An Early Look at the SEC -- Auburn and Alabama

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 24, 2007 2:43 PM EDT in Basketball Comment 6 comments

Over the next few days, A Sea of Blue will be looking at the 2007-2008 SEC basketball teams from a distance of almost four months. Obviously, a lot can change in that time, so these will be subject to substantial revision and extension later.

After we finish looking at all the teams, we'll come up with a pre-season ranking based on our evaluations. Sound like fun? Well, what else is there to do this far away? So let's get started.

Alabama

THE GOOD

Alabama returns almost everybody with one big exception -- Jermareo Davidson. Ronald Steele is returning for his senior season, and Richard Hendrix figures to be improved, as do uber-athletic wings Alonzo Gee and major end-of-season contributor Mykal Riley. Alabama will be an experienced team with three seniors and three juniors returning.

THE BAD

With the loss of Davidson, half of Alabama's powerful post presence of the last two years will be gone. Waiting in the wings are last year's reserves Yamene Coleman and Avery Jukes, as well as freshman Justin Knox, a 4-star power forward from Tuscaloosa who brings a defensive presence but little scoring.

THE UGLY

Mark Gottfreid is still the coach at Alabama, and he has underperformed consistently despite having some of the best talent in the SEC. Unless he can upgrade his efforts at coaching (and he well may, who knows?), I expect Alabama to have a year typical of them over the last 5 years -- very competitive, 18-22 wins, but falling well short of the expectations such a talented team should have.

CONTENDER, OR PRETENDER?

On paper, Alabama is always a contender. In reality, they are usually a pretender. After years of futility being amazed by Gottfried's recruiting and appalled at his season results, I refuse to be impressed. Contender in the west, but as far as a conference championship is concerned -- Pretender.

Auburn

THE GOOD

In a word, experience. Quan Prowell, Josh Dollard, Frank Tolbert, and Korvotney Barber all return as upperclassmen, as well as Archie Miaway, Rasheem Barrett and Quantez Robertson. With no departing seniors, all this returning experience and two years in Jeff Lebo's system under their belt, the Tigers will have their best chance in years to make some noise in the SEC. Freshman combo forward Tyrell Lynch figures to help Auburn out both on the blocks and on the perimeter. Lynch attended the Patterson School in North Carolina last year, and recruiting observers will remember that former UK recruit Marshall Moses attended there. Boubacar Sylla, a 6'11"/240# big man out of Paris, France via Tarzana, California will give the Tigers some much-needed size, but Sylla is very raw and little more than a big body with potential at this point.

THE BAD

Despite all this experience, with the exception of Barber, Auburn's talent level and size simply isn't up to SEC standards. Lebo likes to run and shoot, and we will see if two years of his system can will make a difference. Auburn will get some upsets, and nobody will be looking forward to playing them, but they don't look like a threat to win the West, or even make the NCAA tournament, at least from this distance.

THE UGLY

Auburn's record since their last NCAA appearance in 2003 is 57-62. That's ugly.

CONTENDER, OR PRETENDER?

Auburn has yet to show itself capable of seriously challenging in SEC basketball. Mike DeCoucy described Auburn best: "There are programs that are great. There are programs that are dreadful. And there are programs that just seem to exist in a perpetual state of irrelevance." Auburn is such a program, and at least in basketball, will be again this year. Pretender

We'll be doing this same kind of evaluation of the rest of the SEC in the coming days. After that is complete, we will take a look a the league, top to bottom, and give our early estimate of how each team will perform in the 2007-2008 season.

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Comments

sec overview

Good post. I would like some info and comment on the OOC games asnd/or tournaments prior to conference starts. Thanks for the energy to do this type of analysis. I hope you feel the love from the BBN out here waiting for the tip of the bb as you help us get through the hot summer months.

by CAWebb on Jun 25, 2007 9:24 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Thanks ...

we do what we can. I will be analyzing the entire schedule in detail as we get closer to the season, but I am spreading it out a bit, both to spread out the effort and maintain interest. As you suggest, keeping interesting articles about basketball on the blog can be challenging this time of year. :-)

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 25, 2007 10:06 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Bama

Here's the thing about the alabama basketball program that really really riles me up.

Every year without fail they begin the the season ranked anywhere between 15-10 and by the time conference play is half over they have dropped out because the SUCK. I do not understand national writers and coaches who continually vote for them when the same thing happens every season. I even saw one preseason pole for next year that explicitly stated "okay even though Bama sucked last season where going to give it another shot in the top 15.

by davw83 on Jun 25, 2007 10:48 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It's just like I said ...

They have great talent on paper, always seem to. The state of Alabama produces some great talent, a lot of it highly underrated by the recruiting services.

Unfortunately, they just can't seem to get the results out of their talent. They have the guys to really compete for SEC championships year in and year out, and yet they consistently fall short.

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 25, 2007 12:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Believe me...

...Bama fans are ready to see Gottfried go. The program has gone as far as it's going to go under him. They should be accomplishing infinitely more than they are under him given the raw talent the place can attract.

Roll Tide!

by RollBamaRoll on Jun 25, 2007 11:59 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm afraid ...

I agree. I like Gottfried, but at some point, you just have to step back and take a look. If he were just getting bad recruits and winning 18-22 games per season, you would have to give him a raise.

At Kentucky, before Tubby left, the complaint was actually kind of similar. Smith could get a lot from a little, but when we had a surfeit of talent, he seemed to struggle.

I don't know, maybe I am too hard on Gottfried, I just look at all the outstanding athletes Alabama has on their roster, seemingly year after year. He did get to the final 8 in 2004, but hell, Alabama aught to be hanging SEC championship banners at least once every three or four years with the talent that has come through there lately. I think their last one was 2001-2002.

by Truzenzuzex on Jun 25, 2007 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs