So, this is obvious at this point, but for all of those that questioned the SEC, smaller conferences, and the heart of a Cinderella, pay attention. Basketball is back in the SEC. If things continue to go as they are (Florida beating 'Nova and perhaps in the most dominant elite 8 thumping of them all), the SEC will be the only league with 2 of the 4 Final Four teams. Pac-10 (another questioned league) and the Colonial league bring the teams that play for the National Championship. Never underestimate good recruiting (Brady and Donovan load up with young talent and BIGS!) and underrated coaching (watch BRADY, Billy D, Tubby and Pearl for years to come). The styles of play in the SEC (Pearl's run and gun, Barnes' slow down tough d, tough physical d of Kentucky, motion offense of Vanderbilt) have quietly prepared LSU for the rigours of the tourney and the different styles of play thrown at them. If we can keep our players coming back for more... WATCH OUT. Basketball pundits (and that means you, Dickie V, Bilas, Doogie G, and other ACC-Big East biased talking heads) better take note. THE SEC IS BACK! :geauxtige :bball: :champs:LSU IS A BASKETBALL SCHOOL. THE SEC IS A BASKETBALL CONFERENCE.
Big problem with all of this though... THE SEC office has a horrible media package to show the sport on TV. Dookie V and the gang are paid by ESPN and ABC to exploit their conferences that are on TV. This will not change until MIKIE slive and his boys get their act together and get us on the Tube.. only one game of our SEC tourney on tv???? what a joke... i have heard that we might have a big 12 SEC challenge on the way either this next year or the year after... get used to these issues until we get a tv package that puts us in the national media.
Yeah, and even with our strong RPI, people were saying we had no dominant teams. They were right. Hell, last year they said Illinois was the only good team in the Big Ten... and we got two to the Final Four. This is now 8 years in a row that a conference has gotten two teams to the Final Four... a trend I should probably use when I do my brackets next year. The Big Ten has done it three of the last eight... some bragging rights, I guess.... but, in truth, the Final Four is about survival of certain teams... and not much more.
I thought you were not a big believer in the significance of the NCAA tourney, TGer'nLHornLand? :wink: The SEC has had a great year in hoops, no doubt, and one that nobody really predicted because of all the key losses from last year's teams. I do think that the first half of the 2000's was a pretty down time for the SEC, so in relative terms the SEC is back. However, if you're predicting that a pattern of dominance will emerge, I have trouble seeing that. There are enough programs doing well overall (Florida, Kentucky) or coming back to prominence (UT, LSU, Arkansas) that it could happen, but fortunes seem to rise and fall too fast in college basketball these days for any one school or conference to consistently dominate. Just look at the ACC -- after the great year last year, they only get 4 teams in the tournament and just 2 to the Sweet 16 (1 of those a school not in the ACC last year), with none beyond that. It could be a very different story again next year, with UNC's amazing collection of young talent (youth is no longer an excuse to not dominate) and some strong classes coming in elsewhere. The point about coaches is probably the key, though - the SEC has a couple of coaches in Brady and Heath who have struggled but seem to have turned corners, and added a quality coach in Pearl to go with Smith and Donovan. Will other fairly recent coaching changes join that list, such as Kennedy or Lebo? It seems like the hill has gotten tougher to climb, for sure. The coach is a focal point of the program and getting fan support, so that element should also continue to raise the excitement and overall level in the SEC.
:hihi: I never said I didn't think it was significant, I just said that fans should not put all their weight of a season into the NCAAs--especially in light of our first outright SEC title in 20 years and a top 20 ranking to finish the season. If you ignore the significance of the regular season, teams like Duke, Iowa, Kansas, etc., etc., would have had failed seasons. Seriously though, I think you can pin the hopes of a conference on overall talent level, experience and coaching. I do believe if our teams come back with talent in place that more experienced, you could see these teams advance again. Certainly things change quickly in the NCAAs, but Florida, LSU and other teams are pretty young. I do think that more SEC teams need to do what the Tigers did this year, which is improve their out of conference schedules to truly bring the SEC more respect long term. I've always wondered why we don't do a Big 12-SEC challenge like they do with the ACC Big 10. Improved RPI overall perhaps leads to 7 teams next year in the dance instead of 5-6. Worked for the MVC.
Yahoo was showing SEC game video exclusively during the SEC championship. Plus we had quite a few past game videos on Yahoo. Don't know if those were shown live or not.
