01/15/09

Another Wednesday, another loss for both Alabama and Auburn in hoops.

Honestly, we should all be used to this by now. Alabama was done in a stretch in the second half where they were apparently protesting playing defense and AU was cooked by their incredible knack for missing free throws.

Enough is enough, people. Obama isn’t the only guy advocating change anymore---- Time to let Gottfried and Lebo go and I mean this very minute. Both coaches have had ample time to get things going for their respective schools, but that light at the end of the tunnel has dimmed.

Gottfried did have some promise early on, but that 2002 SEC title seems like four decades ago now. Meanwhile, Lebo is probably best known for losing to Florida every time they play (and I mean EVERY time!)

Whether you’re Orange and Blue or Crimson and White, I think that it is time for us all to realize that for hoops to be important in this state, BOTH schools need to do well. Here’s hoping that Alabama and/ or Auburn start burning up the phone lines to Minnesota (where Tubby Smith coaches) or Xavier (where Sean Miller resides) or SOMEWHERE because interest in college basketball around here is at an all time low.

Maybe we can turn Saturday’s ‘Bama/ Auburn game into a ‘Loser Leave Town’ match? That’s be fun…

 

01/07/09

Winning either division in the SEC is an arduous task. It takes a combination of talent, coaching, scheduling and luck to get to Atlanta in early December. Therefore, I have put together three rankings (I excluded luck obviously) to try and piece together who will come out on top in the SEC West in 2009.

1. Talent: 1. LSU…. 2. Bama…. 3. Ole Miss… 4. Auburn… 5. Arkansas… 6. Miss State…. This category is pretty obvious to me. LSU has been recruiting at another level for almost 7 or 8 years now. Sure, they have had their slip-ups, but the talent on the field is unmistakable…. Nick Saban is doing his best to even that playing field at Alabama, but it will be at least another recruiting class before that happens….. Coach Yaw Yaw left Ole Miss stockpiled with NFL type talent and the Rebs probably have the SEC’s best backfield if Tebow goes pro…. Auburn has some talent, but it has dwindled significantly from Tuberville’s glory days…. Arkansas may not have McFadden and Jones anyway, but Petrino will have Michigan transfer Ryan Mallet in 2009… Ironically, Sly Croom was having by far his best recruiting class until he was axed.

2. Coaching: 1. Bama…. 2. LSU…. 3. Ole Miss… 4. Arkansas… 5. Auburn… 6. Miss State…. The ambiguity here rests in slots 2/3 and 5/6. Alabama lost its last two games, but those two loses may very well end up being to the top two teams in the country…. I really want to rank Ole Miss ahead of LSU in second based on what Nutt accomplished, but LSU has just been too dominant for me to do that… Arkansas didn’t make a bowl game in 2008, but they did beat Auburn and LSU… I rank AU ahead of Miss State because of Auburn’s assistant hires.

3. Schedule: 1. Ole Miss…. 2. Bama…. 3. Miss State… 4.Auburn… 5. Arkansas… 6. LSU…. Ole Miss has by far the easiest schedule to me. They face no tough out of conference teams and avoid Florida and Georgia from the East. Not only that, they get Bama and LSU at home…. Bama has a tough first game with ACC Champ Virginia Tech, but they also drop UGA and miss Florida from the slate. The Tide do travel to Ole Miss and AU, though…. Miss State does have to play Florida, but it is at home. They also have Georgia Tech at home…. Auburn misses the Gators, but travels to Arkansas, Tennessee, LSU and Georgia. Not to mention Bama and West Virginia at home…. Arkansas and LSU both have tough home and away games and both have to play UGA and Florida which really strengthens their slates.

Based on all of these rankings, I predict the SEC West winds up like this:

1. Bama

2. Ole Miss

3. LSU

4. Auburn

5. Arkansas

6. Miss State

It is definitely not usual to see Auburn ranked at four nor Ole Miss in second. The beauty of the SEC is that if just one player goes down to injury, Alabama could wind up sixth in the West. However, I am not going forecast any player’s injury so I will stick with these rankings. Check out the 2009 schedules yourself at http://www.nationalchamps.net/NCAA/future_schedules/ and see what you think.