I said for many years that Roy Williams could not coach a winner. Then, he had so much talent that it didn’t matter. Then he had that much talent again. Consequently, he’s won two national titles. Now John Calipari has made the list. I thought he couldn’t coach a winner, but now I see that he can coach a winner when he has more talent than every other team combined. So, from now, this will be known as the Williams-Calipari corollary.
SEC Conference
News and Information about the SEC Conference
This age old argument that the best college team would beat the worst pro team is getting a little bit annoying. Let’s be real for a moment. There is no way in the world that any college team is going to beat their professional counterpart when pride is on the line. I’m sure there are some nice kids on the Kentucky team, but, the Wizards have grown men on the squad. Guys with kids. Guys with wives and families and responsibilities. Do we really think for a second that a grown man is going to let some 19 year old kid get in his way when pride is on the line?
CBSSports.com bracketology expert, Jerry Palm, joined Jon Rothstein on the Tim Brando Show to discuss potential NCAA tournament teams like South Florida, Seton Hall, Mississippi State and Tennessee.
I know this is not really the best time for this, so, I think it’s time to just yank off the band aid and talk about it. Texas A&M and Missouri (who is scorching hot in college hoops right now,) have made a deal with the Big 12 to leave and move to the SEC. Yep, they finally did it AND this is right in the middle of an incredible run by the Missouri basketball team. I would say that this is bad timing, but it needed to get done before football season, and we all know that bureacrats can take a long time.
I said that I thought Mississippi State should be ranked a little better, and I was right. They claimed the tournament title of the 2K Sports Classic, and now they are cruising. Remember, I never said that I thought Miss. St. would win a national title, but I’m just used to the Bulldogs having good basketball teams. It makes the SEC more compelling because it’s usually just Florida and Kentucky. (On a sidenote, I was right about both Vandy and Miss. St. in the course of about a week. I’m pretty proud of myself for that one.)
It’s official, West Virginia is leaving the Big East for the Big 12. Officially, we have destroyed the idea of regional conferences. West Virginia’s nearest conference opponent is, at a cursory glance, likely one of the Oklahoma schools. So, that means they can help buoy the conference for now, and they can potentially go someplace where they can continue to grow as a football program.
Kentucky alums did an all-star game against a team composed of players from their rival schools. Frankly, it’s a really good idea. I mean, Kentucky doesn’t have anything else, so everybody in the whole state can get on board with this kind of exhibition.
The most recent all-star game had Christian Laettner coaching a villains team against a team of UK alums that featured Chuck Hayes, Rajon Rondo, Jodie Meeks, and Keith Bogans.
Everyone in Missouri Could be Affected.
Missouri has gotten the OK from the big boys in the university system to go ahead and make a move to go elsewhere. That elsewhere looks to be the SEC. We’ve been flirting with this for a few weeks now, but it seems that the campaign to get out of the Big 12 and into the SEC is going online.
Ok, so Texas A&M is in the SEC for good now. So, let’s talk about what it does to the basketball side of things. See, the Aggies were able to sort of ride the backs of their stronger Big 12 schedule so that they could get a better chance of making it into the tournament. That’s why they’ve been sort of successful over the years.
Moving to the SEC might be fine and dandy for their pockets and the football team, but it sucks for the basketball team. Think of what they are getting themselves into.
I’ll admit that, on the face of it, it makes perfectly good sense. I mean, the Razorbacks are in Big 12 country if you think about it. They have a rivalry with Texas. They’ve got some Big 12 sensibilities. However, they’re in the SEC. So, why would the Big 12 go to them?
Well, the Big 12 is desperate. Plus, they might be able to give the Razorbacks some breathing room. No Bama, Auburn, or LSU to contend with in the SEC West. No problems in SEC basketball dealing with Kentucky. The AD at Arkansas is not lost on this, but he also knows where his bread is buttered. Listen to the quotes:
