single player on the Mississippi State roster has played in an SEC Tournament.

23. South Carolina coach Frank Martin will be an assistant coach for Team USA in the 2013 World University Games.

24. Texas A&M likes their tournament draw.  Aggies have defeated five of the six opponents on their side of the bracket.

25. Elston Turner has a broken bone in his finger and didn’t play in the Aggies last game but Auburn is planning on him to show tonight.  Auburn coach Tony Barbee: ”The type of competitor he is, I fully expect him to be out there playing.”

26. Five years ago, Georgia went 4-12 in the SEC but won the tournament.  How does that team compare to this year’s bottom of the SEC?

27. Kentucky coach John Calipari on UK’s season.  ”Some of the stuff went on that won’t go on next year…The bench is going to be my best friend.”

28. Mizzou senior Alex Oriakhi won a national title at Connecticut in 2011, but he wants to be identified with the Tigers.  “Other people might not like that. But oh, well.”

29. The father of Mizzou guard Phil Pressey says talk of the point guard leaving early for the NBA is premature. “When the season is over with, we’ll sit and talk with his coach and my wife and him and evaluate what’s best for Phil.’ ”

30. How good was Alabama in the SEC Tournament under Wimp Sanderson?  25-7 record and reached the finals nine times in 12 years.

31. Get used to Nashville as the host city for the SEC Tournament.  Counting this year’s tourney, it will be there three of the next four years.

Extra

32. Here’s what happens when Jeff Gordon shows up in a disguise on the car lot and wants to take a test drive.

Freshman Kentucky big man Nerlens Noel might not be making headlines on the court these days, but he’s still getting plenty of pub off it.  After suffering a torn ACL last month in a game at Florida, Noel’s ability to zip straight to the NBA became a hot topic.  That discussion lasted for all of about eight hours.  Once a gaggle of NBA scouts let it be known that the Wildcats’ center would still be top 5 pick even with the injury, the topic cooled.

Could it now be heating back up?

Noel briefly shares rapping duties in “Number 9,” a song posted to YouTube.com yesterday and referred to as a “New UK Basketball Anthem by Wes Grams.”  It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a college/sports rap about a hoops team aiming for its ninth all-time national title: “Feelin’ straight ’cause we got number eight, now it’s time that we grab number nine.”

Uh, OK.

But at about the 1:50 mark of the song Noel takes the mic and shares the following:

“They talk about the draft, be me in?  Don’t sweat it.  I might come back, but I don’t know yet.”

Now, I have no problem admitting that I might have missed that “be me in” line.  My rap tastes run toward Public Enemy and not the modern stuff, so maybe there’s a new phrase or two that I’m just not hip to.  Hard to believe, I know.

But it’s the last line that’ll pique Kentucky fans’ interest.  Might Noel really pass on millions of guaranteed NBA dollars in order to spend another year risking yet another injury in the college game?

If you believe so, then you’ve probably already set “Number 9″ as your ringtone.

Frank Martin is a quote machine.  In fact, we should probably create a new icon that simply says “Frank Said It.”  Couple his loquaciousness with a miserable year on the hardwood — South Carolina is 12-13 overall, but 2-10 in SEC play — and you’re sure to get quotation gold.  Like these dandies Martin tossed out after his Gamecocks’ home loss to LSU last Thursday:

1.  “If you take (point guard) Bruce Ellington off our team, you’d probably have the 12 leading candidates for the starring roles in ‘The Return of the Living Dead,’ the zombie movie.”

2.  “I’ve been doing this for 28 years, nine of which as a junior varsity high school coach. That means I’ve dealt with 14-year-olds. I’ve never been more embarrassed to call myself a basketball coach than I am today.”

3.  “We lead the country in air-ball layups. If guys can’t make layups, it’s hard to win. You’ve got to invest yourself to be good. In life, you get what you deserve. If you don’t put in the time, that ball ain’t going to go in the basket. We’ve got guys that don’t comprehend that. They put in the time when I make them put in the time. They don’t put in the time for the love of the game. Until that doesn’t change, it ain’t going to get any better.”

4.  “If this was the NBA, we’d fine them, we’d take their money, we’d release them and say, ‘Good luck with ever finding another job.’ I shouldn’t coach basketball ever again if this is how my team plays.”

Yowza.  Those are the kinds of comments a coach can make in Year One because fans want to know that that the guy with the clipboard shares their pain.  After the honeymoon ends, however, those kinds of comments typically leave fans asking, “Well, why don’t you fix it?”

As for the comments themselves, don’t try to tell Martin that he was placing blame on his team.  Yesterday, he said that the above quotes dealt with the culture of his program, not his players:

“If you know anything about me, for 28 years I have never thrown my players under the bus.  I threw the culture under the bus.  I threw our approach under the bus. Don’t ever say I threw my players under the bus.

If you know anything about me that has never happened in 28 years. It didn’t happen yesterday; it ain’t happened today.  The day they kick me out of here and out of this business I still won’t do it. Now, our culture, our approach is no good.  That has to change.  But I am not throwing players under the bus.  I fight for my guys.  I don’t kick them.”

Our take?  He threw both USC’s culture and his players under the bus.  Though there’s nothing wrong with an occasional bus-throwing-undering if an entire team — and not just an individual or two — gets tossed onto the pavement.  Martin isn’t the first coach to rip his team in a moment of frustration.  Heck, John Calipari said on Saturday that some of his players are “uncoachable.”  It happens, even with some of the biggest “players’ coaches” out there.

But, “We’d release them and say, ‘Good luck with ever finding another job,’” is indeed a rip job of Martin’s players.  There’s no way to spin that one.

In his first season, trying to light a fire under his teams, we don’t see anything wrong with Martin’s tongue-lashing.  Again, it was aimed at the whole and not an individual.  But he’d better be careful with these kinds of remarks moving forward.  It doesn’t take long for fans to start blaming coaches for the underperforming athletes on their roster.

No one has taken better advantage of the NBA’s age limit than John Calipari.  In his first three years in Lexington, Kentucky’s coach took the brightest stars from America’s high schools, coaxed them into playing defense and putting team ahead of self, and led them to Elite Eight, Final Four, and national championship finishes.  If anyone can deal with the so-called one-and-done rule, it’s Calipari.

But eventually, having to recruit a new starting five every season was going to catch up to Cal and his Cats.  Any objective soul knew that to be the case.  Still, UK fans have sent us plenty of emails whenever we’ve written things like this:  “Eventually the coach will land some kids who won’t have the attitude to buy into his team-first philosophy, but he hasn’t yet.”

Now, with its best player out for the year and with a few “uncoachable” players on its team (Calipari’s since reversed field on that), it appears that this day has indeed become someday for Kentucky.  Erase the word “eventually.”  This season has become the season of chickens coming home to roost in the Bluegrass State.  You can bet more than one SEC fan has thought to himself in recent days: “Live by the one-and-doner; Die by the one-and-doner.”

Ah, but Calipari has lived a lot more than he’s died over the past four seasons.  Which means there’s no reason to stop going after recruits who most likely won’t last in the college ranks for more than a season.  We can all say “we told ya so” to UK fans today.  We can correctly state that they’re finally seeing the downside of having to start from scratch every year.  But what Wildcat fan would trade the past four years for a more traditional type of program?

For that matter, what fan of any school wouldn’t trade places with Kentucky fans today?  If your school could go the one-and-done route for four years and reach an Elite Eight, a Final Four, and win a national championship as a result, wouldn’t that be worth one disappointing season?  (Disappointing is a relative term, of course.  This year’s Wildcats are still 17-8 with the third-best RPI in the SEC.)

Hey, we’ll admit it… we weren’t fans of the build-it-up-tear-it-down-build-it-up approach when Calipari launched it.  We still wonder if UK fans 20 years from now will be able to remember what players were on which of Calipari’s teams.  There’s something sad about that.

But Kentucky’s coach has had more success than we ever dreamed possible.  He’s hitting .750 and this season isn’t even over yet (though it must feel like it for Cat fans).  After that much success, one disappointing year is no reason to chuck the Calipari model.  Until the NBA player’s union allows the NBA to raise its age limit, UK should continue to do what UK has been doing.  It’s worked more times than not.  It just can’t be counted on to work every season.

But what system could be?

Down by just two points at halftime last night to LSU, South Carolina proceeded to lose the contest by 18, 64-46.  Watching his team lose its fifth straight game, coach Frank Martin wasn’t too happy about it and made his feelings known. 

“If you take (point guard) Bruce Ellington off our team, you’d probably have the 12 leading candidates for the starring roles in ‘The Return of the Living Dead,’ the zombie movie. If you took Bruce off our team, our guys would probably win an Academy (Award) for their performance in that movie.

“I’ve been doing this for 28 years, nine of which as a junior varsity high school coach. That means I’ve dealt with 14-year-olds. I’ve never been more embarrassed to call myself a basketball coach than I am today.”

He wasn’t finished.

“We lead the country in air-ball layups. If guys can’t make layups, it’s hard to win. You’ve got to invest yourself to be good. In life, you get what you deserve. If you don’t put in the time, that ball ain’t going to go in the basket. We’ve got guys that don’t comprehend that. They put in the time when I make them put in the time. They don’t put in the time for the love of the game. Until that doesn’t change, it ain’t going to get any better.”

South Carolina is now 12-12 on the season, 2-9 in SEC play.

“If this was the NBA, we’d fine them, we’d take their money, we’d release them and say, ‘Good luck with ever finding another job.’ I shouldn’t coach basketball ever again if this is how my team plays.”

The Gamecocks need to go 4-3 over their next seven games in order to avoid a fourth straight losing regular season.

LSU 64 – South Carolina 46. Video Highlights

1. 30 points and 10 rebounds for Johnny O’Bryant. Two-point game at half turns into second-half blowout.

2. Tigers now 5-6 in SEC play after starting 0-4. Coach Johnny Jones: “I thought we came out really focused and really determined in the second half.”

Damn.

According to a University of Kentucky press release, freshman center Nerlens Noel has been diagnosed with a torn ACL after an ugly knee twist suffered during the Wildcats’ loss at Florida last night.  Rehab will likely be in the six- to eight-month range.  What this injury means for Noel’s NBA draft prospects is anyone’s guess.

Like South Carolina’s Marcus Lattimore this past football season, we hate to see any great player — or any player, really — go down to injury.  Best wishes to Noel on his recovery.