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Snowflakes: SEC Hoops

* The Kentucky Wildcats finally look to be playing the kind of winning ball that Big Blue fans expect. It took a while to adjust to new coach Billy Gillispie (and his gameday practices), but now the ‘Cats are sitting only one game behind SEC East leader Tennessee. In a recent article, Dick Vitale says UK is playing better because of the “down SEC”, but I wonder how he would explain that Ole Miss and Vandy went undefeated in non-conference but now have 4 losses in the league? I believe it’s more of the fact that the Wildcats have fared much better when Derrick Jasper and Jodie Meeks came back healthy and Patrick Patterson got a few games under his belt. If Meeks and now an injured Ramel Bradley are out for long, they may struggle again. However, if the ‘Cats can battle through the injuries, I believe they still have the talent to have a decent shot at making the Big Dance.

* Arkansas has started well in SEC play, and the catalyst has been leading scorer Sonny Weems. The Hogs have struggled at times with ball handling at outside shooting, but those aspects have improved lately. Weems only made 31 three-pointers in 20 non-conference games, but in SEC play, he has already canned 22 treys in just 7 games and has shot a stellar 50% (22-44) from long range. Arkansas definitely has the big men to give other squads trouble in Charles Thomas, Steven Hill, and Darian Townes. But if Weems can continue to make outside shots and not turn the ball over as much, the Razorbacks will be really hard to beat down the stretch.

* Another team that struggles at times with ball handling and passing is the LSU Tigers. John Brady has been able to recruit a number of long, rangy athletes in his tenure at Baton Rouge. However, college ball tends to be a guard-oriented game and not having a quality point guard can kill a team. While Marcus Thornton has been a good find, Coach Brady’s future may depend on finding some distributors to go with his solid big men. It’s hard to believe that the Final Four program from just two years ago is now sitting dead last in the SEC.  [Editor's note:  John Brady was fired by LSU a day after this piece was published on TF]

 - Patrick Snow

                                                     

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