Parity or parody? Can any of 10 teams win the SEC Tournament?
There has been — and will be — a lot of talk about the Southeastern Conference Tournament being wide-open. But, SEC Network analyst Pat Bradley is not so sure.
The former Arkansas guard said that Kentucky should be considered the favorite this coming week in Nashville. To make his case, Bradley pointed out that Kentucky’s 14-3 SEC record going into this weekend’s regular-season finale at Florida equaled the fifth-best record this deep in a league schedule during John Calipari’s 11 seasons as coach. The better records were in 2014-15 (17-0), 2011-12 (16-0), 2016-17 (15-2) and 2009-10 (14-2).
“It’s almost like the Alabama factor in football,” Bradley said. “We talk (about), ‘Oh, there’s so much parity.’ But, Alabama wins it damn near every year. What kind of parity is that?”
Bradley spoke of how Kentucky has shown proficiency this season at two basketball basics: Getting high-percentage shots and limiting the opponent’s ability to get high-percentage shots.
Still, Bradley did not sound ready to hand the championship trophy to Kentucky. He said six teams have the best chance of winning the SEC Tournament: UK, Auburn, LSU, Florida, Mississippi State and South Carolina. He gave an “outside-outside” chance to Arkansas, Alabama, Texas A&M and Tennessee.
Another SEC Network analyst, Jimmy Dykes, also saw multiple contenders. Referencing the 10 teams that don’t have to play in Wednesday’s two first-round games, he said, “I think they’ll all come to Nashville with the thought of, ‘We can win this thing.’”
Kentucky and a second-place team can be considered favorites, Dykes said before adding, “I wouldn’t place a lot of money on that because I think there can be some upsets in that tournament.”
Dykes saw Texas A&M winning at Auburn on Wednesday as a recent reason to expect the unexpected.
If parity reigns, former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese, who now consults the SEC on basketball matters, puts Kentucky first among equals.
“I still think Kentucky is the best team,” he said. “But, they still have to go out and win games. They proved that over the course of the season by winning the regular-season championship. But, there are no guarantees.”
Tranghese noted how this season gave him pause.
“I like to think I know how a game is going to get played and what the result could be or most likely will be,” he said. “But, I just see more surprising outcomes this year than I’ve ever seen before.”
Why has that been the case?
Besides good coaching from top to bottom, Tranghese said, “Our so-called lower tier teams have point guards. And Dave Gavitt always told me, if you’ve got a point guard, you can win.”
The SEC’s bottom five teams going into this weekend had four of the league’s top five scorers (Guards Mason Jones of Arkansas, Breein Tyree of Ole Miss, Anthony Edwards of Georgia and Saben Lee of Vanderbilt) and three of the top eight in assists (Jones, Lee and Dru Smith of Missouri).
“The (SEC) tournament is going to be crazy,” Tranghese said. “It’s going to be wild.”
Celebrate?
Although John Calipari suggested that the NCAA Tournament dwarfs all else, readers Tony Thomas and Bob Finnell sent emails saying that Kentucky should celebrate winning a SEC regular-season championship.
“These players (and fans) worked hard for this achievement,” Thomas wrote. “And I hope they all know they are deserving of a pat on the back.”
Finnell said SEC championships are a point of pride for fans.
Thomas, 57, said that he was disappointed by the lack of a celebration after Kentucky defeated Auburn last weekend to clinch the title.
“Why not cut the nets?” he wrote. “Why not drop confetti? Why not let the players stay on the court for two minutes and pump up the fans?”
Thomas said he was a second-generation UK fan and a 1988 graduate of its School of Architecture.
Finnell, 70, attended UK and has a law firm in Rome, Ga.
Championship rings?
The call to celebrate an SEC championship brought to mind the 1985-86 season. First-year coach Eddie Sutton guided Kentucky to a 17-1 record and SEC championship. He proposed commemorative rings be made to mark the occasion.
Mighty Kentucky celebrating a mere conference championship? There was blowback.
“Of course, he was new to all this,” recalled Kenny Walker, the team’s leading scorer. “I’m quite sure he found out right after that we don’t generally celebrate winning the SEC.”
This season marked the 49th time Kentucky has won an SEC regular-season championship. Even in 1986, a league title was routine. But that team’s point guard, Roger Harden, said it meant something to the players.
“It was kind of a stamp that, hey, we still own the South,” he said. “And we’re still dominant. … It’s kind of part of the tradition. Every player who played there can probably tell you how many years they won the conference and how many times they beat Louisville.”
Walker said that at earlier stops in his coaching career, Sutton had rings made to commemorate league titles. “He wanted to do it more for the players to celebrate their accomplishment,” Walker said.
‘Surreal moment’
Roger Harden received two SEC championship rings, one in 1986 as a UK player and one in 1988 as a student assistant coach.
He recalled pawning one of the rings in order to pay family expenses.
“It was a surreal moment,” he said. “The guy was a great Kentucky basketball fan. He said he’d take great care of it. I said, rest assured I’ll be back.”
Harden bought back the ring a few months later.
“That only happened once,” he said. “And it rests in my jewelry box along with the other one.”
.500
Tennessee was the quintessential .500 team when it played Kentucky on Tuesday.
Besides coming to Rupp Arena with an 8-8 record in SEC games, the Vols and their opponents had scored the exact same number of points in those 16 league games.
That was 1,061 points for Tennessee and 1,061 points for SEC opponents. The average score in a league game for Tennessee was 66.3-66.3.
Pep rally
There will be a pep rally Friday before UK’s first game in the SEC Tournament. The rally will be from 9 to 11 a.m. CDT at Yee-Haw Brewing Co., which is at 423 6th Avenue South in Nashville.
Tickets are $15 if you pre-register and $20 at the door.
Besides the UK pep band, cheerleaders and dance team, the rally will include musical performances by A Common Wealth Band. And former UK player Reggie Hanson will be there to sign copies of his new book, “10 Life Lessons: Learned as a Student-Athlete.”
Proceeds from the rally will benefit the Greater Nashville UK Alumni Club.
Attendance
UK’s average announced home attendance this season was 20,160. That is close to a full house every game given Rupp Arena’s official capacity of 20,545, according to the Lexington Center Corp.
If that average announced home attendance figure seems generous, there’s this: the average turnstile count provided through open records requests was 16,175.
UK seems to take pride in announcing an attendance of 20,000-plus. The only home games with an announced attendance of less than 20,000 were against Evansville (19,101) and Utah Valley (18,859).
When using the turnstile count, the largest home crowd was 19,670 for the Auburn game on Feb. 29.
And the average turnstile count for the games against Eastern Kentucky through Fairleigh Dickinson in November through early December was 14,185.
Belated happy birthday
To Ed Allin. He turned 96 on March 2.
Allen, who graduated from Henry Clay High School, played for Adolph Rupp in the 1944-45 and 1945-46 seasons.
After graduating from UK, Allin coached at Midway High School for 12 seasons, Woodford County for seven seasons and Bryan Station for three seasons. He is also well remembered as a baseball and softball umpire at Woodland Park.
Happy birthday
To former LSU star Shaquille O’Neal. He turned 48 on Friday. … To former UK star Anthony Davis. He turns 27 on Wednesday.
