Anchor Of Gold - SEC Basketball Preview Series: Breaking down the SEC in 2014-15The Unofficial Vanderbilt Commodores Blog * Now With Fewer Law Degrees!https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/46811/anchor-fave.png2014-11-17T11:30:02-05:00http://www.anchorofgold.com/rss/stream/67809582014-11-17T11:30:02-05:002014-11-17T11:30:02-05:00SEC Hoops '14-15 Preview: Kentucky
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<img alt="I wonder if the NCAA would let us wear the same number." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-SRHrpjpv9wVkr-_-iEF6H1B_Ek=/0x180:4000x2847/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/44111886/20141109_pjc_sf6_253.JPG.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>I wonder if the NCAA would let us wear the same number. | Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>To get everyone up to speed on the upcoming basketball season, AOG is running down all fourteen teams in the SEC. Today's preview: Kentucky, where John Calipari has a bona fide national title contender.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Basketball season starts today! We've been counting down the teams to get everyone up to speed on the state of basketball in the SEC, and today we've reached the 14th and final preview in the series. So this team is (surprise) the pick to win the conference.</i></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.aseaofblue.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Kentucky Wildcats</a> 2014-15 Basketball Preview</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">How Did We Get Here?</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">You know this program. After two subpar (by Kentucky's standards, anyway) seasons under Billy Gillispie, John Calipari was hired away from Memphis, where he had taken the Tigers within a few seconds of a national championship (which would have been vacated after the fact, but still.) Before that, he had taken UMass to the Final Four. But those were Memphis and UMass. How would he do coaching at a traditional powerhouse?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The answer: pretty well. In five seasons on the Bluegrass, Calipari has won a national championship (or <i>only </i>one national championship, as some members of Big Blue Nation call it) and also taken the Wildcats to two more Final Fours and an Elite Eight. He also missed the tournament entirely in 2013, but that's only a minor complaint.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">But you might be surprised to learn that Kentucky's most recent SEC championship came in 2012. Calipari likes to say that talent trumps experience, but as his battles with Billy Donovan's Florida team the last couple of years have confirmed, experienced talent trumps inexperienced talent. While Calipari has been able to assemble an annual collection of McDonald's All-Americans, in his first few years in Lexington most of them only stayed a year or two before heading off to the NBA. That was a disadvantage when his teams ran up against Florida squads that had almost as much talent, but on which those players were juniors and seniors rather than freshmen and sophomores.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">That won't be an issue this year, though. Over the past couple of years, whether by design or by accident, Calipari's team has begun to resemble a more traditional college program, with players actually staying in Lexington for two or three years. There aren't any seniors on scholarship, but in an unusual twist, Calipari has two formerly highly-touted recruits who are actually in their third year at Kentucky, as well as six sophomores. It's an impressive collection of talent, and one that is almost universally picked as the favorite in the SEC.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Projected Depth Chart</h4>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Losses</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Julius Randle</span> (30.8 mpg, 15.0 ppg, 10.4 rpg); NBA draft</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>James Young</span> (32.4 mpg, 14.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg); NBA draft</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Jon Hood</span> (13 games, 3.6 mpg, 1.2 ppg, 0.3 rpg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Jarrod Polson</span> (8.5 mpg, 1.0 ppg, 0.6 rpg); graduated</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2464678/usa-today-8195825.0.0.jpg">usa-today-8195825.0.0.jpg</a>
</h5>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Starting Five</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PG Andrew Harrison (6'6", 210 Soph., Richmond, TX)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SG Aaron Harrison (6'6", 212 Soph., Richmond, TX)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SF <span>Alex Poythress</span> (6'8", 238 Jr., Clarksville, TN)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PF Karl-Anthony Towns (6'11", 250 Fr., Piscataway, NJ); #2 C and #5 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C <span>Willie Cauley-Stein</span> (7'0", 240 Jr., Olathe, KS)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Top Reserves</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Marcus Lee</span> (6'9", 220 Soph., Antioch, CA)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Devin Booker</span> (6'6", 206 Fr., Grand Rapids, MI); #8 SG and #22 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Tyler Ulis (5'9", 155 Fr., Lima, OH); #3 PG and #19 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F Trey Lyles (6'10", 235 Fr., Indianapolis, IN); #2 PF and #10 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C <span>Dakari Johnson</span> (7'0", 255 Soph., Brooklyn, NY)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Bench</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Dominique Hawkins</span> (6'0", 195 Soph., Richmond, KY)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Derek Willis</span> (6'9", 216 Soph., Mt. Washington, KY)</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Kentucky's depth is such that Calipari plans to implement a "platoon" system, with basically two units of five players, though Calipari himself says it won't be a strict platoon system as players may earn more or less playing time depending on performance. The top reserves listed above are basically the second platoon, and looking at that group, it's better than a lot of team's starters.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If you had two words to describe Kentucky, those words would be "big" and "athletic." The first unit, with Alex Poythress, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Willie Cauley-Stein goes 6'8", 6'11", and 7'0" across the front line. The second unit is even bigger, with 6'10" Trey Lyles, 6'9" <span>Marcus Lee</span>, and 7'0" Dakari Johnson. If there's a disadvantage, it's that both units will feature either Poythress or Lyles playing out of position at the three, but this is really a minor flaw (and in Poythress's case, it's probably for the best since his NBA future is more likely to be at the three than the four.) And Kentucky's size may actually be understated, if anything. Towns was listed at 7'1" coming out of high school, and previous Kentucky stars like <span>Nerlens Noel</span> and James Young have proven to actually be taller at the NBA combine than they were listed on Kentucky's roster. Kentucky isn't fudging its players' heights like a lot of programs do; when you see 7'0" on the roster, he's probably actually 7'0" and not 6'10".</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">At the very least, all that size means that opponents are going to have a lot of difficulty scoring in the paint. What's more, since almost all of the bigs are athletic, Kentucky doesn't have quite as much to worry about in transition as a team with a plodding big man would. What's more, Towns, Lyles, Johnson, and Poythress also have a considerably offensive game in the post. Cauley-Stein is much more of a defensive presence, averaging 2.9 blocks per game while only averaging 6.8 ppg and shooting a woeful 48.2 percent at the foul line.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2464682/usa-today-8167528.0.0.jpg">usa-today-8167528.0.0.jpg</a>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The guard play, while still good, isn't quite as good as the post game. In the Harrison twins, Kentucky effectively has two 6'6" combo guards; I spent most of last year trying to remember which of them was the point guard and which was the shooting guard because their games are fairly similar to one another. Andrew averaged considerably more assists than his brother (4.0 to 1.9), but both shoot the three reasonably well and can also get to the basket. The backups exhibit more of the traditional roles: Tyler Ulis, at 5'9", is a more traditional point guard, while Devin Booker -- son of former Missouri star Melvin Booker -- is more of a pure shooter.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While overall, this is an impressive collection of talent, there are some question marks. As usual for a Calipari team, free throw shooting could be a problem -- last year's team shot 68.2 percent at the line, and two of the better foul shooters (Randle and Young) are gone. The Harrison twins are pretty good at the line, but with all the new bigs on the roster Kentucky may or may not have any reliable free throw shooters inside, and overmatched teams may resort to the Hack-a-Shaq strategy and force Kentucky to beat them at the line (I'm looking at you, Frank Martin and Mark Fox.) But in any case, this is far and away the most talented roster in the SEC, and possibly in the country.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Schedule</h4>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Non-Conference</h5>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="185" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 139pt;">
<colgroup> <col width="40" style="mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 1462; width: 30pt;"> <col width="145" style="mso-width-source: userset; mso-width-alt: 5302; width: 109pt;"> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" width="40" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 30pt;">11/14</td>
<td width="145" style="width: 109pt;">Grand Canyon</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/16</td>
<td>Buffalo</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/18</td>
<td>vs. Kansas (Indianapolis)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/21</td>
<td>Boston University</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/23</td>
<td>Montana State</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/25</td>
<td>Texas-Arlington</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/30</td>
<td>Providence</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/5</td>
<td>Texas</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/7</td>
<td>Eastern Kentucky</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/10</td>
<td>Columbia</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/13</td>
<td>North Carolina</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/20</td>
<td>vs. UCLA (Chicago)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/27</td>
<td>at Louisville</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home-and-Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Missouri, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Auburn, Arkansas</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Road</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Texas A&M, LSU, Tennessee, Mississippi State</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The non-conference schedule does have a few marquee dates, though strangely the trip to Louisville after Christmas is the only true road game on the schedule. There are neutral-court games against Kansas and UCLA in, respectively, Indianapolis and Chicago, while Providence, Texas, and North Carolina come to Rupp. There's a decent chance that Kentucky can get through the non-conference schedule unscathed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If that happens, the perennial 40-0 talk will begin in earnest, because other than maybe a mid-February visit to Florida, Kentucky should be favored in almost all of its SEC games. Avoiding a trip to Fayetteville ups the odds a bit that the Wildcats will get through the SEC schedule at 18-0. Other than that, though, it's a question of whether the Wildcats have an off game at some point: a February 10 trip to LSU (three days after the game at Florida) might represent the strongest possibility of an upset.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Outlook</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There really isn't a whole lot to say about this team that hasn't been said already. As usual, John Calipari has a highly talented roster, and also one that's somewhat experienced unlike in 2013 and 2014.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The obvious answer to the question of what could trip up the Wildcats is chemistry. While the platoon system is a novel idea, here's to guessing that most of the McDonald's All-Americans and NBA prospects on the roster did not sign up to play 20 minutes a night. Calipari, of all coaches, is probably best equipped to handle the problem of too much talent, but you simply never know when a player or two is going to decide that his draft status is more important than the team.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">But still -- when that's the best you can come up with, you know you have a very good team on your hands. There are no glaring weaknesses on the team, and the only answers I can come up with for why Kentucky might not win the SEC or a national championship are "chemistry" and "free throw shooting." Both of those seem pretty weak, and when those are the only answers you can come up with, you know you have your pick for first place.</p>
https://www.anchorofgold.com/2014/11/17/7216663/2014-ncaa-basketball-sec-hoops-preview-series-kentucky-john-calipariTom Stephenson2014-11-13T11:30:02-05:002014-11-13T11:30:02-05:00SEC Hoops '14/15 Preview: Florida
<figure>
<img alt="Might be angry I picked Kentucky." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dADSfxCRfoXHlWzdyhMGuAsNieo=/0x170:2672x1951/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/43949652/482963483.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Might be angry I picked Kentucky. | Tom Pennington</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To get everyone up to speed on the upcoming basketball season, AOG is running down all fourteen teams in the SEC. Today's preview: Florida, where Billy Donovan must replace some departed seniors but still has a lot of talent on his hands.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><i>We're counting down the days to basketball season, and to get everybody up to speed on the state of hoops in the SEC, I'm writing previews for each of the 14 teams. All work is my own, though I am relying on kenpom.com and sports-reference.com for some statistics. Teams will be previewed in reverse order of projected finish (according to me), so as this is the thirteenth of 14 previews, this is the team I project to finish 2nd in the conference.</i></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.alligatorarmy.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Florida Gators</a> 2014-15 Basketball Preview</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">How Did We Get Here?</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Billy Donovan is the dean of SEC coaches, entering his 19th year at Florida, and in his first 18 years he's made the NCAA Tournament 14 times, made it to at least a regional final seven times (including each of the last four years), and won two national titles. So it would be an understatement to say that he has a track record of success.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">But his most recent effort might have been one of his most impressive. After losing three seniors off the 2013 team, including the #2 scorer in school history in <span>Kenny Boynton</span>, and with John Calipari bringing in one of the most talented recruiting classes ever, Florida was expected to drop off a bit in 2014. Instead, the Gators only went 18-0 in the SEC and won 30 in a row before falling to eventual national champion UConn in the Final Four.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">One of the hallmarks of <span>Billy Donovan's</span> tenure at Florida has been his ability to not only recruit talented players, but also keep them in Gainesville for three or four years. The strength of this approach is that a player like <span>Casey Prather</span> can have a breakout senior year after barely playing as a freshman and sophomore and then playing a supporting role as a junior. How many programs would Prather have transferred out of if he rode the bench for two years? What's more, while Donovan doesn't have a great track record of having players drafted in the lottery after one or two years in the program, he does have a track record of turning out solid NBA players like <span>Chandler Parsons</span> (a second-round pick), David Lee (drafted with the last pick in the first round), and Udonis Haslem (now playing his 12th year in the league after going undrafted.)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">All of this is why, even with 47 percent of minutes returning from last year and losing valuable seniors <span>Patric Young</span>, <span>Scottie Wilbekin</span>, Casey Prather, and <span>Will Yeguete</span>, exactly no one is expecting Florida to drop off all that much this year. If you're doubting Billy Donovan's ability to put a good team on the floor, then you obviously haven't been paying attention.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Projected Depth Chart</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Quick note: For starters, I'm using the five "traditional" positions on the floor even if the players may be listed otherwise on the roster, so you may see guards listed as forwards, forwards listed as centers, etc. Recruiting rankings are the composite rankings from 247sports.com.</i></p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Losses</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>Casey Prather (27.9 mpg, 13.8 ppg, 5.0 rpg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>Scottie Wilbekin (33.8 mpg, 13.1 ppg, 3.6 apg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>Patric Young (26.1 mpg, 11.0 ppg, 6.2 rpg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>Will Yeguete (23.3 mpg, 4.9 ppg, 5.2 rpg); graduated</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wIbxreM2UbxqJ0V7mTOZ2Or0E6g=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2452176/20140329_ajl_ad8_039.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</h5>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Starting Five</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PG <span>Kasey Hill</span> (6'1", 182 Soph., Eustis, FL)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <span>SG </span><span>Michael Frazier (6'4", 194 Jr., Tampa, FL)</span> </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"> <span>SF </span><span><span>Dorian Finney-Smith</span> (6'8", 218 Jr., Portsmouth, VA)</span> </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PF <span>Chris Walker</span> (6'10", 220 Soph., Bonifay, FL)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C <span>Jon Horford</span> (6'10", 245 Sr., Grand Ledge, MI); transfer/Michigan</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Top Reserves</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Eli Carter</span> (6'2", 200 Jr., Paterson, NJ); redshirted last season</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F Devin Robinson (6'8", 178 Fr., Chesterfield, VA); #4 SF and #17 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Alex Murphy</span> (6'8", 225 Soph., Wakefield, RI); transfer/Duke, eligible midseason</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Chris Chiozza (6'0", 160 Fr., Memphis, TN); #8 PG and #44 overall</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Bench</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Dillon Graham</span> (6'4", 185 Soph., Orlando, FL); redshirted last season</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Jacob Kurtz</span> (6'6", 210 Sr., Oviedo, FL)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Out for season</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Brandone Francis (6'5", 205 Fr., La Romana, DR); #11 SG and #32 overall; ineligible</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C <span>John Egbunu</span> (6'11", 266 Soph., Bauchi, Nigeria); transfer/South Florida; sitting out</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G/F <span>DeVon Walker</span> (6'6", 203 Jr., Winter Haven, FL); injured</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While it's generally difficult to take much away from exhibition games, Florida's close shave against D-2 Barry did raise a couple of red flags: the Gators got outrebounded and 37 of their 67 field goal attempts came from three-point range. <span>Chris Walker</span> did miss the game (and will miss the first two of the regular season), but it's a bit disturbing that a top 10 team allowed a D-2 team to get on the offensive glass that much and was overly reliant on three-pointers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If there's good news, it's that in Michael Frazier, Florida has perhaps the best pure shooter in the SEC and one of the best in the country. Frazier shot 44.5 percent on threes and 84.2 percent at the line last season, though expect his percentages to drop a bit now that he doesn't have Prather, Wilbekin, and Young around. Although Frazier was Florida's third-leading scorer last season, he functioned as more of a role player last year and probably will be playing more of a featured role in the offense this season.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Still, Frazier isn't the only player on this team who can shoot. Eli Carter missed last season with an injury, but as a sophomore at Rutgers he shot 32 percent on threes and 86.4 percent from the line; the latter might be more reflective of his shooting ability as the former can be explained away by playing on a bad Rutgers team. Dorian Finney-Smith, who transferred from Virginia Tech, averaged 8.7 ppg last year and while not strictly a three-point shooter, he has enough range to stretch the defense. The Gators are so well-stocked on the wings that freshman Devin Robinson, a top recruit who would start for most programs in the country from day one, will come off the bench behind Frazier and Finney-Smith this year; and also well-stocked enough that the losses of DeVon Walker (torn ACL) and Brandone Francis (NCAA eligibility issues) aren't that big of a deal.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Gators will also get Alex Murphy eligible at semester break; Murphy is a former top recruit who played sparingly in a year and a half at Duke. Sophomore Dillon Graham, who redshirted last year, and walk-on Jacob Kurtz provide depth at the guard spots.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">At the point, sophomore Kasey Hill will step in to replace Wilbekin; Hill struggled a bit with the transition to the college game, but after a year backing up Wilbekin he should be ready to run the offense. Hill's backup will be Chris Chiozza, another highly-regarded recruit who is the rare Memphis player to slip away from Josh Pastner. Like Hill was last year, Chiozza will get a full year as a backup to adjust to the college game but is talented enough to give Donovan good minutes as a freshman.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Loq6wlmnXzwzeKEeGACbu0uYaGY=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2452178/20140320_jrc_bs5_048.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If there's a problem with this team, it's that Florida is pretty thin up front. Donovan was hoping to get South Florida transfer John Egbunu eligible, but he'll sit out this year. Michigan transfer Jon Horford is eligible, but he and Chris Walker are the only players taller than 6'8" on the roster. Finney-Smith can play the four if necessary, but if either Walker or Horford gets hurt or gets in foul trouble (a particular concern with Horford, who committed 5.9 fouls per 40 minutes last season), the Gators don't really have anyone else to turn to. Or, alternatively, if Walker continues to have off-the-court issues; as mentioned above, he'll be out for the first two games due to a suspension.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The good news is that Walker, if he's playing, is very talented. Florida didn't need him last year with Patric Young and Will Yeguete on the low block, but Walker should step into a bigger role this season. Horford probably won't provide much scoring punch but is plenty useful as a rebounder and shot-blocker down low. And Donovan, more than a lot of coaches, is fairly well-suited to winning with a smaller lineup, though of course his most successful teams have generally featured good bigs like Young or Joakim Noah before him.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Schedule</h4>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Non-Conference</h5>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="128" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 96pt;">
<colgroup> <col width="64" span="2" style="width: 48pt;"> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" width="64" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 48pt;">11/6</td>
<td width="64" style="width: 48pt;">Barry (exh.)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/14</td>
<td>William & Mary</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/17</td>
<td>Miami</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/21</td>
<td>Louisiana-Monroe</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/26</td>
<td>vs. Georgetown</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/27</td>
<td>Battle 4 Atlantis</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/28</td>
<td>Battle 4 Atlantis</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/5</td>
<td>at Kansas</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/8</td>
<td>Yale</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/12</td>
<td>Texas Southern</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/14</td>
<td>Jacksonville</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/20</td>
<td>vs. Wake Forest (Sunrise, FL)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/30</td>
<td>at Florida State</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">1/3</td>
<td>Connecticut</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home-and-Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">LSU, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Texas A&M</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Mississippi State, Auburn, Arkansas, Tennessee</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Road</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The non-conference schedule is tough, with road games against Kansas and a decent Florida State team, home games against Miami and UConn, a neutral-court matchup against Wake Forest in its first year under Danny Manning, and a loaded Battle 4 Atlantis field; after starting with Georgetown, the Gators could face Wisconsin in the second game and potentially UCLA, North Carolina, or Oklahoma in the third game. There's little reason to think Florida's non-conference strength of schedule will be an issue.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The SEC schedule is fairly average, with Kentucky and LSU on the schedule twice, but also two games apiece against Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M. But again, Florida's non-conference SOS should more than make up for that and it's fairly unlikely that the Gators will be fighting for an NCAA bid; if this team lives up to expectations, there should be little doubt that the Gators are an NCAA team by February.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Outlook</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Most programs would be in for a rebuilding year after losing players the caliber of Prather, Young, Wilbekin, and Yeguete; but then, most programs are not Florida. While it's reasonable to expect some drop-off (after all, it's not every day that a team goes 18-0 in the SEC and wins 30 games in a row), Donovan's track record is such that nobody would be surprised if this team wins another SEC title (yes, even with a loaded Kentucky team in the league) and makes another deep run in the NCAA Tournament.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Yes, the senior foursome from last year were talented, but the players replacing them are just as talented, if not moreso. The recruiting rankings are nice, but remember that Donovan can win even with a player like Wilbekin who wasn't all that highly regarded coming out of high school. Much like the past couple of years, guys who played supporting roles like Frazier and Finney-Smith, or reserve roles like Kasey Hill and Chris Walker, will simply step up their game to account for all the departed production.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The particularly scary thing for the rest of the SEC is that there's only one senior on scholarship, though of course Chris Walker could be gone to the NBA and there will be a roster squeeze with Florida currently at its full scholarship load and four talented freshmen coming into the program next year. So this could be a slight off-year for the Gators, but don't expect it to last long.</p>
https://www.anchorofgold.com/2014/11/13/7195073/2014-ncaa-basketball-sec-hoops-preview-series-florida-michael-frazierTom Stephenson2014-11-10T15:00:03-05:002014-11-10T15:00:03-05:00SEC Hoops '14/15 Previews: Arkansas
<figure>
<img alt="The pressure's on." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cqrzpfWyw1KfeExx3xRFaLfkCCg=/0x0:4000x2667/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/43598058/20140313_ajl_sa2_311.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>The pressure's on. | Paul Abell-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To get everyone up to speed on the upcoming basketball season, AOG is running down all fourteen teams in the SEC. Today's preview: Arkansas, where the return of Bobby Portis has the Razorbacks poised for a big year.</p> <p style="text-align: start;"><span>We'</span><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">re counting down the days to basketball season, and to get everybody up to speed on the state of hoops in the SEC, I'm writing previews for each of the 14 teams. All work is my own, though I am relying on kenpom.com and sports-reference.com for some statistics. Teams will be previewed in reverse order of projected finish (according to me, anyway), so as this is the twelfth of 14 previews, this is the team I project to finish 3rd in the conference.</i></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.arkansasfight.com/">Arkansas Razorbacks</a> 2014-15 Basketball Preview</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">How Did We Get Here?</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Arkansas was once one of the SEC's marquee programs, winning a national title in 1994 and making it back to the title game in 1995, but Nolan Richardson was ultimately forced out after a few subpar years and the Hogs fell on hard times. Since Richardson left in 2002, Arkansas has made just three NCAA appearances; neither Stan Heath nor John Pelphrey was able to turn Arkansas into a consistent winner.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><span>Mike Anderson</span>, formerly an assistant under Richardson, turned UAB and Missouri into winners before being hired at Arkansas in 2011. In three years, Anderson hasn't made the NCAA Tournament, but while the wins totals (18 in 2012, 19 in 2013, 22 in 2014) haven't necessarily shown it, Arkansas has consistently gotten better in three years under Anderson. Ken Pomeroy's ratings tell a different story, with the Razorbacks going from 132nd in the country in Anderson's first year to 79th in 2013 and 52nd last year. So, too, does average victory margin: +2.1 in 2012, +4.9 in 2013, +8.8 in 2014.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">That last number shows why Arkansas could be on the verge of big success this year. So, too, does another number: 64 percent, the percentage of minutes that return from last year's team. How about a third number? 12 -- that's where sophomore <span>Bobby Portis</span> is projected to go in the 2015 NBA Draft (per nbadraft.net.)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Yes, this Arkansas team is deep, experienced, and talented. If anybody is going to threaten Kentucky and Florida for SEC supremacy -- and, of course, it's not a given that anybody will -- this would be the team.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Projected Depth Chart</h4>
<p><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">Quick note: For starters, I'm using the five "traditional" positions on the floor even if the players may be listed otherwise on the roster, so you may see guards appearing as forwards, forwards appearing as centers, etc. Recruiting rankings are the composite rankings from 247sports.com</i></p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Losses</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Coty Clarke</span> (22.1 mpg, 9.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>Fred Gulley (18.3 mpg, 3.9 ppg, 1.9 apg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Mardracus Wade</span> (14.7 mpg, 3.9 ppg, 0.9 apg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Kikko Haydar</span> (12.3 mpg, 3.0 ppg, 1.3 rpg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Rickey Scott</span> (8.6 mpg, 2.7 ppg, 1.2 rpg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>DeQuavious Wagner</span> (8 games, 4.6 mpg, 1.1 ppg, 0.8 apg); transfer/Angelo State</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m5fxvvOzwHlh4n9nn0OgBSoOtTk=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2438804/20140308_lbm_sg8_446.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</h5>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Starting Five</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PG <span>Rashad Madden</span> (6'5", 180 Sr., Lepanto, AR)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SG <span>Michael Qualls</span> (6'6", 210 Jr., Shreveport, LA)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SF Alandise Harris (6'6", 237 Sr., Little Rock, AR)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PF <span>Keaton Miles</span> (6'7", 217 Jr., Dallas, TX); transfer/West Virginia</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C Bobby Portis (6'11", 242 Soph., Little Rock, AR)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Top Reserves</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Jabril Durham (6'1", 190 Jr., DeSoto, TX); #4 JC PG and #18 overall JC</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Anthlon Bell</span> (6'3", 188 Jr., Memphis, TN)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Nick Babb (6'4", 185 Fr., Arlington, TX); #44 SG and #167 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Anton Beard (6'0", 195 Fr., North Little Rock, AR); #16 PG and #79 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C <span>Moses Kingsley</span> (6'10", 230 Soph., Abuja, Nigeria)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Bench</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F Trey Thompson (6'9", 270 Fr., Madison, AR); #63 PF and #246 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Jacorey Williams</span> (6'8", 218 Jr., Birmingham, AL)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Sitting Out</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Dusty Hannahs</span> (6'3", 208 Jr., Little Rock, AR); transfer/Texas Tech</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As always, these projections are a best guess, but in Arkansas's case, the distinctions between starters, reserves, and benchwarmers aren't particularly important. Last season, Bobby Portis played more minutes than any Razorback but only averaged 27 minutes a night, while even the relatively little-used Jacorey Williams appeared in 30 games and averaged 9.2 mpg. Basically, Mike Anderson is going to play pretty much everybody on his roster; indeed, per Ken Pomeroy, Arkansas ranked sixth in the country in bench minutes last season.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The reason for that is fairly obvious: the Razorbacks are going to play pressure defense and get up and down the floor. Last year, Arkansas averaged 71.2 possessions a game in SEC play (most in the conference) and forced turnovers on 21.9 percent of opposing possessions (also most in the conference.) More than most coaches, Anderson is reliant on having "his" guys on the roster to fit his style of play, which partially explains why it's taken longer than expected for Anderson to turn Arkansas around: in his first three years, his roster was still littered with holdovers from the John Pelphrey era who may or may not have been good fits for the system.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This season, though, the only holdover left is senior Rashad Madden. Madden isn't necessarily an ideal fit for Anderson on the defensive end (only averaging 0.8 steals per game last year), but he did shoot 40 percent from three and averaged 2.8 assists a game last year. While not necessarily a "true" point guard, Madden can fit the bill as more of a scoring point, which worked pretty well last year splitting time with true point guard Fred Gulley.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qOxOYq5S4ppe7OUcCbnynhEH62M=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2438816/20140313_krj_sa2_004.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">With Gulley gone, Anderson has a couple of point guards available. Jabril Durham averaged 21.2 ppg and 6.7 apg at Seminole State JC last year, while also notching 75 steals; Durham could handle the point and allow Madden to play off the ball more if Anderson wants. Freshman Anton Beard is quick off the dribble and has a nice lefty shooting stroke; how much he plays will be determined by whether he gives Anderson what he wants on the defensive end.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Arkansas's slow start to SEC play last year roughly coincided with a shooting slump by junior Michael Qualls; through the first seven games of SEC play, Qualls shot 17-for-69 from the floor and 6-for-28 from three. It probably wasn't a coincidence that Arkansas went 2-5 in those games. It didn't really help matters that fellow junior Anthlon Bell shot 7-for-27 from three during that stretch. Basically, in Qualls and Bell, Anderson has a pair of shooters who can be deadly accurate but also in the past have been prone to lengthy slumps. Bell shot 33.1 percent from three on the season but really came on late in the year, with four double-figure scoring games in the last eight. This year, Anderson also adds freshman Nick Babb to the mix, who isn't purely a shooter but also can get to the basket.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In Alandise Harris and Keaton Miles, Anderson has a pair of forwards who are pretty adept at doing what he wants: blocking shots and collecting turnovers. He might not play both on the floor together, instead opting for a smaller lineup. Of the two, Miles is the better rebounder. Jacorey Williams is also available here, but hasn't played much in two years at Arkansas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Possibly an important question up front is whether Portis and fellow sophomore Moses Kingsley can coexist. Last year, Portis and Kingsley swapped time as the safety valve on defense, but Kingsley, who averaged 1.5 blocks a game in just 11.5 minutes a night, could be a game-changing defensive player. Portis (1.0 spg, 1.6 bpg) is likewise an adept defender at 6'11" while also providing plenty of offensive punch; however, this defense could be scary good -- even in the halfcourt -- if Anderson can get both on the floor at the same time. As it stands, though, Anderson will have a fine defender at the back end of the press at all times.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Arkansas did rank as one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the country last year, and while this isn't a huge concern -- after all, the whole goal of Anderson's defense is for the opponent not to attempt a shot -- it does make for an area of improvement. This actually had less to do with the bigs, as Portis and Kingsley both ranked as pretty good individual rebounders, and more to do with the guards and wings, who were frequently away from the basket in the press and thus were unusually poor at rebounding the ball.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Schedule</h4>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Non-Conference</h5>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 96pt;" width="128" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<colgroup> <col style="width: 48pt;" span="2" width="64"> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; width: 48pt;" width="64" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/7</td>
<td style="width: 48pt;" width="64">Central Oklahoma (exh.)</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/13</td>
<td>Pittsburg State (exh.)</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/16</td>
<td>Alabama State</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/19</td>
<td>Wake Forest</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/21</td>
<td>Delaware State</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/25</td>
<td>at SMU</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/28</td>
<td>North Texas</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/30</td>
<td>Iona</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/4</td>
<td>at Iowa State</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/7</td>
<td>at Clemson</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/13</td>
<td>Dayton</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/20</td>
<td>SE Missouri State</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/22</td>
<td>Milwaukee</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/28</td>
<td>Northwestern State</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">1/3</td>
<td>Utah Valley</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home-and-Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Tennessee, Ole Miss, Missouri, South Carolina, Mississippi State</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Vanderbilt, Alabama, Texas A&M, LSU</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Road</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Georgia, Florida, Auburn, Kentucky</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Arkansas's non-conference schedule looks pretty good, with three road games against SMU, Iowa State, and Clemson, and a home game with Dayton mixed among the usual mid-majors. What's more, other than MEAC outfit Delaware State and the SWAC's Alabama State, the mid-majors on the schedule are actually decent teams and won't be RPI killers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, the pressure is going to be on Arkansas to pick up a marquee win or two in non-conference play because it doesn't look like the SEC schedule is going to present too many opportunities. Playing home-and-homes against the fivesome of Tennessee, Ole Miss, Missouri, South Carolina and Mississippi State should be good for padding the conference record, but none of those games are likely to impress the Selection Committee. And given Arkansas's usual struggles away from Fayetteville, drawing Florida and Kentucky both on the road is unequivocally a bad thing. With SMU and Iowa State also being away from home, Arkansas will have to figure out how to win on the road -- which, to be fair, they seemed to do toward the end of last season.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Outlook</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There's really no question that this is going to be the best team Mike Anderson has had since he's been in Fayetteville. At least on paper, there's too much talent here for Arkansas to struggle, and unlike in years past Anderson isn't dealing with talented players who nonetheless are poor fits for his system.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The question is, how good can this team be? Toward the end of last season, Arkansas started to resemble the Nolan Richardson teams from the 1990s in some ways, with a defense that forced a ton of turnovers and several deadeye shooters who could hammer teams at the other end. But that team largely wasn't present as Arkansas slogged through the first half of the SEC schedule with a 3-6 record, and it's an open question whether the team can carry over its late surge to this season.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In any case, we know that Anderson has 10 or 11 bodies that he can throw at opposing teams in successive waves, ensuring that there's no respite from the constant pressure. And when the defense is really working, Arkansas's offense does as well, with all those turnovers leading to easy buckets at the other end.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The other open question here is how much of a leash will Anderson have if this year's team slips up? While he's shown at both UAB and Missouri that he can put together a winning team, and he does have the connection to the Richardson era, at some point Razorback fans are going to want results. If this year's team doesn't make the tournament, Anderson might start feeling some heat.</p>
https://www.anchorofgold.com/2014/11/10/7170839/2014-ncaa-basketball-sec-hoops-preview-series-arkansas-bobby-portisTom Stephenson2014-11-07T10:05:59-05:002014-11-07T10:05:59-05:00SEC Hoops '14/15 Season Previews: LSU
<figure>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MkmmWC5woTKztbvi3C5nbADyRuw=/43x0:3957x2609/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/43579696/478744535.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Kevin C. Cox</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To get everyone up to speed on the upcoming basketball season, AOG is running down all fourteen teams in the SEC. Today's preview: LSU, poised to push for their first NCAA bid since 2009.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><i>We're counting down the days to basketball season, and to get everyone up to speed on the state of hoops in the SEC, I'm writing previews for each of the 14 teams. All work is my own, though I am relying on kenpom.com and sports-reference.com for some statistics. Teams will be previewed in reverse order of projected finish, so as this is the eleventh of 14 previews, this is the team I project to finish 4th in the conference.</i></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.andthevalleyshook.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">LSU Tigers</a> 2014-15 Basketball Preview</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">How Did We Get Here?</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The up-and-down John Brady era ended in 2008 with a disappointing 13-18 finish, then Trent Johnson arrived from Stanford and promptly went 27-8. But that represented the high-water mark of the Johnson era; Johnson's next two teams struggled, and though he went 18-15 in 2012, it was pretty clear that Johnson was leaving one step ahead of the ax when he took the TCU job -- a lateral move at best.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Johnny Jones came over from North Texas, but he played and coached at LSU under Dale Brown and was about as good a fit for this job as you could imagine. While Jones hasn't yet made the NCAA Tournament at LSU, he's improved the play on the floor and also has scored some big wins on the recruiting trail. The Tigers only went from 19 to 20 wins between 2013 and 2014, but that misses a fairly significant improvement: at least part of that reflects an upgraded non-conference schedule, and LSU went from a +1.8 ppg scoring margin in Jones' first year to +3.4 ppg in his second year.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">But the improvement from year one to year two is only part of the reason for excitement. While three starters are gone, LSU started two freshmen last year; both return this year and both are viewed as legitimate NBA prospects. The Tigers also bring in another talented freshman big man and a pair of talented transfers. There are a lot of unknowns here, but there's also the potential for LSU to have a very good basketball team in 2015. They're even expecting this to be the year that LSU breaks a tournament drought going back to 2009, Trent Johnson's first season in Baton Rouge.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Even without getting the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament in his first two years, Jones got a raise and a contract extension recently which keeps him under contract until 2019 and pays him $1.5 million a year. LSU brass clearly has faith in Jones, and this should be the year that faith is rewarded.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Projected Depth Chart</h4>
<p><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">Quick note: For starters, I'm using the five "traditional" positions on the floor even if the players may be listed otherwise on the roster, so you may see guards appearing as forwards, forwards appearing as centers, etc. Recruiting rankings are the composite rankings from 247sports.com</i></p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Losses</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>Johnny O'Bryant (30.0 mpg, 15.4 ppg, 7.7 rpg); declared for NBA Draft</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Andre Stringer</span> (25.7 mpg, 11.8 ppg, 2.6 apg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Shavon Coleman</span> (25.3 mpg, 9.1 ppg, 4.3 rpg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Anthony Hickey</span> (31.4 mpg, 8.4 ppg, 3.7 apg); transfer/Oklahoma State)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Malik Morgan</span> (15.5 mpg, 4.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg); transfer/Tulane</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Shane Hammink</span> (5.7 mpg, 1.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg); transfer/Valparaiso</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Hy-AXD7P8Q938umurpZgRdOxzbg=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2437420/20140115_ads_ad8_291.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</h5>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Starting Five</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PG <span>Josh Gray</span> (6'1", 183 Jr., Lake Charles, LA); #3 JC PG and #17 overall JC</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SG <span>Keith Hornsby</span> (6'4", 210 Jr., Williamsburg, VA); transfer/UNC Asheville</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SF <span>Jarell Martin</span> (6'10", 235 Soph., Baton Rouge, LA)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PF <span>Jordan Mickey</span> (6'8", 235 Soph., Arlington, TX)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C Elbert Robinson (7'1", 270 Fr., Garland, TX); #6 C and #59 overall</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Top Reserves</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Jalyn Patterson (6'0", 175 Fr., Alpharetta, GA); #1 CG and #251 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Brian Bridgewater</span> (6'4", 265 Soph., Baton Rouge, LA); #38 SF and #195 overall (2013)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>John Odo</span> (6'10", 245 Sr., Lagos, Nigeria)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Tim Quarterman</span> (6'6", 187 Soph., Savannah, GA)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Bench</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F Aaron Epps (6'9", 208 Fr., Ball, LA); #39 C and #363 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C <span>Darcy Malone</span> (7'0", 245 Soph., Canberra, Australia)</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While normally, you wouldn't be expecting improvement from a team that's returning just 38 percent of its minutes (and particularly when some of the departed players were pretty important to the team), LSU's projection has a lot more to do with the incoming talent and exactly who is returning to the team.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Jarell Martin was the big fish that Jones landed in his first year, a five-star recruit whom Jones managed to convince to stay home, but it was Jordan Mickey who wound up being the breakout star in the freshman class. Mickey was "just" a four-star recruit, but he had an immediate impact upon arriving at LSU, leading the SEC with 3.1 blocks per game and also averaging 12.7 ppg and 7.9 rpg, the latter number being fourth in the conference.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">What's more, there's a decent chance that Mickey could be around for a while. This is kind of an ideal situation for a coach like Jones, a player who is very good at the college level, but who, because of his size, isn't going to draw as much attention from NBA scouts as you'd think. At 6'8" and 235, Mickey's best skill is blocking shots and he has no perimeter game to speak of (he attempted five three-pointers all season and missed all of them); that's the skill set of an NBA four or maybe even a five, but with a size that's better suited for an NBA three. (That's not to say that Mickey won't leave early for the draft or be a productive NBA player, but I doubt he'd get selected in the lottery. If he were 6'10" he would have been a lottery pick <i>last </i>year.)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Martin, on the other hand, does have ideal size for the NBA at 6'10" and 235. But he didn't have the immediate impact that LSU fans were expecting last year, in part due to an injury early in the season and also (possibly related) struggling to adjust to the college game. But the potential is fairly obvious, as a guy who's 6'10" and can stretch the defense as well as rebound and score down low. Last year he averaged 10.3 ppg and 4.6 rpg, but both of those numbers could very easily go up after a year in college.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FAHUEoWed48vnB_ATnNddw5Ds3M=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2437426/20140128_tcb_al6_190.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Replacing Johnny O'Bryant on the low block will be freshman Elbert Robinson. Robinson arrived on LSU's campus at 310 pounds, but has since slimmed down to about 270. I shouldn't have to explain the implications of 7'1", 270 to you. The lost weight and increased stamina should improve Robinson's ability to get up and down the floor and play extended minutes, which is a scary proposition for the rest of the SEC -- because even at 7'1", 270 he's going to be a load on the low block. And having Martin and Mickey alongside him in the frontcourt should mean that there's no pressure on Robinson to be a major contributor, but if he does become one, this LSU frontcourt is going to be truly scary.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">LSU's backcourt should consist of Josh Gray and Keith Hornsby. Gray averaged an insane 33.8 ppg at Odessa College last year, but LSU won't be counting on him to be a big-time scorer; instead, Jones will want Gray to be more of a distributor. That shouldn't be a big problem, though, as Gray averaged 5.9 apg at the JC level even while scoring that much and has the ability to create off the dribble.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Hornsby (who, it's obligatory to point out, is the son of Grammy Award winner Bruce Hornsby) averaged 15.0 ppg at UNC-Asheville two years ago, but like Gray won't be asked to score as much here. Instead, Hornsby's job will be to be the third or fourth option on offense and hit enough threes to prevent defenses from collapsing in the paint. While he shot 37.9 percent from three as a sophomore at Asheville, his 92.5 percent from the line indicates that he could be an elite shooter now that he's on a team on which he won't be the guy defenses are gearing their gameplan around.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If there's a weakness on this team, it's the bench. Losing four players who still had eligibility remaining does have its consequences, and that consequence is that this team doesn't have a lot of reserves who have much Division 1 experience. It's particularly going to be a problem in the frontcourt: while Robinson is improved, if he's in foul trouble or his stamina is an issue LSU doesn't really have any great options behind him. Mickey can play as an undersized five if necessary, but Jones would really prefer if either 6'10" Nigerian John Odo or 7'0" Australian Darcy Malone became a viable backup inside. The two combined to average 9 minutes a game last year, but that number will go up unless Jones wants to play small for extended stretches, and it would be extremely helpful if one of them could provide production off the bench. Jones also has 6'9" freshman Aaron Epps available, but as he's a bit raw LSU likely won't expect him to contribute right away.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Tim Quarterman is the one player off the bench who has significant experience, having played 12.2 minutes and averaging 2.5 points and 1.5 assists last year. Of course, a former four-star recruit at 6'6", Quarterman has some considerable potential but struggled mightily adjusting to the college game last year. Freshman Jalyn Patterson will also come off the bench but faces a big learning curve. Brian Bridgewater sat out last year due to eligibility issues and also, if the official roster is to be believed, put on about 35 pounds (and that's probably not good weight.) A former high school teammate of <span>Damian Jones</span>, Bridgewater wasn't allowed to practice or travel with the team last year; he's a bit of a mystery at this point.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Schedule</h4>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Non-Conference</h5>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="128" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 96pt;">
<colgroup> <col width="64" span="2" style="width: 48pt;"> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" width="64" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 48pt;">11/7</td>
<td width="64" style="width: 48pt;">Morehouse (exh.)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/15</td>
<td>Gardner-Webb</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/18</td>
<td>Texas Tech</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/21</td>
<td>vs. Old Dominion</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/22</td>
<td>Paradise Jam</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/24</td>
<td>Paradise Jam</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/29</td>
<td>McNeese State</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/2</td>
<td>Massachusetts</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/4</td>
<td>at West Virginia</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/13</td>
<td>Sam Houston State</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/18</td>
<td>at UAB</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/22</td>
<td>Charleston</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/29</td>
<td>Southern Miss</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">1/3</td>
<td>Savannah State</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home-and-Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Florida, Auburn, Tennessee</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Road</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Missouri, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Arkansas</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While this team looks like it has the talent to be an NCAA team, that non-conference schedule could become an issue. West Virginia and Texas Tech represent the only two power-conference teams on the schedule, and both are expected to finish toward the bottom of the Big 12. UMass is a pretty good A-10 team, but outside of the Paradise Jam that's about as good as it gets; Southern Miss is rebuilding this year and a game at UAB is a no-win situation for the Tigers. That's a bad loss if LSU loses it and won't impress the Selection Committee much if they win. And about the Paradise Jam -- LSU will see Old Dominion in the first round, followed by Weber State or Illinois State; the best team they could possibly see in the finals is... Clemson? Seton Hall? There's not a whole lot on the non-conference schedule that will move the needle much; if LSU gets through this with more than one or two losses that's going to be an issue for the Selection Committee.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">With two shots at Florida, a home game against Kentucky, and a road game against Arkansas, LSU does have some opportunities to impress the Selection Committee in SEC play, though. But again, two games apiece against Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Auburn, and Tennessee isn't likely to move the needle. If LSU misses the NCAA Tournament, they may have their schedule to blame from the looks of it.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Outlook</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I remarked in past previews that there's not a whole lot of difference between #5 and #10. This is the point at which, at least on paper, you start to see some separation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">LSU already has one elite player in Jordan Mickey and could have another in Jarell Martin. If Martin does take the next step and becomes a star player, then the talent around those two is clearly good enough for this to be an NCAA team. Even if Martin doesn't improve much, having a year more or less like last season, this might end up being a borderline NCAA team.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">And while several of the previous teams have similar possibilities, in Martin's case the potential is great enough and the possibility of him hitting it good enough that it's a pretty reasonable expectation. The questions on this team -- guard play and depth -- aren't as big as some of the teams projected lower; the guards are both new but have Division 1 experience and plenty of talent, while even if depth continues to be an issue there are no real holes in the starting five.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The nagging question, and what could prevent LSU from reaching the NCAA Tournament, is the schedule. Depending on their draw in the Paradise Jam, and how good teams like UMass and West Virginia turn out to be, the Bayou Bengals may not have a single opportunity for a resume-building win outside of SEC play. And as we've seen in the past couple of seasons, depending on the SEC schedule to build your resume for the tournament is a very hit-or-miss proposition. There aren't any truly terrible teams on the non-conference schedule, but a relative lack of top-shelf competition means that LSU will absolutely have to take advantage of the few opportunities on the schedule.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In any case, even if Jones doesn't get the Tigers to the tournament this year, his job is safe -- the contract extension is a pretty strong indicator that LSU sees him coaching the program for a while -- and with #1 overall recruit Ben Simmons entering the program next year, LSU's window for making the tournament is hardly limited to this season. This is definitely a program on the upswing.</p>
https://www.anchorofgold.com/2014/11/7/7168831/2014-ncaa-basketball-sec-hoops-preview-series-lsu-jordan-mickeyTom Stephenson2014-11-05T15:00:03-05:002014-11-05T15:00:03-05:00SEC Hoops '14/15 Preview Series: Georgia
<figure>
<img alt="I don't need a clever caption. This is humorous enough." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jWW9A7ocXIVZGXFHrxe_DdX0cyI=/0x0:4000x2667/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/43190480/20140315_sng_sz2_297.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>I don't need a clever caption. This is humorous enough. | Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To get everyone up to speed on the upcoming basketball season, AOG is running down all fourteen teams in the SEC. Today's preview: Georgia, where Mark Fox looks to build on a surprisingly good year.</p> <p><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">We're counting down the days to basketball season, and to get everybody up to speed on the state of hoops in the SEC, I'm writing previews for each of the 14 teams. All work is my own, though I am relying on kenpom.com and sports-reference.com for some statistics. Teams will be previewed in reverse order of projected finish (according to me, anyway), so as this is the tenth of 14 previews, this is the team I project to finish 5th in the conference.</i></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.dawgsports.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Georgia Bulldogs</a> 2014-15 Basketball Preview</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">How Did We Get Here?</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In 2013, with SEC Player of the Year Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on the team, Georgia went 15-17, 9-9 in the SEC. Caldwell-Pope would declare for the NBA Draft after that season, and with a hodgepodge of players coming back who weren't that highly touted as recruits, most assumed that Georgia would slide to the back of the SEC without Caldwell-Pope and that Mark Fox's fifth season in Athens would probably be his last.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Instead, the Bulldogs defied almost every reasonable expectation with a 20-win season that saw them finish in a tie for second in the SEC -- with Kentucky! -- and make the second round of the NIT. The Bulldogs' NCAA Tournament resume was hurt by a 6-6 non-conference record, but given that Georgia far exceeded expectations and would be welcoming most of the team back for 2014-15, Fox clearly earned himself another year.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">How on earth did that happen? Well, the SEC schedule-makers did cut the Bulldogs a few breaks: per Pomeroy, Georgia played the weakest conference schedule of any SEC team, only seeing Florida, Kentucky, and Tennessee once each. But that alone doesn't explain how the Bulldogs went 13-3 against the rest of the SEC: playing South Carolina and Mississippi State twice each helped, but Georgia also swept Missouri and LSU and split with Arkansas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Basically, the Bulldogs turned winning ugly into an art form: they didn't shoot well and committed too many turnovers, but they rebounded well and allowed the SEC's lowest effective field goal percentage on the defensive end. The question when Fox took over in Athens was whether he'd be able to recruit well enough to win at Georgia, particularly since he was coming from Nevada and had never recruited at all in the South. But last year suggested that if Fox can get his players to buy into his philosophy, maybe it won't matter (and maybe he'll eventually figure out that "recruiting" thing.)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/axGIRi715T92ElwoXh26JFWHPZw=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2426244/20140315_sng_sz2_303.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Projected Depth Chart</h4>
<p><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">Quick note: For starters, I'm using the five "traditional" positions on the floor even if the players may be listed otherwise on the roster, so you may see guards appearing as forwards, forwards appearing as centers, etc. Recruiting rankings are the composite rankings from 247sports.com</i></p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Losses</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Brandon Morris</span> (25.4 mpg, 8.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg); transfer/Cal State Bakersfield</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>Donte Williams (21.9 mpg, 4.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>John Cannon</span> (18 games, 4.6 mpg, 1.4 ppg, 1.1 rpg); transfer/UNC-Asheville</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Tim Dixon</span> (7.8 mpg, 0.8 ppg, 1.3 rpg); transfer/Columbus State</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Starting Five</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PG <span>Charles Mann</span> (6'5", 215 Jr., Alpharetta, GA)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SG <span>Kenny Gaines</span> (6'3", 200 Jr., Atlanta, GA)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SF <span>Cameron Forte</span> (6'7", 220 Jr., Tempe, AZ)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PF Nemanja Djurisic (6'8", 230 Sr., Podgorica, Montenegro)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C <span>Marcus Thornton</span> (6'8", 235 Sr., Atlanta, GA)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Top Reserves</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F Yante Maten (6'8", 240 Fr., Pontiac, MI); #55 PF and #221 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Juwan Parker</span> (6'4", 200 Soph., Tulsa, OK)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Kenny Paul Geno</span> (6'6", 200 Soph., Booneville, MS)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>J.J. Frazier</span> (5'10", 150 Soph., Glennville, GA)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Bench</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C Osahen Iduwe (6'10", 235 Fr., Benin City, Nigeria); #36 C and #333 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Houston Kessler</span> (6'8", 225 Soph., Newnan, GA)</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While the departure of <span>Brandon Morris</span> -- dismissed from the team after getting arrested on felony drug charges -- will draw a lot of attention, graduated senior Donte Williams is probably the bigger loss. Williams wasn't a big offensive threat, but he did a lot of the dirty work on defense and on the glass. For a team that relied a lot on defense and rebounding, that could be a pretty big loss.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Even for a team that returns 73 percent of its minutes from last season, there isn't really an obvious candidate to replace Williams. <span>Marcus Thornton</span> can handle a lot of the defense and rebounding (6.1 rpg, 1.3 blocks last year), but this team will be a lot better if Fox can find somebody else to help him. Fellow senior Nemi Djurisic figures to start, and while he's plenty useful as a guy who can hit threes and stretch the defense (43.2 percent from three last year), his defense leaves quite a bit to be desired.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">One option would be to play Djurisic at the three and start freshman Yante Maten at the four. Maten, who was Michigan's high school basketball player of the year (impressively, Georgia managed to beat out Michigan State and Indiana for him), comes in fairly polished for a young big man. Fox also has Houston Kessler, who played sparingly last year as a redshirt freshman, and Osahen Iduwe, a Nigerian import who's likely to be all potential at this point.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If Fox decides to play Djurisic down low, he has a couple of athletic wings at his disposal. Cameron Forte, who averaged 22.5 ppg and 7.5 rpg as a freshman at Howard JC before transferring to Georgia last year, didn't play big minutes but could see more time with Morris gone. Kenny Paul Geno is another athletic wing who can get to the rim at 6'6", but saw even less playing time as a freshman (3.8 mpg in 21 games.) Either one could be important to Georgia's success; while Morris was by no means a great player, replacing his contributions probably isn't going to be easy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kzB4PvTU3WvBVxNcIV05TX-fN7Q=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2426254/478786349.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Georgia did feature one of the better backcourts in the league last season with Charles Mann and Kenny Gaines. Mann excels at getting to the basket and drawing contact, finishing second in the SEC (behind <span>Julius Randle</span>) in free throw attempts, while Gaines shot well from the outside (37.5 percent on threes.) But although both were sophomores last year, both also looked like they were pretty close to maxing out their potential: yeah, Mann could stand to cut down on his turnovers and improve his jump shot, but you didn't get the sense that these were guys who were just scratching the surface of their potential. Mann in particular struggled against teams like Kentucky and Florida that featured more athletic guards.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Backing up Mann and Gaines will be J.J. Frazier and Juwan Parker, the latter of whom struggled mightily with his shooting as a freshman. Parker improving on the 19 percent he shot from three (not a misprint) would take the Bulldogs a long way, while at this point Frazier's job is to give Mann a breather when he needs one.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Schedule</h4>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Non-Conference</h5>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="128" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 96pt;">
<colgroup> <col width="64" span="2" style="width: 48pt;"> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" width="64" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 48pt;">11/6</td>
<td width="64" style="width: 48pt;">Georgia Southwestern (exh.)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/14</td>
<td>at Georgia Tech</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/18</td>
<td>Stony Brook</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/21</td>
<td>Troy</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/23</td>
<td>Florida Atlantic</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/26</td>
<td>vs. Gonzaga</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/28</td>
<td>NIT Season Tip-Off</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/2</td>
<td>at Chattanooga</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/7</td>
<td>Colorado</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/21</td>
<td>Seton Hall</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/27</td>
<td>Mercer</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/31</td>
<td>at Kansas State</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">1/3</td>
<td>Norfolk State</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home-and-Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Kentucky, Auburn</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, Missouri</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Road</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">LSU, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Alabama</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The non-conference schedule has a handful games against power conference teams, but several of them (Georgia Tech, Seton Hall, Minnesota or St. John's in the NIT Season Tip-Off) don't figure to be NCAA teams. On the other hand, Gonzaga, Colorado, and Kansas State are decent tests. The rest of the non-conference schedule isn't really worth mentioning; even Mercer figures to be in a rebuilding year. Georgia could easily go into SEC play at something like 10-2, but the strength of schedule probably won't be good enough to cover the Bulldogs if they get off to a slow start.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The SEC schedule could be tough if Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Auburn do better than expected -- or it could be relatively soft. Kentucky is on the schedule twice, though, and the Bulldogs do get shots at Florida and Arkansas on their home floor. Basically, between this and the middling non-conference schedule, Georgia has relatively few opportunities for big wins to impress the Selection Committee (unless I'm seriously underestimating some teams on the non-conference slate), so the Bulldogs are probably just going to need to pile up a lot of wins.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Outlook</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">While normally, you would look at a team that just finished in a tie for second in the SEC and returns 71 percent of its minutes and think that this team is going to be really good, in this case there are a couple of reasons for skepticism.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">For one, Georgia last year wasn't <i>that </i>good: better than expected, to be sure, but nobody seriously believed they were the second- or third-best team in the SEC. For another, maybe I'm putting too much stock in how Georgia's players were rated as recruits, but last year's Georgia team looked like a team that was pretty close to maxing out its potential. You didn't watch Georgia last season and think, wow, these guys are just scratching the surface of their potential. You watched Georgia last season and thought, wow, how are we losing to <i>this </i>team?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Against the three NCAA Tournament teams from the conference last year, Georgia went 0-4 and lost those four games by an average of 19.5 points. Basically, the Bulldogs couldn't hang with the few truly good teams in the SEC last year; Fox's coaching was good enough to get Georgia past the rest of the conference but got swamped by teams with better athletes. All of this suggests that while Georgia probably won't fall off the face of the earth, their potential heading into this season is a bit limited. An eighth- or ninth-place finish would be less surprising than a second-place finish.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Or, I could be horribly wrong. After all, <i>everybody </i>was horribly wrong about this team last year, and much of that had to do with underestimating players like Kenny Gaines and Charles Mann. Mark Fox may not have a roster full of McDonald's All-Americans, but last year's team showed that he knows how to get the most out of the talent he has. Is it enough to get into the NCAA Tournament? It could be.</p>
https://www.anchorofgold.com/2014/11/5/7140549/2014-ncaa-basketball-sec-hoops-preview-series-georgia-mark-foxTom Stephenson2014-11-03T15:00:02-05:002014-11-03T15:00:02-05:00SEC Hoops '14-15 Preview Series: Missouri
<figure>
<img alt="Welcome to the big leagues, rook." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zQcuMytRdbSzeW9FwxU6wiialVQ=/0x1110:2662x2885/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/43116694/20140329_pjc_ar6_418.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Welcome to the big leagues, rook. | Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To get everyone up to speed on the upcoming basketball season, AOG is running down all fourteen teams in the SEC. Today's preview: the Missouri Tigers, where Kim Anderson takes over after winning a Division II national title.</p> <p><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">We're counting down the days to basketball season, and to get everybody up to speed on the state of hoops in the SEC, I'm writing previews for each of the 14 teams. All work is my own, though I am relying on kenpom.com and sports-reference.com for some statistics. Teams will be previewed in reverse order of projected finish (according to me, anyway), so as this is the ninth of 14 previews, this is the team I project to finish 6th in the conference.</i></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.rockmnation.com/" class="sbn-auto-link">Missouri Tigers</a> 2014-15 Basketball Preview</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">How Did We Get Here?</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Frank Haith, as they say, may have been leaving one step ahead of the ax. After a season that began with high expectations and ended with Missouri missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008, it's fair to think that Haith saw the writing on the wall when he took a pay increase -- but also a bump down in terms of job prestige -- to become the new head coach at Tulsa.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Haith took over a loaded team from current Arkansas coach <span>Mike Anderson</span> when he took the Missouri job in 2011. His first team at Missouri won 30 games and the Big 12 tournament -- then promptly lost to #15 seed Norfolk State in the first round of the tournament. Things quickly slid downhill from there. With six of the top seven players gone from that team (albeit with returning <span>Laurence Bowers</span> and transfer <span>Alex Oriakhi</span>), Mizzou went 23-11 in their first year in the SEC.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Last year, the record was 23-12, but that came with a 9-9 finish in the SEC and a trip to the NIT. Mizzou had a good offense, but managed to pair it with the second-worst defense in the SEC (only Mississippi State was worse.) The offense was good enough to keep the Tigers in most games, but the defense held the team back. And that was the basic problem with the Haith era. Haith could bring offensive talent to Columbia, but couldn't get them to play defense. The 2014 Missouri team, while doing a fairly acceptable job at keeping opponents off the offensive glass, didn't turn you over and didn't close out on the perimeter -- leading to opponents not only taking a lot of three-pointers (39.1 percent in SEC play), but also making a lot of them (35.3 percent.) The interior defense was only slightly better (48.8 percent on twos in SEC play), though that did feature at least one player who knew what he was doing on the defensive end.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Now, Kim Anderson takes over after winning a national championship at Division II Central Missouri. Aside from being highly successful at that level (274-95 record in 12 seasons at Central Missouri), Anderson played and coached at Missouri under Norm Stewart. In short, there's probably no one this side of Norm himself who knows the Missouri basketball program better. He also takes over a team that only returns 37 percent of its minutes from last season (only Tennessee has fewer minutes returning) -- but considering how poorly last year's team played on the defensive end, that might not be the worst thing in the world.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Projected Depth Chart</h4>
<p><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">Quick note: For starters, I'm using the five "traditional" positions on the floor even if the players may be listed otherwise on the roster, so you may see guards appearing as forwards, forwards appearing as centers, etc. Recruiting rankings are the composite rankings from 247sports.com.</i></p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Losses</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Jabari Brown</span> (37.0 mpg, 19.9 ppg, 4.4 rpg); declared for NBA Draft</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Jordan Clarkson</span> (35.1 mpg, 17.5 ppg, 3.4 apg); declared for NBA Draft</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Earnest Ross</span> (31.9 mpg, 14.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Tony Criswell</span> (13.9 mpg, 3.9 ppg, 3.4 rpg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Stefan Jankovic</span> (3 games, 8.7 mpg, 3.3 ppg, 2.7 rpg); transfer/Hawaii</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Torren Jones</span> (8.1 mpg, 2.1 ppg, 2.3 rpg); transfer/Midland JC</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Shane Rector</span> (4.4 mpg, 0.5 ppg, 0.5 rpg); transfer/Miami-Dade CC</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BGNMnp952csOTip_pmkXIUVjSsU=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2423752/20131222_lbm_sg9_355.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</h5>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Starting Five</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PG <span>Keith Shamburger</span> (5'11", 170 Sr., Los Angeles, CA); transfer/Hawaii</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SG <span>Wes Clark</span> (6'0", 185 Soph., Detroit, MI)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SF Montaque Gill-Caesar (6'6", 215 Fr., Vaughan, ON); #13 SG and #36 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PF Johnathan Williams (6'9", 225 Soph., Memphis, TN)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C <span>Ryan Rosburg</span> (6'10", 264 Jr., Chesterfield, MO)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Top Reserves</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Deuce Bello</span> (6'4", 198 Jr., Greensboro, NC); transfer/Baylor</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Namon Wright (6'5", 200 Fr., Los Angeles, CA); #21 SG and #70 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F Jakeenan Gant (6'8", 207 Fr., Springfield, GA); #10 PF and #56 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Keanau Post</span> (6'11", 270 Sr., Victoria, BC)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Bench</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Tramaine Isabell (6'0", 180 Fr., Seattle, WA); #50 PG and #264 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F D'Angelo Allen (6'7", 220 Fr., Dallas, TX); #42 SF and #157 overall</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Like South Carolina, Missouri has already played an exhibition game; however, I'm taking the liberty of adding Johnathan Williams (who missed the exhibition due to an injury) to the starting lineup as he will likely start ahead of Jakeenan Gant if healthy.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I wrote, sometime around the time that Haith left, that Missouri ranked up there with Tennessee in terms of dumpster fires in the SEC. Like Tennessee, Mizzou did lose the big guns from last year's team. (Also: note the high number of minutes played by Brown and Clarkson. Think fatigue might have had something to do with why the Tigers didn't play a lick of defense?) Missouri also lost a pair of transfers -- <span>Zach Price</span> and <span>Cameron Biedscheid</span> -- before either played a minute of basketball at the school.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">But the two situations really aren't that similar beyond losing a coach and the top talent from last year. Unlike Donnie Tyndall at Tennessee, Kim Anderson was able to keep Frank Haith's incoming recruiting class together, and actually added to it; Tramaine Isabell, Montaque Gill-Caesar, and D'Angelo Allen all came on board after Anderson was named the head coach. Anderson also added a graduate transfer in Keith Shamburger, and welcomes Deuce Bello, a former top recruit who sat out last season after transferring from Baylor. Tennessee's roster at first glance appears to be a patchwork of guys, many of whom may or may not be SEC players; Missouri, meanwhile, has a lot of new faces, but this looks like a pretty talented bunch.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">And the holdover talent isn't bad. Johnathan Williams started all 35 games as a freshman and played 26.4 mpg. Williams is a bit raw on the offensive end, but showed himself to be a good rebounder and shot blocker who should fit right in with Anderson's more defensive-minded approach. Ryan Rosburg is a slightly more polished version of <span>Josh Henderson</span>; he'll likely split time at the five with Keanau Post, who played limited minutes last year but has the potential to be a contributor.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In JaKeenan Gant and D'Angelo Allen, Anderson has a pair of freshmen who are (respectively) 6'8" and 6'7" and can run and jump. While both need more polish on the offensive end, Anderson certainly has the pieces to put together an impressive defense inside. (Both were also briefly in Anderson's doghouse after getting arrested in September, but seem to be back in good standing now. Anderson also dismissed Cam Biedscheid and Torren Jones from the team previously, indicating a desire to make a break from the Haith administration.)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1dB2ovkRK3uVXEvOgzoRb85Helw=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2423754/20140515_jla_af5_234.jpg.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Anderson's last three teams at Central Missouri allowed shooting percentages of 41.8, 42.2, and 41.2, and all three gave up less than a point per possession. Obviously defending the likes of Kentucky and Florida is a different beast than D-II teams, but it's also true that Anderson will have better athletes at his disposal in his first year at Missouri.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the backcourt, the only holdover is <span>Wes Clark</span>, who struggled as a freshman but will likely play a bigger role this season. But Anderson does have a couple of newcomers with Division 1 experience as well. Keith Shamburger arrives from Hawaii as a graduate transfer after starting his career at San Jose State; Shamburger is a rather poor shooter (34.9 percent from the field for his career, although he's a fairly good free throw shooter) but is being brought in as a distributor (5.4 apg at Hawaii last year.) Deuce Bello was a four-star recruit coming out of high school but struggled to find playing time in two years at Baylor; Bello figures to come off the bench but could work his way into the starting lineup if Clark continues to struggle.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Anderson scored a nice late pickup in Montaque Gill-Caesar, who was rated as one of the top wing players in the Class of 2015 but reclassified to enroll at Missouri a year ahead of schedule. Gill-Caesar figures to start right away at the three; he excels at getting to the basket but also has a decent jump shot to go with it. Namon Wright, who briefly decommitted after Haith left but ultimately landed back in Missouri's fold, should provide help off the bench. Tramaine Isabell has talent, but starts the year clearly behind Shamburger and Clark on the depth chart at point guard.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Schedule</h4>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Non-Conference</h5>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="128" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 96pt;">
<colgroup> <col width="64" span="2" style="width: 48pt;"> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" width="64" style="height: 12.75pt; width: 48pt;">10/29</td>
<td width="64" style="width: 48pt;">William Jewell (exh.)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/8</td>
<td>Missouri-St. Louis (exh.)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/14</td>
<td>Missouri-Kansas City</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/16</td>
<td>Valparaiso</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/19</td>
<td>Oral Roberts</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/24</td>
<td>vs. Arizona</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/25</td>
<td>Maui Invitational</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">11/26</td>
<td>Maui Invitational</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/2</td>
<td>SE Missouri State</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/5</td>
<td>at Oklahoma</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/11</td>
<td>Elon</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/13</td>
<td>Xavier</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/20</td>
<td>vs. Illinois (St. Louis, MO)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">12/30</td>
<td>vs. Oklahoma State (Kansas City, MO)</td>
</tr>
<tr height="17" style="height: 12.75pt;">
<td height="17" class="xl63" align="right" style="height: 12.75pt;">1/3</td>
<td>Lipscomb</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home-and-Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Auburn, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Mississippi State</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">LSU, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Florida</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Road</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Alabama, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Georgia</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As usual, the Maui Invitational field is tough; after facing a likely top 5 team in Arizona, Mizzou will play a couple more good teams (unless they happen to draw Chaminade in the third game.) With a road game against Oklahoma, a home game against Xavier, and in-state neutral court games against Illinois and Oklahoma State as well, Mizzou certainly won't lack for marquee games on the non-conference schedule. Valpo and Oral Roberts are usually tough outs as well; basically, the non-conference SOS won't become an issue here, though if the Tigers' newcomers are slow to come along this team could have a few losses heading into SEC play.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The SEC schedule isn't too terrible; while Kentucky and Arkansas are contenders, drawing Auburn, A&M, and Mississippi State twice is a bit more forgiving. All four of the one-off road games should be winnable as well, while drawing Florida and LSU at home is a nice bonus.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Outlook</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Missouri enters 2014-15 as one of the biggest unknowns in the SEC, with seven newcomers (five of whom have never played Division 1 basketball before) and a new head coach who's been successful in Division 2... but hasn't even coached at the mid-major level before. Of course, Bruce Pearl exists as proof that Division 2 success can translate into Division 1 success. In any case, it's fairly obvious that Anderson can coach (and is probably an upgrade over Frank Haith on the sidelines -- not that that's saying a whole lot.)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The questions surrounding Anderson have more to do with whether or not he can recruit at a high level, and while the early returns aren't that promising -- Missouri currently only has two low three-star recruits committed for next season, though he did manage to keep Wright in the fold and land Gill-Caesar -- in the near term, that's not going to be an issue. Haith certainly didn't leave the cupboard bare when he left for Tulsa; indeed, Haith's issue was that he could recruit but couldn't get the most out of the talent he brought in.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">At the same time, there are some reasons for skepticism here. Anderson put together good defensive teams at Central Missouri, but it's an open question whether he can do the same at Missouri, particularly on a team that didn't play a lot of defense last season. And while this team is talented, there are still a lot of new faces here. The good news on that front is that at the Division 2 level, Anderson became fairly accustomed to molding a new team every year (if you think there's a lot of roster turnover in the SEC, have a look at your average Division 2 program sometime.) But it's actually sort of hard to draw much distinction between this team and, say, Vanderbilt: while the freshmen are a bit more talented (by reputation) than Vanderbilt's freshmen, Mizzou is still dealing with a ton of unknowns heading into this season.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">As I've mentioned in earlier previews, much like in last year's SEC (when three games separated fourth place from ninth place) there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of difference between the teams in the middle of the pack. I wouldn't really argue with you if you think Missouri will finish lower than sixth in the conference, because they don't look to be that much different from the 10th and 11th-place teams. But this is also a potential NCAA team if everything goes well.</p>
https://www.anchorofgold.com/2014/11/3/7134221/2014-ncaa-basketball-sec-hoops-preview-series-missouri-kim-andersonTom Stephenson2014-10-31T14:00:02-04:002014-10-31T14:00:02-04:00SEC Hoops '14-15 Preview Series: Alabama
<figure>
<img alt="Last year on the Capstone?" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9VH-9_LQcaaSb3r65hLo2aCtkRI=/0x310:3172x2425/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/43043312/478498093.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Last year on the Capstone? | Kevin C. Cox</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To get everyone up to speed on the upcoming basketball season, AOG is running down all fourteen teams in the SEC. Today's preview: Alabama, where Anthony Grant faces a must-win season.</p> <p><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">We're counting down the days to basketball season, and to get everybody up to speed on the state of hoops in the SEC, I'm writing previews for each of the 14 teams. All work is my own, though I am relying on kenpom.com and sports-reference.com for some statistics. Teams will be previewed in reverse order of projected finish (according to me, anyway), so as this is the eighth of 14 previews, this is the team I project to finish 7th in the conference.</i></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.rollbamaroll.com/">Alabama Crimson Tide</a> 2014-15 Basketball Preview</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">How Did We Get Here?</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Whenever a team enters a season expected to do well, and instead doesn't, the question is always: why? Alabama went from 23-13 and tied for second in the SEC in 2013, to 13-19 and tied for 10th last year. The Tide were expected to contend for an SEC title and NCAA Tournament berth, and instead just barely avoided playing on Wednesday in the SEC Tournament.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Well, one obvious answer was that in spite of the implosion in the record, the Tide were only marginally worse in 2014, going from 60th to 92nd in KenPom. Basically, the Tide in 2013 weren't as good as their record looked, and in 2014 they weren't as bad as their record looked.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Going into 2014, the Tide lost <span>Trevor Lacey</span>, <span>Devonta Pollard</span>, <span>Moussa Gueye</span>, and <span>Andrew Steele</span>, the last one the lone senior on the 2013 team. And while only Lacey out of that group was all that good on the offensive end (though Pollard had potential), all four were important to varying degrees on the defensive end. The result was that the Tide, after having a good defensive year in 2013 (20th according to KenPom in defensive efficiency), regressed on that end of the floor last year (76th in KenPom.) They didn't force turnovers, and while they could keep opponents to a fairly low shooting percentage, they couldn't rebound and couldn't keep opponents off the free throw line.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If there's a simple reason why Alabama seemed to underachieve, it's that most sportswriters tend to underrate defense. If you only looked at offensive contributions, Alabama's personnel losses after 2013 didn't seem like that big of a deal; but then Alabama in 2013 was a team that won with defense and had a relatively average offense, so losing key defensive players hurt. (It didn't help, either, that big man <span>Nick Jacobs</span> strangely got worse from 2013 to 2014.)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">And while 2014 was Anthony Grant's first truly bad year at Alabama, it's also true that Grant has only made the NCAA Tournament once in five years. In short, Grant needs to win this year. The good news for Grant is that he might have the team to do that.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Projected Depth Chart</h4>
<p><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">Quick note: For starters, I'm using the five "traditional" positions on the floor even if the players may be listed otherwise on the roster, so you may see guards appearing as forwards, forwards appearing as centers, etc. Recruiting rankings are the composite rankings from 247sports.com.</i></p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Losses</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Trevor Releford</span> (34.8 mpg, 18.5 ppg, 3.1 apg); graduated</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>Nick Jacobs (20.0 mpg, 8.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg); transfer/Georgia Tech</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Algie Key</span> (15.4 mpg, 3.7 ppg, 1.4 apg); transfer/Washburn</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Carl Engstrom</span> (11.8 mpg, 1.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg); turned pro</span></li>
</ul>
<h5> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/M2Nfj8-qYBKmv7rOv-tvtdBNHZc=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2408158/478477161.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</h5>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Starting Five</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PG <span>Ricky Tarrant</span> (6'2", 190 Jr., Pleasant Grove, AL); transfer/Tulane</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SG <span>Levi Randolph</span> (6'5", 205 Sr., Madison, AL)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SF <span>Rodney Cooper</span> (6'6", 215 Sr., Hurtsboro, AL)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PF <span>Shannon Hale</span> (6'8", 220 Soph., Johnson City, TN)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C <span>Jimmie Taylor</span> (6'10", 240 Soph., Greensboro, AL)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Top Reserves</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F Riley Norris (6'7", 190 Fr., Albertville, AL); #27 SF and #112 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Michael Kessens</span> (6'9", 215 Soph., Nyon, Switzerland); transfer/Longwood</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Justin Coleman</span> (5'10", 160 Fr., Birmingham, AL); #9 PG and #47 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Retin Obasohan</span> (6'1", 205 Jr., Antwerp, Belgium)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Bench</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F Jeff Garrett (6'7", 210 Fr., Gadsden, AL); #67 PF and #260 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Devin Mitchell (6'4", 175 Fr., Suwanee, GA); #32 SG and #120 overall</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Out for season</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Christophe Varidel</span> (6'3", 175 Sr., Geneva, Switzerland); transfer/Chaminade</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Like Marshall Henderson and <span>Jamal Jones</span>, Trevor Releford was the leading scorer on a team that was pretty bad on the offensive end. But the similarities end there: Releford was a highly efficient scorer and distributor. Alabama's issues on the offensive end had to do with, well, the rest of the team.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The good news for Grant is that he has a ready-made replacement for Releford in Ricky Tarrant. Tarrant, who sat out last year due to NCAA transfer rules, averaged 17.9 ppg and 4.0 apg in two years at Tulane and should be able to step in and do a reasonable impersonation of Releford... on the offensive end, anyway. The underrated aspect of Releford's game was his contribution on the defensive end, where he led the SEC in steals per game. Suffice to say that Releford is going to be difficult to replace, but Tarrant is as good a candidate as anybody to do it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Having Tarrant available also means that Grant has the luxury of bringing touted freshman point guard Justin Coleman along slowly. Grant also has Retin Obasohan at his disposal; while Obasohan isn't a great offensive player, he might be Alabama's best perimeter defender and could start based on that alone. But his ability to play both guard positions should make him a good bench player.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Tide are far less set on the wings, however. The incumbents, Levi Randolph and Rodney Cooper, both struggled shooting the ball last year, particularly Cooper (26.4 percent from three), and the latter was especially bad because Cooper attempted more three-pointers than anyone else on the team except Releford. With neither being a particularly good defender, either, Grant may look to replace either or both with a pair of freshmen: Devin Mitchell, who's 6'4" and can shoot the ball, and 6'7" Riley Norris. The question for both is whether they can play the kind of defense that Grant wants. The Tide were expecting to have Christophe Varidel, who previously played at Florida Gulf Coast and Chaminade, but he won't play this year due to an injury (and may be done playing college basketball.)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Another option would be to move sophomore Shannon Hale to the wing. Hale is more of a natural four but at this point in his career, he's more effective as a three-point shooter than a rebounder or post defender, and that skill set would seem to suggest that he'd be more suited to playing the three. That would make room for Michael Kessens, who averaged 8.8 rpg as a freshman at Longwood and could give the Tide the rebounder they need. More likely, though, Kessens will come off the bench to spell both Hale and <span>Jimmie Taylor</span>. But Hale's versatility should allow the Tide to go big at times, as he should be able to coexist on the floor with Kessens and Taylor.</p>
<p> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9h8DLO1RYE_sv3VY4dD9Ri4g7YM=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2408166/467889309.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Taylor, as a freshman, showed potential as a shot blocker, but struggled at rebounding (3.3 rpg) and staying on the floor (16.9 mpg), in addition to being very raw on the offensive end. But he also has endless potential and if he can stay out of foul trouble and get better at rebounding, he should make a good anchor for Alabama on the defensive end. Freshman Jeff Garrett has potential but looks like depth at this point, though he could play if any of the three primary bigs get into foul trouble.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The nagging question with this team, though, is whether all the newcomers (and, to be honest, some of the holdovers) will buy into Grant's defensive philosophy. In previous years, even if Grant's teams weren't great on the offensive end, they could at least be counted on to put together a good-to-great defense; that wasn't the case last year. The pieces are there for this Alabama team to be pretty good on the offensive end, and it's unusual for defense to be a question mark for an Anthony Grant team.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Schedule</h4>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Non-Conference</h5>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 96pt;" width="128" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<colgroup> <col style="width: 48pt;" span="2" width="64"> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; width: 48pt;" width="64" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/10</td>
<td style="width: 48pt;" width="64">Montevallo (exh.)</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/14</td>
<td>Towson</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/17</td>
<td>Western Carolina</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/20</td>
<td>Southern Miss</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/24</td>
<td>vs. Iowa State</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/25</td>
<td>CBE Hall of Fame Classic</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/2</td>
<td>South Florida</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/6</td>
<td>at Xavier</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/13</td>
<td>Tennessee Tech</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/16</td>
<td>at Wichita State</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/19</td>
<td>Stillman</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/21</td>
<td>Appalachian State</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/28</td>
<td>UCLA</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">1/2</td>
<td>North Florida</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home-and-Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Texas A&M, South Carolina, Kentucky, Auburn, Vanderbilt</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Home</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Florida, Missouri, Georgia, Ole Miss</p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Conference Road</h5>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Tennessee, Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The non-conference schedule looks like it's designed to impress the NCAA Selection Committee, with neutral-court games against a tough Iowa State team and either Maryland or Arizona State, as well as a home game with UCLA and road trips to Xavier and Wichita State. To be fair, though, the early-season matchups with Towson and Southern Miss both look stronger on paper than they really are; both of those squads figure to be rebuilding this year. But if Alabama is on the bubble, the Selection Committee probably won't find much fault with their non-conference schedule.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The conference schedule, too, should provide some opportunity to impress the committee: getting two shots at Kentucky and a home game with Florida, and road games with Arkansas and LSU, provide plenty of opportunities for good wins to impress the committee. In addition, drawing likely cellar-dwellers Tennessee and Mississippi State just once, and on the road, means that those two won't do much harm to the RPI (unless Alabama loses those, of course.) There's also enough fluff, with Texas A&M, Auburn, and Vanderbilt on the schedule twice, for Alabama to build a nice record. In any case, this seems like a good schedule all around for Anthony Grant's team, with enough "easy" games to pad the record a bit, but also plenty of heft if Alabama is threatening for an NCAA bid.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Outlook</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Anthony Grant needs to win this year, and probably needs to get to the NCAA Tournament to save his job; that much is obvious. Perhaps more than anybody, Grant has been a victim of the SEC's recent down cycle: in the past, a team that won 12 games in the SEC (as Grant did in 2011 and 2013) would make a team a virtual lock for the NCAA Tournament, but in bot of those years Alabama wound up just on the wrong side of the bubble -- though Alabama also hurt its own cause in those years with too many losses to the likes of Tulane and St. Peter's.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Last year, it was tough to tell exactly where things went south: while the Tide entered SEC play with a 6-7 record, Alabama was competitive in losses to Duke, Xavier, Wichita State, and UCLA (all NCAA teams.) But that was the same team that later lost by 19 to Auburn. You got the sense for much of last season that the Crimson Tide weren't that far away from being a good team... and yet, the final record was 13-19.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">And so it is as Grant enters his sixth and possibly final year in Tuscaloosa. Grant is actually in a fairly similar situation to Andy Kennedy at Ole Miss, in that he's generally been able to put good teams on the floor (last year excepted) but only once has he been able to get over the hump and get the Tide to the NCAA Tournament. With an experienced and talented roster, if Grant can't win with this team, then you've basically run out of arguments that he's going to get it done at Alabama.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If there's worse news for Grant, one need only look to the other side of the state. With Bruce Pearl already impressing on the recruiting trail at Auburn and bringing excitement to a program that hasn't had anything to be excited about in over a decade, Alabama certainly won't want to be left behind. Grant's incoming recruiting class for next season doesn't look that great, and you can bet that Alabama brass won't hesitate to pull the plug if this season doesn't go well -- if for no other reason than that they don't want to risk being the second-best program in the state.</p>
https://www.anchorofgold.com/2014/10/31/7129055/2014-ncaa-basketball-sec-hoops-preview-series-alabama-anthony-grantTom Stephenson2014-10-29T16:40:26-04:002014-10-29T16:40:26-04:00SEC Hoops '14-15 Preview Series: South Carolina
<figure>
<img alt="Well, they beat Kentucky last year..." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nJq8SK6hmRCJ6HBZGscbLBrJC-k=/0x80:2672x1861/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/42921990/475921807.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Well, they beat Kentucky last year... | Lance King</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To get everyone up to speed on the upcoming basketball season, AOG is running down all fourteen teams in the SEC. Today's preview: Sindarius Thornwell and the South Carolina Gamecocks.</p> <p><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">We're counting down the days to basketball season, and to get everybody up to speed on the state of hoops in the SEC, I'm writing previews for each of the 14 teams. All work is my own, though I am relying on kenpom.com and sports-reference.com for some statistics. Teams will be previewed in reverse order of projected finish (according to me, anyway), so as this is the seventh of 14 previews, this is the team I project to finish 8th in the conference.</i></p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<a class="sbn-auto-link" href="https://www.garnetandblackattack.com/">South Carolina Gamecocks</a> 2014-15 Basketball Preview</h3>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">How Did We Get Here?</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Darrin Horn was a disaster almost from day one at South Carolina. Although he went 21-10 in his first year in Columbia, that was with an experienced roster inherited from Dave Odom. On his own, he went 15-16 in his second year, followed by 14-16 in his third year, before bottoming out at 10-21 in 2011-12, including 2-14 in the SEC.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Under new coach Frank Martin, who had built a solid program at Kansas State, things got worse before they got better. While the record (14-18) in Martin's first year was slightly better, that was as much a reflection on a complete joke of a non-conference schedule and a down SEC as it was on any improvement; indeed, the Gamecocks went from 163 in Pomeroy's ratings in Horn's final season to 210 in Martin's first year.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Quite intentionally, Martin induced some roster turnover from year one to year two, running off some of the holdovers from Darrin Horn and bringing in some of his own players. While the Gamecocks only won 14 games again, they were more competitive, going from an average scoring margin of -7.9 ppg in SEC play in 2013 to -5.5 ppg in 2014 -- still nothing to brag about, but a credible performance by a team that had seven freshmen and three sophomores (and only one senior) on the roster. Basically everything points to improvement in year three under Frank Martin.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Projected Depth Chart</h4>
<p><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292929; font-family: 'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;">Quick note: For starters, I'm using the five "traditional" positions on the floor even if the players may be listed otherwise on the roster, so you may see guards appearing as forwards, forwards appearing as centers, etc. Recruiting rankings are the composite rankings from 247sports.com.</i></p>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Losses</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Brenton Williams</span> (30.3 mpg, 14.9 ppg, 1.4 apg; graduated)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Jaylen Shaw</span> (9.7 mpg, 3.0 ppg, 1.1 apg; transfer/Coastal Carolina)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span><span>Desmond Ringer</span> (10.4 mpg, 2.1 ppg, 2.0 rpg; transfer/Mercer)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CjEKLrI5UYU9JNX3Biqdi6m36Ws=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2404570/20140314_mjm_sa2_160.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</h5>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Starting Five</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PG <span>Duane Notice</span> (6'2", 216 Soph., Woodbridge, Canada)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SG Ty Johnson (6'3", 196 Sr., Plainfield, NJ)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>SF <span>Sindarius Thornwell</span> (6'5", 215 Soph., Lancaster, SC)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>PF <span>Michael Carrera</span> (6'5", 212 Jr., Anzoategui, Venezuela)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>C <span>Demetrius Henry</span> (6'9", 227 Soph., Miami, FL)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Top Reserves</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G Marcus Stroman (6'2", 185 Fr., Columbia, SC); #27 PG and #130 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Laimonas Chatkevicius</span> (6'11", 250 Jr., Klaipeda, Lithuania)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Mindaugas Kacinas</span> (6'7", 228 Jr., Klaipeda, Lithuania)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Bench</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F Reggie Theus Jr. (6'6", 218 Soph., Los Angeles, CA)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G <span>Justin McKie</span> (6'4", 196 Soph., Columbia, SC)</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>F <span>Brian Steele</span> (6'5", 197 Jr., Greenville, SC)</span></li>
</ul>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">Redshirting this season</h5>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G TeMarcus Blanton (6'5", 208 Fr., Locust Grove, GA); #26 SF and #111 overall</span></li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span>G/F Shamiek Sheppard (6'6", 215 Fr., Brooklyn, NY); #65 SF and #315 overall</span></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify;">For the first time in this preview series, the depth chart isn't complete guesswork: South Carolina has already played an exhibition game (on October 26, a 92-47 win over Benedict) and while there's generally little to be learned from an exhibition game, at the very least we have some idea how Frank Martin is going to use his roster. The starting five listed above are the five players who started the exhibition, although we know from experience that Martin's usage of his roster tends to vary over the course of the season.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The big reasons for optimism in Columbia are simple. The Gamecocks return 76 percent of their minutes from last year, the highest figure in the SEC, and the only player of significance they lose is Brenton Williams. It's certainly not to say that Williams won't be easy to replace; guys who shoot 42.7 percent from three and 93 percent from the foul line are, shall we say, <i>rare</i>. Another reason for optimism is that Carolina had, as mentioned before, a lot of underclassmen playing last year; it's only reasonable to think that all those freshmen last year will get better with a year of college ball under their belts.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">A third reason for optimism: the Gamecocks have a legitimate NBA prospect on the wing in Sindarius Thornwell. Thornwell came in and did about what you would expect a top recruit on a bad team to do: he was the Gamecocks' second-leading scorer, but wasn't terribly efficient, shooting 38.6 percent from the floor and averaging 3.1 turnovers a game. Both of those numbers need to improve, but a lot of improvement should come simply from the players around him getting better this season.</p>
<p> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt=" " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PofR8N7s4V9dG3R2H18-dBgk_d4=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2404578/476684473.0.0.jpg">
</figure>
</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Thornwell can play the point, but with three point guards on the roster he'll almost certainly spend most of his time on the wing. The Gamecocks will effectively have two point guards on the floor with Duane Notice and Ty Johnson. Notice, like Thornwell, had his struggles as a freshman but should get better as a sophomore, and in fact an injury to Johnson last year probably forced him into a bigger role than he was ready for. Last year's South Carolina team might have been better than it was had Johnson, a transfer from Villanova, not gotten hurt in the third game of SEC play. Johnson was considerably more advanced and is much more of a scoring point guard; given his greater scoring ability, figure on Johnson spending more time off the ball and giving the point guard duties to Notice.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">South Carolina has a third point guard on the roster in freshman Marcus Stroman, who will (in all likelihood) be the only member of a four-man recruiting class who will actually play for the Gamecocks this year: fellow freshmen TeMarcus Blanton and Shamiek Sheppard both suffered season-ending injuries and will likely redshirt, while 6'8" forward James Thompson never made it to campus. Unlike last season, Martin has the luxury of bringing Stroman along slowly while he adjusts to the college game. Justin McKie, the son of South Carolina all-time leading scorer B.J. McKie, showed some promise in limited minutes as a freshman and could play a bigger role this year.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In spite of being 6'5", Michael Carrera led the Gamecocks in rebounds and blocks last year; he's particularly adept at hitting the offensive glass. But the Gamecocks do have some size down low as well, with 6'9" Demetrius Henry, 6'7" Mindaugas Kacinas, and 6'11" Laimonas Chatkevicius. As you would expect from a Frank Martin team, all three hit the glass well and also commit a lot of fouls: South Carolina's 57.0 FTA/FGA ratio ranked 346th in the country. (But given Martin's history, we have to admit that fouling a lot is basically by design; Martin's Kansas State teams were pretty good on the defensive end in spite of sending opponents to the line a lot.) There's a reason why the guys over at Rock M Nation call Martin's style of play "Murderball."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">If there's a problem on this team, it's depth. While the Gamecocks go four deep up front, beyond that the only player available is 6'6" Reggie Theus Jr., who played limited minutes as a freshman and doesn't have much size. Martin can also occasionally get minutes out of walk-on Brian Steele, but on a team with a lot of foul-prone bigs the lack of depth could become an issue. Basically, opposing teams can just take the ball at the basket repeatedly, knowing that if the bigs pick up enough fouls (likely) the Gamecocks are likely going to have to go small. Martin would probably be better off with a couple more players who can soak up minutes (and fouls) in the frontcourt if necessary.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the backcourt, losing Blanton and Sheppard to injury means that Martin is going to war with only one wing player (Thornwell), and while having three point guards on the roster isn't exactly a problem, the Gamecocks aren't really going to have anybody other than Thornwell who can knock down shots from the outside. The bigs do what they do (rebounding and defense), but there's really little indication that any of them are going to be a big-time scorer this year.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Basically, while Martin should be able to put together a good defense with this roster and the bigs should help extend possessions with offensive rebounds, it's unclear who other than Thornwell is going to handle the scoring load. Johnson should be able to help, and maybe one of the bigs (Kacinas?) will step up, but exactly how far South Carolina can go this season depends on whether Thornwell gets a good sidekick on the offensive end.</p>
<h4>Schedule</h4>
<h5>Non-Conference</h5>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 96pt;" width="128" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0">
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 48pt;" span="2" width="64"> </colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt; width: 48pt;" width="64" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">10/26</td>
<td style="width: 48pt;" width="64">Benedict (exh.)</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/14</td>
<td>North Florida</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/18</td>
<td>Baylor</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/20</td>
<td>vs. Cornell</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/21</td>
<td>Charleston Classic</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/23</td>
<td>Charleston Classic</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">11/26</td>
<td>UNC Asheville</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/1</td>
<td>at Marshall</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/6</td>
<td>Oklahoma State</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/19</td>
<td>Clemson</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/21</td>
<td>Coker</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">12/30</td>
<td>North Carolina A&T</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 12.75pt;" height="17">
<td style="height: 12.75pt;" align="right" class="xl63" height="17">1/3</td>
<td>vs. Iowa State (Brooklyn, NY)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h5>Conference Home-and-Home</h5>
<p>Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Arkansas</p>
<h5>Conference Home</h5>
<p>Florida, Missouri, Texas A&M, Mississippi State</p>
<h5>Conference Road</h5>
<p>Ole Miss, Auburn, LSU, Vanderbilt</p>
<p>South Carolina's non-conference schedule isn't terribly imposing. There's the marquee game with Iowa State in Brooklyn to end the non-conference schedule, as well as home games against Clemson, Oklahoma State, and Baylor (seriously... did Baylor schedule the entire SEC?) Other than that, though, there's not much to write home about, with a few mid-major teams that don't project to be very good (and Coker.) The Charleston Classic field is pretty weak, never mind that the tournament is in the Gamecocks' backyard; the best team in the field is... Miami? Akron?</p>
<p>But the SEC schedule is a bit tougher; the Gamecocks draw Kentucky, Arkansas, and Georgia twice, while drawing Ole Miss, LSU, and Vandy on the road makes those three games a bit tougher. The non-conference portion of the schedule might become an issue if the Gamecocks are on the bubble, and particularly if Oklahoma State and/or Clemson falls apart.</p>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">Outlook</h4>
<p style="text-align: justify;">After the disastrous hire of Darrin Horn (who replaced Dave Odom, who never really got it going at Carolina after a Tim Duncan-fueled run at Wake Forest), South Carolina hit a home run by hiring Frank Martin away from Kansas State, and all indications are that that hire should start to pay dividends this season.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">No, the Gamecocks probably won't be contending for an NCAA bid, but that would actually be less of a surprise than another year at the bottom of the conference. The sheer amount of returning talent, along with a coach who knows what he's doing, should be enough for Carolina to move up to the middle of the pack.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Basically, just looking at the roster and the coaching situation, it's almost a given that South Carolina will be a better team than they were last year; the only question is how much better. If Notice or Johnson, or maybe even Stroman, can step up and become a consistent scoring threat alongside Thornwell, this team should be fine. If one of the bigs can provide consistent offense, this team could actually be pretty good -- maybe even good enough to get on the NCAA bubble.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The better news is that, while this team is more experienced than last year, Ty Johnson is the only senior on the roster -- and that might actually be a misprint seeing that he only played one year at Villanova before transferring. It wouldn't surprise me if Johnson got an extra year of eligibility (though, of course, Thornwell could be off to the NBA after this season.) Either way, South Carolina has plenty of reason to be optimistic about the future under Martin, and this season should only be a start in the right direction.</p>
https://www.anchorofgold.com/2014/10/29/7085461/2014-ncaa-basketball-sec-hoops-preview-series-south-carolina-frank-martinTom Stephenson