SEC Talk

Bruce Pearl says he has something better in store this season.

After a couple of dominating seasons for the SEC in basketball, the season begins with tempered expectations for most SEC teams. The latest AP Poll ranking the top 25 teams only has 3 SEC teams in the top 25, two in the lower half. The Tennessee Volunteers start the season as the seventh ranked team in the country while the Arkansas Razorbacks crack the list at 19 and the big blue Kentucky Wildcats enter right behind at 20.

The Volunteers enter the season in quite possibly the highest ranking they have ever garnered to enter the season. Much of that has to do with the returning seniors including guard Chris Lofton who is a pre-season candidate for the NCAA Player of the year. The Vols could not put away the Ohio St. Buckeyes in their sweet sixteen matchup in March but are fully expected to make a big push for the final four this season, something they have never done in their history. Part of the new resurgence in Vols basketball on the men’s side has been due to popular coach Bruce Pearl. Pearl made headlines for bearing his chest in support of the Lady Vols, meanwhile women’s head coach Pat Summitt donned a cheerleading outfit to a UT men’s basketball game.

Anticipation for Razorbacks basketball is at a high not seen since the Nolan Richardson days. They return one of the most exciting guards in the country in Patrick Beverley and start a new era, the John Pelphrey era. With the season hardly begun, head coach Pelphrey put his stamp on the program coming down with the suspension of 3 players for the red-white game due to conduct detrimental to the team. Pelphrey comes to Arkansas following the dismissal of Stan Heath. At age 39, Pelphrey is one of the youngest head coaches following a head coaching stint at Southern Alabama and several assistant gigs under Eddie Sutton at Oklahoma St. and Billy Donovan at Florida.

The Billy Gillespie era begins in earnest tomorrow night in their first official regular season game of the season for the University of Kentucky Wildcats. Gillespie won the job after Billy Donovan passed on what appeared to be the dream job. After several sub-par years under Tubby Smith, big blue is high on the upcoming season and Gilliespie is a major reason why. However, if the exhibition game the other night against Seattle U is any indication, the Wildcats have plenty to work on especially on defense. But clearly, Gilliespie’s influence is already paying dividends as true freshman Patrick Patterson will most likely be a major contributor this season. Patterson comes to Kentucky after a heated recruiting battle between Duke and UK with Gillespie winning out after getting the head coaching job.

I leave you with Coach Pearl in support of the Lady Vols,

And Coach Summitt in support of the men’s basketball team,

basketball, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky