SEC Basketball thoughts/question

[BB30]

I ran across a thread on T rant about SEC basketball being the best it has been since 2010. It also listed where the SEC has finished since 02. I didn't realize how good the SEC was in basketball for a 3-5 year stretch. What do yall think happened to cause SEC basketball to fall off so bad? Coaches getting old, losing their edge? Since 2008 the conference hasn't finished higher than 4th and only managed that once. Most of those years we finished anywhere from 6th-8th as a conference. With all of the money and resources that kind of surprises me. It does look like the SEC as a whole is turning the corner finally.

[Big4Dawg]

2017 : +12.29 (5th overall)
2016 : +11.20 (6th overall)
2015 : +11.73 (5th overall)
2014 : +10.47 (6th overall)
2013 : +8.48 (7th overall)
2012 : +10.60 (4th overall)
2011 : +9.24 (7th overall)
2010 : +12.33 (5th overall)
2009 : +10.22 (6th overall)
2008 : +11.08 (6th overall)
2007 : +15.29 (2nd overall)
2006 : +13.66 (3rd overall)
2005 : +12.48 (5th overall)
2004 : +12.98 (2nd overall)
2003 : +14.57 (1st overall)
2002 : +15.77 (1st overall)

[smootness]

I think it's coming back. Used to be great, and I think it was coaching more than anything that dragged it down.

In 2008, for example, here were your SEC coaches:
Billy Donovan
Bruce Pearl
Kevin Stallings
Rick Stansbury
Mark Gottfried
Dave Odom
Billy Gillispie
Andy Kennedy
John Pelphrey
Butch Pierre
Jeff Lebo
Dennis Felton

That is pretty terrible overall, and the worst part is that programs like Kentucky and Arkansas were the ones with Gillispie and Pelphrey. I mean, you could make a solid case that Andy Kennedy was about the 4th best coach in the conference then. You also had Stan Heath, Darrin Horn, Rick Ray, and several others that just weren't up to that level. Compare that to, say, 2002 when you still had Donovan, Stans, Gottfried, Odom, and Stallings but you also had guys like Nolan Richardson, Tubby Smith, Rod Barnes, Cliff Ellis, John Brady, and Jim Harrick (terrible guy, but he got results), just really solid coaches throughout the league.

Now the conference is starting to come back because you've replaced Stans/Ray with Ben Howland, Gillispie with John Calipari, Pelphrey/Heath with Mike Anderson, Gottfried with Avery Johnson, Lebo with Bruce Pearl, Felton with Mark Fox, Odom/Horn with Frank Martin, you've added A&M and Billy Kennedy, and while you lost Pearl at Tennessee, Rick Barnes is a solid replacement; and I think White and Drew are solid replacements for Donovan and Stallings as well. So the coaching has been starkly improved now to where you can't really make a case that Kennedy is higher than about 9th and may be even lower than that. And he's a pretty darn solid coach.

Kim Anderson and Johnny Jones are the only two in the entire conference now that I don't think are good coaches. And Jones at least recruits.

[BB30]

I think it's coming back. Used to be great, and I think it was coaching more than anything that dragged it down.

In 2008, for example, here were your SEC coaches:
Billy Donovan
Bruce Pearl
Kevin Stallings
Rick Stansbury
Mark Gottfried
Dave Odom
Billy Gillispie
Andy Kennedy
John Pelphrey
Butch Pierre
Jeff Lebo
Dennis Felton

That is pretty terrible overall, and the worst part is that programs like Kentucky and Arkansas were the ones with Gillispie and Pelphrey. I mean, you could make a solid case that Andy Kennedy was about the 4th best coach in the conference then. You also had Stan Heath, Darrin Horn, Rick Ray, and several others that just weren't up to that level. Compare that to, say, 2002 when you still had Donovan, Stans, Gottfried, Odom, and Stallings but you also had guys like Nolan Richardson, Tubby Smith, Rod Barnes, Cliff Ellis, John Brady, and Jim Harrick (terrible guy, but he got results), just really solid coaches throughout the league.

Now the conference is starting to come back because you've replaced Stans/Ray with Ben Howland, Gillispie with John Calipari, Pelphrey/Heath with Mike Anderson, Gottfried with Avery Johnson, Lebo with Bruce Pearl, Felton with Mark Fox, Odom/Horn with Frank Martin, you've added A&M and Billy Kennedy, and while you lost Pearl at Tennessee, Rick Barnes is a solid replacement; and I think White and Drew are solid replacements for Donovan and Stallings as well. So the coaching has been starkly improved now to where you can't really make a case that Kennedy is higher than about 9th and may be even lower than that. And he's a pretty darn solid coach.

Kim Anderson and Johnny Jones are the only two in the entire conference now that I don't think are good coaches. And Jones at least recruits.

I agree, I am excited about SEC basketball improving as a whole. It was a lot of fun several years ago.