Mike Siroky’s SEC Report: Curtain Coming Up
By Mike Siroky
The historically best conference of women’s basketball, the Southeastern, is ready for another romp.
The prelude games are over.
On Thursday, the marathon starts with the new decade.
Someone will make history.
The six ranked teams in the Associated Press poll are the most likely suspects.
Being ranked at the start of the league is fine, because strength of schedule should protect anyone from dropping back. None of these will lose 10 straight as a former coach as Tennessee did last season.
Another part of the equation is to win 20 before the NCAA draw.
No SEC team has ever jinxed that though gift selections have been awarded to 19-game winners, like the farewell prize which went to last season’s departing Tennessee coach.
Did all the out of conference auditions get the cast straight?
As late as two games ago, Kentucky was implementing a transfer player who only became eligible once the semester ended.
The undisputed rookie of the year has done fine.
But now real wars against quality opponents each week arrives. No more cupcakes, even among the bottom feeders of the league.
What if a major injury hits? Texas just lost its rebuild when the leading scorer blew an ACL.
One key player out near the top begins an alignment of dominoes falling.
Coaches yet to establish themselves in the league may just wallop some who have been doing swell until now.
The newest coach in the league has that potential.
Even if she is coaching another’s recruits for the next few years.
The conference ejects one coach every year. We have our suspicions and have usually been able to identify the nearly departed for years, but it is an inexact science.
Some coaches carry over because their universities simply do not care, as long as no player causes a scandal. Some universities will even work with a player who might have been dismissed at another conference school.
So the stage is set.
All the ranked teams have 10 wins already in play against the world. Three have 12.
The top four are obvious candidates for earning Sweet 16 home seeds, yet another SEC tradition implemented by Pat Head when she helped design the NCAA tournament.
We think we know what we know but we don’t. On Opening Night everyone is undefeated. Everyone starts out equal. Yet half the teams will lose the unbeaten luster on Thursday.
Catch the magic, put it in your pocket if you can. Be prepared to be heartbroken and then delighted by the same players.
Get ready for rough road trips, bad meals, not sleeping in your own beds some nights.
Wear the unfamiliar road uniforms, weird colors compared to home whites.
Look in those foreign stands for a few friendly faces, moms and dads at least.
Some parents will take on more debt just to go there, to experience the joy of seeing their kid play, of hearing her booed and taunted.
The coaches multiply that feeling by at least a dozen times, one for each player.
And those players have individual culture shocks.
It is not entirely new to any of them, yet they are asked to dress and undress in strange rooms (what other occupation has that), minimalistic compared to the home campus.
If anyone could do a walk through of Texas A&M’s home digs, you’d know what high cotton is and what you don’t have at your place.
Those away courts have different dead spots, sounds coming at you from different distracting angels.
At Vanderbilt, your bench is on the endline, far away from your coach and teammates.
And you are supposed to remember all those intricate land mines for when you come back next season.
Your older teammates can help you, as you will help the rookies next season
The seniors begin the farewell tour. You don’t have to go there again. Or maybe this is a last chance to win one there if you are in the second division.
Alabama has savored a sudden multi-season win streak against Tennessee and that is the kind of tradition you want to extend. Or stop if you wear Orange every day.
Vanderbilt won for the first time ever in state at Knoxville at the close of last season, for no decipherable reason other than the home team had quit on the coaches. Now they want to do that again.
The marvelous new Arkansas traditions seem possible with every starting jump ball. Boom! They mainly raised themselves in one SEC tournament to the upper berths. Now it is on to earning a place in the NCAA eliminations.
The powerhouse machines will roll into each road game confident and deadly breakers of hearts.
Sure, the say the target is on their backs, but it is better that way than the opposite.
The out of town previews are over.
It is familial battles with a random exception go from now until March Madness. The cast is ready. The scripts have been written and handed out. The pictures and Curriculum Vitae are in the hands of the greatest fans in the land.
The costumes fit. Game Day hairstyles are defined. Places everyone. Know your role. The curtain rises.
Let the play begin.
The light play meant a relative break before the start of the annual rumble that is the conference season. Two took the week off.
The traditional powers of recent seasons remain the same.
The secret to winning the regular season title, the one the coaches and players know really counts as opposed to the winner of the post-season conference tournament which earns the automatic NCAA bid, is to win every home game from here on out.
Whoever defends the home court wins the conference.
That makes Jan. 5 Tennessee at Kentucky, Jan. 20 Mississippi State at South Carolina, Feb. 6 Mississippi State at Tennessee, Feb. 9 Texas A&M at Mississippi State, Fen. 16 Mississippi State at Kentucky, Feb. 16 Texas A&M at Tennessee and Feb. 23 South Carolina at Kentucky all interesting.
The final game of the regular season, Texas A&M at South Carolina, should just be for fun.
In recent seasons, Tennessee has not really been in contention, so their home survival is the most questionable.
A&M’s biggest games are on the road, but they are a program which always seems to slip in one unexpected loss.
Mississippi State usually doesn’t lose at home in conference lately; they are also set up for their best league games on the road.
No one really holds a coaching edge among the top three teams – talent combined with coaching -- and no one has a talent edge, either. Each campus has a capable player leading the attack.
Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard was the national freshman of the year, though it is hard to put her as the league’s best player when matched with Chennedy Carter of Texas A&M.
South Carolina has the undisputed best rookie in Aliyah Boston.
There’s an example of no coach having enough guts to put her forward as an All-SEC player even before she played her first game, though they all recruited her and all knew how much quality she would bring.
It happened to Howard last season, which is why we don’t put much faith in preseason all-conference votes.
SC also has the best point guard in Tyasha Harris, the SEC career leader in assists.
With two premier players, SC is clearly the top team now. A plus: Kiki Herbert Harrigan considered following other team mates into the transfer portal then decided to stay and is the better for it.
Everyone else has one designated star.
State has a phenom in Jordan Danberry, as does Arkansas with Chelsea Dungee.
Tennessee’s Rennia Davis is finally as impactful as she was recruited to be, even if that coach is no longer in the league.
The above-mentioned players are your All-SEC team.
Some coach will lose her position after this league season.
No matter how badly Missouri continues to flop, it won’t be that coach as she has earned a mulligan in the past two seasons. Vanderbilt has resuscitated their coach. Florida is showing signs of life.
The top three remain South Carolina, Mississippi State and Texas A&M.
In the next group are Kentucky, the revived Tennessee program and Arkansas.
That’s six for the NCAA eliminations.
The league has had eight entrants recently, with the last one usually a gift.
Florida (9-4) have already passed last season’s win total, so the Gators could earn a road invite to the eliminations, as does Alabama (10-3). The Tide has won five straight.
LSU (11-2) will have problems in conference. Auburn has risen to the NCAA level in the past few seasons.
After the top three, everyone else needs to pull at least one upset, even if at home.
Here's how the ranked teams open:
Thursday: Kentucky at South Carolina; Texas A&M at Arkansas; Florida at Mississippi State; Missouri at Tennessee;.
Sunday: Tennessee at Kentucky; South Carolina at Alabama; Arkansas at Auburn; Mississippi State at Georgia.
No poll position changed.
No. 4 SOUTH CAROLINA (12-1)
Dawn Staley’s the mist enigmatic coach in a conference with two other Hall of Fame leaders. She is living the life, with the Olympics this year as well.
Staley has proven amazing adjusting on the fly.
When she won her national championship, she supplemented her roster by having two hired gun transfer guards who played only that season in Columbia.
She has continued the pattern of focusing on point guard, even with dominating centers.
Two starters left this season for no disclosed reason, but incoming was league freshman of the year, Aliyah Boston. She can deliver blocks if you need them, points if you need them and she is a firm big. How fun. And she has the best point guard in the league
Staley needs to reaffirm her team as the league favorite, after Mississippi State took that away last season, regular season and conference tournament.
Each of the conference leaders have become a team you don’t want in your bracket.
Of all unlikely places this season, the SEC’s best wants to be in Fort Wayne, Indiana at a whacky Regional site.
SC is among those with league-bests 12 wins, seven-game win streak, 7-0 at home.
They took the holiday weeks off.
No. 11 TEXAS A&M (12-1)
The Aggies are on a seven-game winning streak, 8-0 at home.
The mad scientist plan of starting five freshmen, then five sophomores and now five juniors is in play.
The best result has been Chennedy Carter, leading league scoring at 22.9, fourth-best nationally.
Her only flaw is her passion.
She can be motivated by opponents to lose her cool. Ciera Johnson (12.7) and Kayla Wells (12.4) are snipers in the offense arsenal.
Gary Blair, a master motivator, has challenged center N’dea Jones to double every game because she can. She will in conference or they will not win.
So here came a final non-league home game. Texas A&M Corpus Christie welcomed a game against the main campus team. The Islanders were 8-3 against a lesser schedule.
This was a last chance for eight seniors. Dalesia Booth, a 5-9 guard , is the best among them, 12.8 points per game.
Texas A&M showed no effects of an eight-day holiday layoff, as the Aggies posted a season-best offensive showing and routed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 85-48.
They drew 3,804 at Reed Arena.
After shaking off a very brief slow start, Texas A&M took the lead four minutes in and kept it, running a 20-0 finish of the first, leading. They kept it up, 45-21 by half..
Johnson said, "We started off the game really well. In the second quarter we kind of slipped up a little bit.
“We just have to play a little better going into Arkansas, because they're a very well-coached team with fantastic players.
“So, we have to be a little more focused throughout the entire game or else we're going to lose to Arkansas."
"The boards were fine. I think we gave up a few offensive rebounds.”
“ They were stuck with nine for a while, and they finished with nine. So, I thought we did pretty good on the boards. Coach [Bob] Starkey said he wanted us to dominate the boards, and I think we did that."
"Considering the way we played, it was OK. We have to be a lot better, because Arkansas is a very well-coached team. They're going to get after us. "
It's the first game of SEC play, so they're going to be fired up. We had some slip-ups. If we don't maintain the level of play we had throughout the first quarter, then we will have a tough time against Arkansas.
“ I think if we stay on that level of play we had through the first quarter, then we will be just fine."
Blair said, "We got out to a slow start, but we found our way by forcing a few turnovers.
“ I was disappointed early on because our post players were 3-for-11 in the first half. We have to learn how to get the ball deeper into the post against teams that are not shot blockers.
"We keep shooting the ball because we're open, and we've had this problem all year long, we have to get our post players off to a good start so we can create and-one's and get into our press defense a little bit quicker.
“Our post players did a much better job in the second half. There were four kids in double figures this afternoon and 11 kids played. We were efficient at the free throw line too; our kids did a good job in that regard."
""We're ready for SEC play only by our record, not by our improvement. We need to be getting better, improving, and correcting our mistakes.
"We can't just turn it on when we're playing a Florida State or an Arkansas or a Georgia Tech. We have to do a better job of game planning and playing hard from the opening tip.
“When we do that, maybe it'll happen during conference play, we'll be a better team that will know how to play 40 minutes."
"If we get into a complete transition game with them, it'll be like our scrimmage against the U.S. Women's National Team.
“They want to run and shoot the ball within seven seconds, that's their coaches' philosophy. They want to drive the ball and kick it out for three or score in transition.
“If you get in there and try to trade baskets with them, we'll be playing to their strengths. Our strength is the balance between our inside game and our outside shooting. We need to be better than we were today at stopping the drive."
Johnson said, "We started off the game really well. In the second quarter we kind of slipped up a little bit. We just have to play a little better going into Arkansas, because they're a very well-coached team with fantastic players. So, we have to be a little more focused throughout the entire game or else we're going to lose to Arkansas."
"The boards were fine. I think we gave up a few offensive rebounds. They were stuck with nine for a while, and they finished with nine. So, I thought we did pretty good on the boards. Coach Starkey said he wanted us to dominate the boards, and I think we did that."
"Considering the way we played, it was okay. We have to be a lot better, because Arkansas is a very well-coached team. They're going to get after us. It's the first game of SEC play, so they're going to be fired up.
“We had some slip-ups. If we don't maintain the level of play we had throughout the first quarter, then we will have a tough time against Arkansas. I think if we stay on that level of play we had through the first quarter, then we will be just fine."
No. 14 KENTUCKY (11-1)
The last game prepared them for the roughest league start, the first two against other ranked teams. They also had the week off.
No. 15 MISSISSIPPI STATE (12-2)
If the Bulldogs can win a third consecutive SEC title, they would be the first to do so since 2004.
Thus the legend builds.
The breakout so far this season, are freshman Rickea Jackson and sophomore Jessika Carter Jackson is the MVP off the Duel in the championship, averaging 17.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
No one will soon forget All-American league dominator Teaira McCowan, from wire to wire the SEC Player of the Year.
Jackson is ahead of her at the same point in their careers.
McCowan worked to earn a starting position. Jackson is the first rookie to start since Victoria Vivians, who started only because of a fundamental need for points back then.
Vivians was a substitute for part of her senior season, until she developed more of an all-around game.
Carter is among the top in the league in scoring (14), seventh field-goal percentage (545), second in rebounding (10.7), third in blocks (2.2) and (/7th).
She has led State in rebounding nine times and has scored double figures 10 times with four double/doubles this
She was SEC Player of the Week after dominating in State’s wins over Murray State and Troy, averaging 22.0 points, 16.0 rebounds and 2.5 blocks.
Every season, coaches build a team identity.
No one ever knows how new starters will fashion that.
Schaefer, for all his yelling during games, is amazingly calm thereafter and certainly sees what happens in practices so he is less surprised than the rest of us.
He has the nation’s longest road winning streak at 12 games.
State has been in the AP rankings for 102 straight weeks.
State ranks seventh the nation in scoring offense (83.8) and 10th in scoring margin (26.0).
Five players shoot better than 50 percent from the field, the Bulldogs 16th in the country, leading the conference teams in field-goal percentage (.468).
State has 203 offensive rebounds, 43 percent of its missed baskets, gaining 234 second-chance points.
On defense, State has forced 288 turnovers, an average of 22.2, 16th in the nation and second in the SEC.
The Bulldogs have been rejecting shots, an average of 5.8 blocks per game, which is 13th in the Division I.
An emerging NCAA statistic, soon to become NCAA official, is takin charges. Coaches preach this. Mississippi State certainly ranks amongst the country’s best teams at drawing charges.
So far, the Bulldogs have taken 42 charges, led by 23 from Myah Taylor.
StarkVegas was ready to party for its 5-1 home team, with 7,895 partyers.
Arkansas-Little Rock was 2-8, winless in four road games, having just lost to real Arkansas by 33.
In that one, they experience 5,560 fans.
They were led by Angelique Francis’ 15 points but were outscored every quarter, especially the 23-11 first.
But good for their fearlessness. It may serve them in the Sun Belt conference.
But in this one, State rushed to a 6-0 lead. Little Rock called a time out, breaking the momentum with a catch and shoot basket.
The next few minutes were 8-5 Little Rock. At the first break, it was 25-12 followed by a 5-0 start of the second and a 37-23 half.
Jackson had scored 14. But she didn’t shoot any in the third.
The Bulldogs kept a double-digit lead with steady if unspectacular play.
The third quarter ended 62-41,
Playing only eight players, they had a trio with three fouls as they scrambled to keep up.
Jordan Danberry led State, 5-of-6 from the field and the line for 15 points with four assists and three steals.
"I'm really proud of Aliyah (Matharu), coming off the bench, shooting the ball extremely well, and not having any turnovers," coach Vic Schaefer said. "She'll tell you that's a thing that's important to me."
"I'm really, really proud of our kids today, against a team a have a lot of respect for, in Joe Foley, and Little Rock," Schaefer said. "I thought we played, at times, pretty well. We had 60 points in the paint, which is what we had last year against them. That was our challenge and our goal today."
No. 20 ARKANSAS (12-1)
If you do not play well against Tennessee, maybe you work your way up by playing the satellite campus that produced Pat Head the player.
UT-Martin continued its 0-fer road record by losing a sixth. Among the previous was 82-46 at Mississippi State. The best Skyhawk is 6-2 junior Chelsey Perry, an impressive 18.9 average.
The Razorbacks broke out an 21-11 quarter.
Dungee had eight points, including a 3 and 3-of-4 free throws. A 27-13 second cemented the win by halftime. They had nine 3s. Three players were in double figures.
By the end of the third, Alexis Tolefree had five 3s in her 17 points. The team averages 10 3s per game, a league best. The lead grew to 40. The Razorbacks had 13 in this one.
The lead cleared 50 in the final quarter. It was 96-46 at the clos
Arkansas is 9-0 at home, on a seve-game win streak.
From now on, half the games are at home against generally higher quality foes. Certainly against teams that have more reasons to win.
The win streak is the best since 2016.
Alexis Tolefree had a career-best 23 points. The senior guard hit 6-of-12 3s. Chelsea Dungee scored 16, Amber Ramirez 14 and reserve A’Tyanna Gaulden had a fourth game off the bench in double figures, 12.
Defensively, they had 18 steals, the most since since 2013.
The Razorbacks led by 10 after the first quarter, then went on a 12-0 run early in the second.
Tolefree has now scored 20 or more points in four of her last five outings. Taylah Thomas led rebounding, nine.
Kiara Williams played her best game of the season, going for a season-high eight points to go along with two blocks.
Freshman center Destinee Oberg made her Razorback debut, playing just over four minutes, recording her first-career block.
“It was a really good way for us to close out the non-conference season,” coach Mike Neighbors said. "Would not have believed we would close this part if the season the way we have.
”The kids just find a way.
"We thought we could run them over. That was what we did. I would never have a game plan that would cause 21 turnovers.
“But it builds on itself. We have to find out how we did that and replicate it. We turned it over less and when we do that, we score more.
"Tolefree) has the confidence of her teammates. When her teammates have confidence in her, that's better for everyone."
As the SEC starts, he said, "In the old days -- that's five years ago--- we could lie to the players and tell them how to prepare.
“Now, they see the games on social media, they see the stats and they all have their own idea of what they need to do.
"We're better than we were at this place last year. Our defense is way better. But now you have to look at the 16-game schedule. We’ll see where we area after four.'
No. 23 TENNESSEE (10-2)
No league team is watched more than the Lady Vols.
Of course, every new coach is scrutinized.
Unlike other newbies, however, Kelly Harper is a Tennessee legacy, winning two NCAA titles as a player.
She inherited a fully stocked roster including three newcomers who each individually announced they had committed to the program well before the couching opening occurred and they were just fine with Harper and she with them.
This is still a previous coaches’ team, none of them recruited by Harper, but expected to be coached by her, the old as well as the new.
She has different challenges and higher expectations than any new coach ever hired anywhere. She is doing just fine.
Harper has them back in the national discussion, perhaps aiming for a home NCAA sequence is the most-attainable goal.
They are the tallest team in the league -- all starters at least 6-0 -- which is reflected in their rebound dominance. They average 51.6, with a 16 average edge.
To get to 10 wins, they needed an 8-4 Howard on the schedule about now.
They came in 5-1 on the road with an overall four-game winning streak.
The six seniors are led in scoring by guard Sarah Edmond, 5-9, 15.1. The rebounding thing: They are outrebounded by two per game. Yikes.
A 22-6 first meant UT was ready to play. By the half, the Vols led 42-14.
Harper had used five reserves at the start of the second quarter.
Every starter had scored. Rebounds were 34-14.
With 90 seconds left in the half, the defense had imposed six and eight-point back-to-back quarters.
Two reserves had hit double figures. With limited time, no starter had. Rennia Dais and Tamari Key were in that rhythm.
The lead grew to 30 in the third. Rae Burrell had 18 with 10 rebounds off the bench. No one else doubled.
Rookie reserve Jessie Rennie had three 3s and 16 points in her best game.
At the 88-38 end, Davis also 16, 5-of-6 free throws.
UT had seven 3s. They won rebounds, 58-42.
"I thought in the first half we had some really, really good offensive possessions," Harper said. "I mean, our spacing was good, our ball movement was good, the timing on drives, the timing on post passes — I thought we had some really good possessions that we can build on in that first half.
"Not so much in the third quarter, but again, maybe a little bit in the fourth quarter, you know, we were able to get some good offensive executed plays."
"I've just been really mindful of crashing the boards every time, trying to go get a rebound," Burrell said. "So I'll probably take that into SEC play as well."
Tennessee is 7-1 at home. They are not likely to lose in league play all In January.
posted by Mel Greenberg | 5:02 AM
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