Sizing up the SEC East
Yes, it’s still July. But because some friends are working on SEC basketball previews for magazines, it brought to mind where I would pick Florida in this October’s league media days.
Losing Nick Calathes hurts the Gators because so many of the league’s other marquee players are coming back. Tennessee returns Tyler Smith and Wayne Chism. South Carolina returns Devan Downey and Dominique Archie. Kentucky lost Jodie Meeks, but brings back Patrick Patterson and brings in the country’s top recruiting class (John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, DeMarcus Cousins, Daniel Orton.)
That’s why I would pick Florida fourth, behind all three schools:
1. Kentucky
2. Tennessee
3. South Carolina
4. Florida
5. Vanderbilt
6. Georgia
It’s going to be a much tougher league all around next season. In the SEC West, Tasmin Mitchell is back at LSU and Jarvis Varnado is back at Miss. State. Terrico White, the league’s most underrated player, returns at Ole Miss. One NBA executive told me that if White had decided to come out for the draft last season, he would have been the first player from the league to be picked.
In a best case scenario, I could see Florida battling UT for second. That’s if Vernon Macklin and Kenny Boynton emerge as impact players. But Florida coach Billy Donovan has already downplayed Macklin as “not the savior.” Boynton will score, but is streaky, and will likely endure some freshman growing pains.
A more likely scenario has Florida back on the bubble battling South Carolina and Vanderbilt for the 3-5 spots. If Florida goes 9-7 in the league this season, though, it could be enough to make it back to the NCAA Tournament. The league will be that much better in 2009-10.
Kevin Brockway gave up on his dream of becoming a lefty starting pitcher for the New York Mets when he walked four straight batters, then hit one in a middle school game in Suffern, N.Y. Since graduating college in 1993, he’s worked as a sports writer at daily newspapers throughout the state of Florida, beginning with the Key West Citizen. He then moved on to the Northwest Florida Daily News and Naples Daily News before becoming the men’s basketball writer for The Gainesville Sun in 2003. Brockway has won multiple state and national writing awards during his 16-year career. Favorite pastimes include karaoke and watching baseball. Favorite college hoops team growing up was St. John’s.
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