Cats' revival SEC's biggest story

The conference's 10 best story lines

By Jerry Tipton / jtipton@herald-leader.com

Garry Jones / ASSOCIATED PRESS

South Carolina guard Devan Downey, who averaged 19.8 points a game for the Gamecocks last season as a junior, is the SEC's top returning scorer.

Pre-season All-SEC team
Jermaine Beal, Vanderbilt: Led the SEC in assist-to-turnover ratio the last two seasons.
Wayne Chism, Tennessee: Underrated defender was primary big man when Vols won last two Eastern Division titles.
Devan Downey, South Carolina: SEC's leading returning scorer can become first player to lead the league in steals three straight seasons.
Tasmin Mitchell, Louisiana State: Ranked among SEC's top 12 players in scoring, rebounding and shooting accuracy last season.
A.J. Ogilvy, Vanderbilt: Inside-outside threat eclipsed 1,000 career points as a sophomore.
Patrick Patterson, Kentucky: Only SEC player to rank in top five in both scoring and rebounding.
Tyler Smith, Tennessee: All-around contributor made All-SEC and All-SEC Tournament teams last season.
Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State: SEC Defensive Player of the Year last season while leading nation in blocks.
John Wall, Kentucky: Although just a freshman, he's widely projected as the first pick in next year's NBA Draft.
Terrico White, Mississippi: SEC Freshman of the Year last season moves to more natural shooting guard position.
Player of the year
Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State: A force of nature who controls games as a defender and rebounder.
Coachof the year
John Calipari, Kentucky: As UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. said, it seems like there's six of him, all of whom have Kentucky dreaming Kentucky-size dreams.
Jerry Tipton

1. Kentucky becomes Kentucky again: Kentucky, which owns 43 SEC regular-season championships (everyone else has won 46), hasn't added one since 2005. That's a record drought. Last season, UK did not receive an NCAA Tournament bid for the first time since 1991. Goodbye Billy Gillispie. Hello John Calipari. By signing the nation's No. 1 recruiting class and retaining Patrick Patterson, Calipari has UK fans dreaming of basketball pre-eminence again. Now comes the hard part, making an improved SEC submit to Kentucky's will. Can precocious freshmen beat veteran players? Seven SEC teams have four or five starters returning.

2. Veteran players return SEC to elite status: Depending on your preferred term, the SEC was either down or young (or both) last season. Early departures by Jamont Gordon, Anthony Randolph and Marreese Speights hurt. This season sees the return of several players that might have gone pro: Patrick Patterson (Kentucky), Devan Downey (South Carolina), Tyler Smith (Tennessee), Jarvis Varnado (Mississippi State) and Tasmin Mitchell (LSU). As embarrassing as three NCAA Tournament bids were last season (the lowest since 1979), Calipari predicts seven or eight in 2010. That would be the most since seven in 1989 (which counts Arkansas and South Carolina before they joined the league). "A complete, drastic change," Patterson said.

3. Best matchup: Kentucky vs. Tennessee. More specifically, Calipari vs. Bruce Pearl. These guys competed fiercely when coaching Memphis and Tennessee, respectively. Now they bring that intensity to a rivalry that has burned hot and cold, but now figures to melt lead. During SEC Media Day, Calipari wrote off the coaching rivalry to "just competitiveness." Neither has been above sticking in the needle. "He was trying to take over the state and I wasn't going to let him," Calipari said of the Memphis-Tennessee rivalry. "I conceded the rest of the state, but not Memphis." For his part, Pearl played nice at Media Day. Asked about Calipari's impact, Pearl said, "Ask CBS. Ask ESPN. Ask anybody selling T-shirts anywhere in Kentucky if they're excited."

4. The nation's best walk-on: Believe it or not, it's Varnado, Mississippi State's defender supreme. Having been repeatedly victimized by early entry to the NBA or no entry to college, Mississippi State Coach Rick Stansbury signed 7-footer John Riek while knowing Varnado could return. Varnado, the reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year, agreed to be a walk-on this season. Surely, a walk-on has never been All-SEC.

5. Will Bruce Pearl really go old-style? When Tennessee struggled last season, Pearl lamented that his players were not ideally suited for his preferred up-tempo, pressing style. So with all five starters and the top 10 scorers back from last season, Pearl said he'll have the Vols playing up-tempo, pressing basketball. Huh? As Pearl explained, the Vols could compete in the SEC last season playing a more conventional style. But with the league improved, UT needs an edge that comes with a different style of play. "If we look like anybody else, we can't win the SEC this year," the Tennessee coach said.

6. First-year coaches Anthony Grant and Mark Fox at football schools: Grant and Fox embrace the football traditions at Alabama and Georgia, respectively. Do they have a choice? Rather than fight that impossible-to-win battle, Grant and Fox hope to get a boost from football. "I'm a big college football fan," Grant said. "To see the excitement on campus and the entire city, any time you can be in that environment, it's exciting for everybody." When Fox came from Nevada to interview for the Georgia job, he surprised his hosts by asking to see the office of football coach Mark Richt. Another surprise would be Georgia becoming a basketball power. The Bulldogs have won the SEC regular-season title only once. Alabama has a better tradition, but the Tide has advanced past the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 only once.

7. Mississippi State and Ole Miss ranked one-two in West: That never happened until this year, when media balloting placed the two Magnolia State schools at the top of the SEC Western Division. Ten times since divisional play began in 1991-92, Mississippi State and Ole Miss were voted into the bottom two spots in the West. That's where they finished two times. Both were in the bottom half of the division four times. Seven times one or the other was last. Only once in league history have Mississippi State and Ole Miss had the two best records in the West or overall: They finished tied for first with 8-8 records in 2006-07.