The Severed Cortex

Link: http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=280260344

I'm usually pretty quiet about SEC basketball, but that's impossible for me today as State knocked off 15th ranked Ole Miss handily. That means State is undefeated in the SEC to start off conference play. Which is a pretty damn nice start if you ask me. State's coach, Rick Stansbury, has quietly built a solid program over the years and every year the 'so called experts' are surprised when State plays well and competes with the well known basketball schools. Hello! I know it's the NIT, but they were in the final four of that tournament just last year with a bunch of freshmen.

That last statement is sort of why I don't talk about SEC basketball though. Seriously, I'm really claiming decent success in the NIT tournament as an argument that any given SEC school is great?! Lame. Woo-hoo. My team was the 3rd (or 4th) best mediocre team that couldn't get into the real tournament. Look, I can concede that the SEC has never been a good basketball conference. The ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, Big East and arguably two or three more conferences every year are better. There's usually one really big gun in the SEC each year and historically Kentucky holds that spot, and then there's maybe two other teams that are decent. (Since Joe B. Hall retired you'll notice that Kentucky percentage has gone down significantly.) On occasion that really big gun is really a really big gun, but most of the time the record of the SEC champion is padded with junk wins over inferior competition. Most SEC teams lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Yes Florida is two-time defending national champion, but prior to that the only SEC mens basketball champion was the aforementioned Kentucky.

I wouldn't mind seeing the SEC do well in the tournament and especially if it's my Bulldogs. Right now they look really good. But the reality is that I'll be picking most of them to drop out of the NCAA before the Sweet Sixteen.