Alabama was tabbed by many to win the SEC West in 08-09 but has been unimpressive in the early going, also being blown out by Oregon. Auburn coupled their Mercer loss with an equally unimpressive home loss to Northern Iowa.
Lest you think Mercer is a "Cinderella Sleeper" for March, let me slow you down. The only dancing the Bears will likely be doing in March will have to come at a campus mixer. After forging to an early "SEC conference" lead, the Bears celebrated with a 3 point win over Texas Southern and a 20 point blow-out loss to East Tennessee State. Not exactly the stuff Cinderellas are made of.
It is not just in the state of Alabama that trouble is brewing, it is the state of the entire SEC that is cause for a 4-Star BCS-alarm. Take a look at some of the other early season stumbles:
Kentucky famously opened with another home debacle, giving up 111 points in a home loss to VMI. Since then, they have probably (outside UF and Tenn.) been the class of the conference. Yes, they suffered their third defeat yesterday at the hands of Miami (FL), but can at least boast a couple quality wins, with victories over Kansas St and West Virginia.
Their fellow conference mates can not boast as much. Vanderbilt took a loss to Illinois-Chicago. South Carolina stumbled to instate "rival" Charleston. Arkansas was toppled by Missouri State, while Georgia dropped a series of stinkbombs, losing to Loyola of Chicago (perhaps the SEC should avoid Windy City foes...) before taking a 34-point pounding yesterday to Illinois.
SO what does all this mean? For one, the SEC sucks. Like Cincinnati Bengals SUCKS, like the ECONOMY sucks. They really suck.
More importanty, it shrinks the bid pool come tourney time. Can anyone take a 9-7 SEC team too seriously with the stack of bad losses that has piled up this Fall? It looks more an more like a 3-4 bid league MAX come March.
(Our picks: Tennessee, Florida, LSU, Kentucky (somehow, someway....)
I see the confusion. 'Bama thought they were playing at a high school charity game! Look at that gym....
All the more reason that the Big East truly has a chance to get 10 bids in March if Power conferences have off years.
ReplyDeleteFlorida's loss to FSU just adds to your point that this conference isn't beating anyone (except for Tennessee).
I know it's early but I agree, there is no way this conference is getting more then 4 teams in the dance unless they start turning things around. My bets are Tennessee...who really could come close to running the table in their SEC schedule...Florida, and Kentucky. Nobody from the west deserves it, but I say look out for Chris Warren and Ole Miss.
Nice call of Warren, good ball player. I like Kennedy as the coach down there too. The could easily win the crap-fest that is the SEC West. LSU seems good, but they have played a JV schedule so far..
ReplyDeleteFlorida and FSU was entertaining, but largely bad basketball. This Florida team reminds me of the 03-04 teams with Roberson, Lee and Walsh. They seemed talented, versatile and athletic but just weren't on the same page or gritty enough to win big games. Looking at Calathes, Warner and Hodge... VERY similar make-up.
FSU lost by 20+ to Northwestern last week, and got beat by Cincinnati as well. Not a good sign for the "second-best" team in the SEC...