Here’s a little look in alphabetical order at what SEC basketball has been up to in the offseason.
Alabama lost talented point guard Mikhail Torrance after a great senior season for the Tide. Coach Anthony Grant also must add some depth in the frontcourt after losing Justin Knox to transfer. Talented freshman to be Trevor Releford could compete for the spot as Torrance’s replacement right away. With the loss of forwards Justin Knox and Demetrius Jemison to transfer, Alabama has serious depth problems in the frontcourt. Grant signed Rivals.com 4 star forward Jason Carter in the hopes of filling that hole Grant also added late signee Swede Carl Engstrom, a 7’1” center in June as he scrambled to replace his departing forwards
I like John Pelphrey at Arkansas. I think he’s a good coach and a good guy, but he hasn’t gotten a lot of breaks in his time at Fayetteville. His teams have been riddled with injuries and disciplinary problems the past two seasons. Last year the Razorbacks did not have a full roster for any one of their 32 games. Four players missed a total of 25 games due to suspension including starting point guard Courtney Fortson who missed 14 games. Three players missed 32 total games due to injuries including key power forward Michael Sanchez who played in only 4 games. Mike Washington missed 3 games due to injury and sharp shooter Rotnei Clarke missed 1. After the season, Courtney Fortson declared for the draft and went unselected. Fortson’s loss is bad at first sight as he led the team in scoring and assists, but much like Downey he also had deficiencies. He was turnover prone and shot a dismal 36 percent from the field. Look for junior transfer Jeff Peterson to pick up the load in both scoring and assists. Peterson is a capable guard who averaged 10.6 points and 4.2 assists in his sophomore season at Iowa. Arkansas adds Peterson to Juco transfer shooting guard Rickey Scott and freshman shooting guard Mardracus Wade. With those players and sharpshooter Rotnei Clarke, Arkansas may have a high scoring back court this season despite the loss of Courtney Fortson.
Look I like Tony Barbee and I wish him the best at Auburn, but he’s got a lot of work to do. The Tigers lost four of their top five scorers from a team that only won six games in league play last year. Barbee’s first team will be young with seldom used Larry Williams Jr. the only senior on the roster. His best returning player, Frankie Sullivan is a legitimate talent who averaged 12.7 points per game at guard, but after Sullivan the Tigers’ leading returning scorer is Earnest Ross at a paltry 2.8 points per game. Honestly, when you consider Auburn’s recent basketball history having made three NCAA tournaments in the last twenty years, the last one coming in 2003, Auburn has nowhere to go but up. Barbee created an immediate splash at Auburn by adding Alabama native Luke Cothron at power forward. Cothron will contribute immediately and is joined by freshmen small forwards Allen Payne and Josh Langford and center Shawn Kemp Jr. (yes that Shawn Kemp). Junior college transfer Adrian Forbes, a power forward in the front court and will be expected to produce right away. Barbee also brings in freshman point guard Chris Denson to join his bevy of inside players. Despite the heavy losses from last year’s team Barbee did a great job at UTEP compiling an 85-52 record in four years at UTEP including a 15-1 conference mark last year. Auburn will also open a brand new $92 million arena this season. With a new coach, new players, new arena, everything is new in Auburn.
Florida could use a little depth up front and that’s about it. The Gators return their entire starting five and all but 5 of their 72 points per game. After just slipping into the NCAA tournament last year, Florida enters the 2010-11 season as the SEC favorite and a legitimate top 10 team. With no significant losses freshmen power forwards PatricYoung, Will Yeguete, and Cody Larsen will fill the final piece in Florida’s march back to relevance after three less than stellar years following its two championships. Coach Donovan also brings in shooting guard Casey Prather and early high school graduate Scottie Wilbekin at point guard. Donovan is already adding talent for 2011 as well. Rutgers leading scorer Mike Rosario will sit out this season and be eligible after a year red shirt year. Look for Donovan’s critics to be quiet now that the Gators are back on track.
Georgia’s Mark Fox really may be the only coach in the SEC other than Florida’s Billy Donovan with a strong core of returning talent. The Bulldogs’ only significant loss is senior guard Ricky McPhee. With leading scorers Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie with another year under their belts plus Jeremy Price and Dustin Ware returning the Bulldogs are poised to improve upon their five SEC wins last year. Georgia showed promise in Fox’s first year with wins against Tennessee, Florida and Vanderbilt. The Dogs also lead Kentucky at the half in Lexington. Georgia will add Juco transfer point guard Sherrard Brantley and freshmen power forwards Cady Lalanne (until he was declared academically ineligible), Donte Williams and Marcus Thornton, the number one player in the state of Georgia. Fox’s best addition however may be Gerald Robinson, a transfer from Tennessee State who becomes eligible this season after sitting out last year. Robinson averaged 15.2 and 17.6 points in his freshman and sophomore seasons respectively and should easily replace McPhee’s 9.6 points per game. Expect Mark Fox to do big things at Georgia and quick.
Kentucky’s entire team (John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Pattrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe, Daniel Orton) went to the NBA. Kentucky also lost Perry Stevenson, Ramon Harris and Mark Krebs to graduation Darnell Dodson for the season for undisclosed reasons. So what did Calipari do? He signed the number one class in the America, again. Calipari’s haul includes five top 50 players in point guard Brandon Knight, shooting guard Doron Lamb, small forward Stacey Poole, power forwards Terrence Jones and Enes Kanter, and center Eloy Vargas who comes to Kentucky after playing one year at Florida and one year at Miami Dade College. The new Cats will be asked to contribute immediately as Kentucky will enter the 2010-11 season with only four returning scholarship players, two of which played less than five minutes per game last year. Kentucky’s recent trip to Canada did highlight Jon Hood’s improved skills and they played like a team that really wants to win with defense. A positive sign for a young team.
LSU suffered through a dismal season in 2010, finishing last in the conference following a first place finish in 2009. Making the situation more difficult, the Tigers lost leading scorer and rebounder Tasmin Mitchell, a senior last year. Trent Johnson however is no slouch and has gotten work done when it comes to recruiting. He adds three ESPN top 100 players in shooting guard Ralston Turner, point guard Andre Stringer and small forward Matt Derenbecker. Johnson also brings in high scoring former Kentucky commit K.C. Ross-Miller, but he was recently declared academically ineligible. Promising forward Malcom White who played two seasons at Mississippi before transferring to LSU will be eligible to play this year and should be able to contribute immediately. Johnson also brought in center Justin Hamilton, a transfer from Iowa State who will sit out this season. One final note. Coach Johnson dropped point guard Bo Spencer from his roster in the offseason. Spencer would have been LSU’s lone senior and the only player left from LSU’s 2009 SEC championship team. But as Trent Johnson so stoicly put it, “We won two league games with him last season.” Now that’s the attitude.
Mississippi needs to replace Terrico White who was drafted by the Detroit Pistons and Eniel Polynice who declared for the NBA draft but ultimately pulled out and transfer
red to Seton Hall after finishing his degree at Ole Miss this summer. Murphy Holloway also elected to transfer to South Carolina. Not significant, but Mississippi also loses DeAngelo Riley and Kevin Cantinol to transfer. That’s three of Mississippi’s top five scorers and the loss of Holloway leaves a hole inside on an already guard heavy team. Freshman center Demarco Cox should provide help right away but will it be enough? Coach Andy Kennedy hopes that one of two freshmen Isaiah Massey or Steadman Short can provide some help at forward. Juco transfers Dundrecous Nelson, a point guard and shooting guard Donald Williams, a former Kentucky red shirt freshman could also see significant minutes in their first year in Oxford.
Mississippi State under Rick Stansbury has consistently brought in new talent during his 12 seasons as head coach of the Bulldogs, but this year is a little different as State only brings in three players in juco transfer point guard Brian Bryant and shooting guards Michael Carr and Jalen Steele, a former Auburn commit. Gone from last year’s team are Barry Stewart, Jarvis Varnado and Phil Turner. Dee Bost is trying to get eligible on appeal after missing the NCAA’s deadline for withdrawal from the NBA draft. If he gets eligible then Mississippi State could make some noise in the SEC West because there’s this whole issue of that Renardo Sidney character finally becoming eligible to play in Mississippi State’s game against Virginia Tech on December 18, a year and a half after arriving at Mississippi State. Mark your calendar folks. He’s going to be exciting to watch. He will step right in and fill the spot left by Varnado under the basket and will be a better scorer than Varnado ever was even if he fails to lead the NCAA in blocked shots.
Darrin Horn would seem to have his work cut out for him at South Carolina. What looked like a top 25 team going into the 2009-10 season suffered major setbacks after losing Dominique Archie to injury and Mike Holmes to dismissal. The Gamecocks finished 15-16 and suffered an offseason setback after they requested and were denied a sixth year of eligibility for Dominique Archie on account of his injury five games into the season. The Gamecocks also lost seniors Brandis Raley-Ross and Devan Downey. While Downey’s SEC leading 22.5 points per game will be tough to replace, he was also tenth of twelve starting point guards in the SEC in assist to turnover ratio and ninth of twelve in overall offensive rating. He also shot an ugly 40 percent from the field. That hurts when he takes 30% of the team’s shots. Coach Horn brings in six quality freshmen in point guards Bruce Ellington and Eric Smith, power forwards Damontre Harris and R.J. Slawson, center Carlton Geathers and shooting guard Brian Richardson. Malik Cooke, a transfer from Nevada who is eligible this season after sitting out last year averaged 9.6 points and 6.2 rebounds. If Mississippi transfer forward Murphy Holloway (10.6 points, 7.6 rebounds) can get eligible this year on a hardship waiver he’s requesting for moving closer to his daughter in his home state of South Carolina, the Gamecocks could end up with a better record in 2011 and have an outside shot at making the NCAA’s again after a six year hiatus.
Tennessee had as turbulent a season as any team in America last year losing Tyler Smith for the season and Cameron Tatum, Melvin Goins and Brian Williams to suspension early in the year. After the Volunteers barely lost to Michigan State missing their first Final Four in the process, they also lost seniors Bobby Maze, Wayne Chism and J.P. Prince. Coach Bruce Pearl has proven himself one of the better recruiters in the nation however, and this year is no different. Pearl brings in top flight power forward Tobias Harris and talented shooting guards Jordan McRae and Trae Golden. Pearl also adds John Fields a transfer from UNC Wilmington. Fields a 6’9” forward who played one year after Wilmington after playing two years at East Carolina will have on year of eligibility remaining and should be able to play immediately as NCAA rules allow a transfer player who has graduated to play immediately if he is enrolling in graduate school. Last year Fields averaged 10.2 points per game and 8.7 rebounds in one season at Wilmington where he also set the school single game rebounding record with 21 against Towson.
Vanderbilt is going to really feel the loss of leading scorers Jermaine Beal and AJ Ogilvy, the latter of which had no business entering the NBA draft and Coach Stallings just has not done enough to address the huge hole left by Ogilvy in the frontcourt. While Josh Henderson, a center, and Rod Odom and James Siakam both forwards, will add depth to the frontcourt, there is no one on this team that can consistently get under the basket and bang, score and rebound against elite talent. Coach Kevin Stallings also adds point guard Kyle Fuller to his roster. He will probably have to wait a year before he sees significant minutes as Brad Tinsley and John Jenkins will be expected to shoulder a heavy load in the backcourt this year.
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