Several recent comments here at ASOB have led me to believe that some of the readers/posters don't fully appreciate just how young this UK team is (in terms of who is actually on the floor playing), and just how young/inexperienced the entire SEC is by that same measure.  There is no question that much of our present mediocrity can be blamed on that very deficit of leadership and experience, not just at UK, but indeed across the conference. 

(With all of the recriminations swirling around the BBN, it is refreshing to note that this is the type of "fault" or "blame" that belongs neither to coach or to player --  it is simply a fact that having been there before helps a player do things better, as does having more time under any given coach.  Our profound turnover issues are just one symptom of that circumstance.  The older you get, the better you protect the ball, and the fewer stupid mistakes you make.  Age brings wisdom.)

Those are my assertions; here is my argument.

At "KenPom.com" Ken Pomeroy tracks the experience level (not age) of the players who actually get floor time across the whole of Division 1 basketball.  Out of the 344 teams tracked, 262 Division 1 schools play an older, more experienced team than UK does. 

Let me put that another way: three-fourths of the country plays a more experienced roster than we do.  That goes way beyond "just no seniors".

In fact, that experience differential is clearly one of the main reasons the SEC is "down" this year.  Tennessee and Florida both play rosters that are even less experienced than Kentucky's, and the seven youngest teams in the country include Vanderbilt (338), Arkansas (340), and at 344th and DEAD LAST in the country in experience is Mississippi.

That means six of the SEC's teams, and its four most venerable basketball programs (UK, UT, UF, and Ark.) are in the bottom quartile in the country in the field of experience.

The most experienced team in the SEC?  That would be LSU, which, as we all know, happens to have finished at the very top of the conference heap. 

Sure, there are many variables that affect success, coaching prowess and talent being two important ones, but the bottom line is that this year the most experienced team won the conference by a mile, and the conference bottom-feeder (Arkansas) was 340th in the country in that same category.  The correlation is more than incidental.

Georgia is a bit of an anomaly, but experience is also why Georgia, the second oldest team in the conference, has been able to weather the coaching storm and salvage some pride in the last part of the season by beating Kentucky, Florida, and Vanderbilt.

From a conference perspective, it is interesting to note that no SEC team is in the top 20 in the country in terms of experience (LSU is 22nd in experience).  Should we be surprised that no SEC team besides LSU is regarded as Top 20 material?

Experience matters. 

Good planning in recruiting can alleviate some of these experience gaps, but in an era of the easy transfer, the NBA defection, and the coaching migration, there are times when you just have to say, "We're just really young right now," and be patient.  This is one of those times.

Stop fretting and looking for scapegoats, BBN.  Better days are coming for our school and our conference.