I'm a huge Kentucky fan (I grew up there) and appreciate what Mark Pope has done. That team is not nearly as good as last year's -- a very, very sad conclusion for that team, which should've won the title -- but this is an experienced and cohesive unit. I am amazed at the overall power of the SEC -- my friend Rick Cleveland wrote about that today, too -- and the depth of that talent. I predict that very few road teams will be favored to win a regular-season conference game. The champion might be 11-7. In any event, I'm also old enough to remember when Ole Miss announced in a release that head basketball coach Eddie Crawford had been "promoted to assistant football coach." Things have changed.
I understand your angst Mark, but somewhere along the way the football dominate SEC decided it wanted to rule the world of college sports. It's still early in the hoops season, but it sure looks like the SEC is on its way to the top with a swarm of very good teams. Let's not forget baseball, where SEC teams have 13 titles since the turn of the century. The oddity is, football, its most important product, is experiencing what should be called a "down'' season because the teams beat the hell out of each other. At least that's the way I see it from way down yonder, where the phrase " laissez les bon temps rouler'' is coldly stripped from the local newspaper.
No angst here. Always good to see great teams going at it in the same league. And I didn't forget baseball. I just wonder how many of these teams will be at their best for the tournament after two months of beating each other up.
I'm a huge Kentucky fan (I grew up there) and appreciate what Mark Pope has done. That team is not nearly as good as last year's -- a very, very sad conclusion for that team, which should've won the title -- but this is an experienced and cohesive unit. I am amazed at the overall power of the SEC -- my friend Rick Cleveland wrote about that today, too -- and the depth of that talent. I predict that very few road teams will be favored to win a regular-season conference game. The champion might be 11-7. In any event, I'm also old enough to remember when Ole Miss announced in a release that head basketball coach Eddie Crawford had been "promoted to assistant football coach." Things have changed.
I understand your angst Mark, but somewhere along the way the football dominate SEC decided it wanted to rule the world of college sports. It's still early in the hoops season, but it sure looks like the SEC is on its way to the top with a swarm of very good teams. Let's not forget baseball, where SEC teams have 13 titles since the turn of the century. The oddity is, football, its most important product, is experiencing what should be called a "down'' season because the teams beat the hell out of each other. At least that's the way I see it from way down yonder, where the phrase " laissez les bon temps rouler'' is coldly stripped from the local newspaper.
No angst here. Always good to see great teams going at it in the same league. And I didn't forget baseball. I just wonder how many of these teams will be at their best for the tournament after two months of beating each other up.