SEC Talk

Billy Donovan prepares to go 3-0 on the season.

There are four games on the schedule today involving SEC teams in NCAA Basketball action today with all four SEC teams the favorite.

Florida faces NC Central at home. Florida is 2-0 on the season and early on its clear that the Gators will be an uptempo team that likes to run and shoot 3-pointers. They will press and force turnovers. They don’t have the great frontcourt tandem of Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer anymore but they replace them with a trio of guards that could be one of the best in the SEC in Nick Calathes, Chandler Parsons and Alex Tyus. Though young, the Gators look like a surprise team early in the season that everyone has written off. Don’t write off Billy Donovan, the guy can flat out coach.

Georgia faces Grambling State at home tonight. The Bulldogs opened the season with a huge 107-65 win over Jacksonville State, but that doesn’t say a whole lot especially when conference play starts in a month or so. The Bulldogs need some freshman to step up with the unexpected dismissal of forward Takais Brown and the suspension of guard Mike Mercer and center Albert Jackson for 15 and six games, respectively, for violations of the university’s new attendance policy for student-athletes. A specific reason was not given for Brown’s dismissal other than violation of team rules. And so heading into the season the talk was about the returning seniors, it appears freshmen like Jeremy Price and Jeremy Jacob will need to lead the way and so far they have. Just how good this young team can be as we get to conference play? I guess we’ll find out tonight.

Tennessee looks to bounce back from a lackluster first game performance in a 80-63 win over Temple. The opponent is Arkansas-Monticello but that doesn’t really matter as coach Bruce Pearl’s team is a top 10 team that really should be killing these early teams right now, which they aren’t. Lackadaisical and sloppy play plagued the Vols in their opener and hopefully they can turn it up a notch tonight. It’s not always the end result, but how you get there that is important sometimes, especially playing these lesser opponents.

Finally, LSU is host to McNeese St. tonight. The Tigers won their first game over Southeastern Louisiana 72-62 but clearly this will be a rebuilding year for the Tigers. With the departure of Glen “big baby” Davis to the NBA, the Tigers are relying on a pair of newcomers in freshman Anthony Randolph and junior college transfer guard Marcus Thornton to lead the way. If the game against Southeastern Louisiana is any indication, Tigers fans should be ready for plenty of ups and downs as this season progresses. Coach John Brady said that the rollercoaster first game was pretty much what he expected from his new players.

East Conf All
South Carolina 0-0 2-0
Florida 0-0 2-0
Vanderbilt 0-0 2-0
Georgia 0-0 1-0
Tennessee (7) 0-0 1-0
Kentucky 0-0 1-1
West Conf All
Mississippi 0-0 2-0
Alabama 0-0 2-0
Mississippi St. 0-0 1-0
LSU 0-0 1-0
Arkansas (18) 0-0 1-0
Auburn 0-0 1-1

Florida, Tennesse, Georgia, LSU, basketball