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01-02-2011, 02:01 PM
With Southeastern Conference play beginning next weekend, there seem to be two leagues to ponder. All six Eastern Division teams will go into SEC play boasting a top-100 Ratings Percentage Index. Across the basketball tracks, only one Western Division team â Mississippi â has an RPI in the top 150.
That kind of disparity makes for interesting speculation. The team that finishes last in the Eastern Division might receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament, while the team that wins the Western Division does not.
Although Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl surely has more pressing problems on his mind, the SEC dichotomy of haves and have-nots gives new life to one of his ideas. A year ago, he proposed that the SEC re-seed its post-season tournament rather than automatically assigning first-round byes to the teams that finish first and second in each division.
ESPN's lead analyst for SEC basketball, Jimmy Dykes, agrees.
"The teams third and fourth in the East will be superior to the teams first and second in the West," he said last week. "There's nothing fair about that no matter how you look at it."
Dykes, once on Eddie Sutton's UK staff, would take Pearl's idea a step further. In basketball, he'd eliminate the SEC divisions altogether. One league, one set of standings like the Big East, Big 12 and ACC.
But how would the SEC schedule its games with 12 teams? Dykes advocates a 22-game double round-robin schedule. Two games each season against Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt would increase the chances of lifting the little boats in the Western Division out of the RPI muck.
Another plus is fewer non-conference games makes scheduling easier.
"If I was a coach, I'd push for that," Dykes said.
Somehow, it's hard to see perpetually insecure coaches giving up six easy non-conference victories for an extended grind through the SEC.
But, Dykes countered, "All of us in the college basketball world are educated well enough now to know winning 20 games doesn't mean anything. It's who you play.
"Winning the West means absolutely nothing. It doesn't guarantee you anything with the (NCAA Tournament) Selection Committee."
Neither Ole Miss nor Mississippi State, co-champions of the Western Division in 2010, received an NCAA Tournament bid. In 2009, South Carolina won the Eastern Division but did not get an NCAA Tournament bid.
Dykes noted the scarcity of any significant victories â or even eye-catching games â for Western Division teams. Going into this holiday weekend, the Western Division had played only two games against teams ranked in the top 25. Arkansas lost to then-No. 25 Texas A&M 71-62 in overtime. LSU lost to then-No. 19 Memphis 70-61.
That's it.
One chance to make the waters ripple slipped away Wednesday when Mississippi State lost by 22 points to St. Mary's, which has been receiving a few votes in The Associated Press top 25 poll. One last non-conference chance comes Tuesday when Arkansas plays at Texas.
With 10 of their final 16 games against their lowly Western Division colleagues, these teams seem saddled with poor RPIs.
"The pressure to beat somebody in the East is doubled," Dykes said.
Bad luck has contributed to the mild, mild West. Injuries sidelined would-be stars Marshawn Powell of Arkansas and JaMychal Green of Alabama.
Poor performance moved Mississippi's all-conference guard Chris Warren off the radar. Going into Thursday's game against Alcorn State, he had made only 39 percent of his shots (27.5 percent from three-point range).
Mississippi State, arguably the best of the West, is waiting for point guard Dee Bost to come off suspension. The same now applies to rock 'em, sock 'em teammates Elgin Bailey and Renardo Sidney.
Of course, there's time for Western Division teams to impress the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. But to Dykes' eye, it will take something extraordinary.
"A team in the West will have to make an unbelievable run," he said, "something like 14-2 or 13-3 to get consideration."
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/01/02/15845...z19uB6dbcC
That kind of disparity makes for interesting speculation. The team that finishes last in the Eastern Division might receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament, while the team that wins the Western Division does not.
Although Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl surely has more pressing problems on his mind, the SEC dichotomy of haves and have-nots gives new life to one of his ideas. A year ago, he proposed that the SEC re-seed its post-season tournament rather than automatically assigning first-round byes to the teams that finish first and second in each division.
ESPN's lead analyst for SEC basketball, Jimmy Dykes, agrees.
"The teams third and fourth in the East will be superior to the teams first and second in the West," he said last week. "There's nothing fair about that no matter how you look at it."
Dykes, once on Eddie Sutton's UK staff, would take Pearl's idea a step further. In basketball, he'd eliminate the SEC divisions altogether. One league, one set of standings like the Big East, Big 12 and ACC.
But how would the SEC schedule its games with 12 teams? Dykes advocates a 22-game double round-robin schedule. Two games each season against Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt would increase the chances of lifting the little boats in the Western Division out of the RPI muck.
Another plus is fewer non-conference games makes scheduling easier.
"If I was a coach, I'd push for that," Dykes said.
Somehow, it's hard to see perpetually insecure coaches giving up six easy non-conference victories for an extended grind through the SEC.
But, Dykes countered, "All of us in the college basketball world are educated well enough now to know winning 20 games doesn't mean anything. It's who you play.
"Winning the West means absolutely nothing. It doesn't guarantee you anything with the (NCAA Tournament) Selection Committee."
Neither Ole Miss nor Mississippi State, co-champions of the Western Division in 2010, received an NCAA Tournament bid. In 2009, South Carolina won the Eastern Division but did not get an NCAA Tournament bid.
Dykes noted the scarcity of any significant victories â or even eye-catching games â for Western Division teams. Going into this holiday weekend, the Western Division had played only two games against teams ranked in the top 25. Arkansas lost to then-No. 25 Texas A&M 71-62 in overtime. LSU lost to then-No. 19 Memphis 70-61.
That's it.
One chance to make the waters ripple slipped away Wednesday when Mississippi State lost by 22 points to St. Mary's, which has been receiving a few votes in The Associated Press top 25 poll. One last non-conference chance comes Tuesday when Arkansas plays at Texas.
With 10 of their final 16 games against their lowly Western Division colleagues, these teams seem saddled with poor RPIs.
"The pressure to beat somebody in the East is doubled," Dykes said.
Bad luck has contributed to the mild, mild West. Injuries sidelined would-be stars Marshawn Powell of Arkansas and JaMychal Green of Alabama.
Poor performance moved Mississippi's all-conference guard Chris Warren off the radar. Going into Thursday's game against Alcorn State, he had made only 39 percent of his shots (27.5 percent from three-point range).
Mississippi State, arguably the best of the West, is waiting for point guard Dee Bost to come off suspension. The same now applies to rock 'em, sock 'em teammates Elgin Bailey and Renardo Sidney.
Of course, there's time for Western Division teams to impress the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. But to Dykes' eye, it will take something extraordinary.
"A team in the West will have to make an unbelievable run," he said, "something like 14-2 or 13-3 to get consideration."
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/01/02/15845...z19uB6dbcC
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01-02-2011, 09:11 PM
If Tennessee keeps dropping these winnable games, theyll end up with 11 or 12 losses at the end of the regular season, and if they are staring at 17-13 or whatever, they will not get into the tournament. Yeah they beat Villanova and Pitt, but the four losses since then surely have made those wins obsolete. Not to mention, they are also staring at 8 SEC games without Pearl, and for a team that is struggling this bad, this season of promise could turn ugly in Knoxville quick. I, for one, support that 
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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