Mike Siroky’s SEC Report: The League Will Have a Stumbling Start

By Mike Siroky

 

We still don’t know what we don’t know.

 

That was where we were when the Covid stopped basketball – all teams eliminated on the same day – March 12.

 

We still don’t know now as a unique Southeastern conference season begins.

 

The SEC was the only league in America that caused no Covid cancellations in the preseason. 

 

Ole Miss is not only the worst team in the league, they have the worst Covid avoidance as they caused a league cancellation to open this week.  But three other games were postponed, two involving Vanderbilt.

 

Other than that all teams’ contact during a very short Christmas break seemed to avoid more postponements.

 

 This is the first time since the start of the season the players had been away from the protections of the campus

 

A month ago, we recommended Eliminating December, take a holiday break and start again with conference seasons.

 

 The same teams we suspected of being the top five in conference are just that.

 

Many of the lower-tier teams played less-than competition and so got wins in what were basically games they should have won, some of which might have been some of those secret scrimmage affairs that occur before the published schedules get under way.

 

 Except for LSU’s 0-3 start, there were no surprises.

 

Some teams were really working to just get games. 

 

Tennessee arranged two replacement games and still had only five, or half as many as Arkansas which used its playing of games to get a lot more experience to define their team.

 

As far as December off, a few coaches, like Coach K, mentioned he did not see the point of preseason ACC this time around.

 

Aside from him, not one commissioner,  a few athletic directors, a few coaches had the guts to speak up. 

 

Duke ended its season at 3-1, having not played since Dec. 16.

 

 The Ivy League decided to skip the season, but that is the only conference to do so.

 

They all sent the 18-22-year-olds to whom they pledged to protect, into the storm.

 

In  an era in which gatherings of eight are the permitted maximum, they are loaded groups of twice that into airplanes for games of no significance.

 

It is irresponsibility and ego at the highest level of near criminality.

 

 The leaders will be remembered for this shameless action in years to come.

 

 If a player gets seriously ill and loses lung capacity, for instance, there will be lawsuits paid for by the taxpayers of the public schools.

 

The players have no say in their own safety. In the ’70s, coaches used to use a recruiting code: “Give me your daughters and I  will protect them in these crucial years. You won’t recognize them when they are done with us.”

 

They don’t say that anymore. They don’t hint that their daughter might get deathly sick while under their careless control.

 

 They might lose a year of their young lives to play in games that don’t matter, won’t help the university (actually the deficits grew as travel money was spent) on simply glorified scrimmages.

 

 No women’s team financially supports itself. The conferences and universities are in a head-in-the-sand ego trips and not many are calling them on it.

 

Yes, college football played on. This is not a gender thing. There are billions of dollars for conferences and universities on the line if they forfeit, as 17 games in a weekend were. 

 

The NFL lost 43 players in a  weekend, but again TV dollars made it tough to cancel.

 

Why can’t women’s college basketball see these examples? Ego.

 

No women’s team covers its own costs even in good years.

 

 So the athletic directors compound the lunacy of losing money every year by losing more money this year,

 

The season is sorta under way, even if more than 100  games were skipped. 

 

Stanford could not play at home this month due to local California rules, so the lesser teams are out of business. UConn could not start until this month and no one thinks they are any less than they were.

 

South Carolina men had to do a Covid cancellation. The football team opted out of the bowl season due to Covid.

 

We still don’t know what we don’t know. But we do know what has happened already.

 

Major talent graduated and left campus since the final buzzer sounded earlier this year.

 

 Those careers just faded into lists in record books.

 

 It was sadder still for the non-stars who also lost the end games, their last shots taken, their last jerseys worn, the end of their competitive lives as teammates.

 

More players moved into the league under the new recruiting tool of immediate eligibility, resembling the AIAW rules decades ago.

 

 Savvy coaches are cashing in, filling gaps . The NCAA  also granted another year of eligibility.

 

In the SEC, another once-in-a-lifetime occurrence is the loss of two senior coaches. Never in league history have two top-line leaders left in one season, as happened at Kentucky and Mississippi State. 

 

Their losses devalues the SEC. 

 

The league might align in a similarity to recent seasons past – with those teams in the NCAA  qualifiers -- because, after all, they left enough talent. But the magic of their sheer will to win is gone.

 

In the fullness of time, the teams will recede after a couple of seasons.

 

  No coach has ever succeeded a legendary coach with much success, especially when one is a  rookie head coach.

 

The immediate replacements both have playing ties to Pat Head, now four in conference.

 

 Moreover, they are each women of color, giving the league seven and the rest of all Power 5 teams five.

 

 There is something of which the SEC can be proud.

 

The league’s lesser programs have good records now.

 That  changes when they butt up against the good teams. The top five are still the top five, with the better institutional support.

 

Here’s a look at the 2020-2021 conference teams:

 

lSouth Carolina: Dawn Staley finds herself the No. 2 in service as a conference coach, one of two with National Championships.

 

 She will sooner than later be the leading coach in terms of time served. Here era will match that of Pat Head. 

 

SC had a top-level team in the distant past, but she has really built the modern brand.

 

 Like all the other coaches, SC has benefited from an NCAA ruling waiving the transfer sit out year this season and offering all players an additional year of eligibility

 

Who knows what players will accept the extra year. Some really good players graduated during the shutdown and moved on.

 

She lost an All-American and the league’s preeminent point guard to the crisis.

 

 No league team lost more than the Gamecocks, who were on track to be a Final Four favorite. 

 

But she has filled in admirably with players not even expected when the games ceased. 

 

It hardly seems she can miss another Final Four, though the tournament moving to one regional location – San Antonio – will make another difference.

 

Sure, her freshmen had already played a lot, three of them starters, but they are now without senior leadership. Enya Russell is the only rookie recruit. Staley already has the No. 1 recruiting class for 2021.

 

They were ranked No. 1 in the early Associated Press polls and  cruised in three early games with a cancellation.

 

 They then lost at home for the first time in a year and have settled in at No. 5 just because AP voters suspended reality and will not recognize one loss is meaningless.

 

They are still the national favorite if the season advances to the eliminations.

 

 They should go unbeaten in the league.

 

They had won the national attendance title for several seasons, but limited allowed capacity will make it a moot point as all the top teams will make the new “sellout” mark.

 

Staley is still the national coach, the Olympic coach.

 

 Her Olympic team has already been selected. If they cannot come to terms this coming summer in Japan, she will advance to the 2024 Games and the players will forever be listed as Olympians without ever playing. 

 

The 1980 team, erased by Jimmy Carter’s self-serving boycott, had that happen.

 

Sophomore Aliyah Boston was left off last season’s preconference team yet proved to be what all the coaches knew, she was an absolute All-American. 

 

She is on every watch list for player of the season among forward line contributors.

 

 She is likely the conference player of the year and a true All-American.

 

She said there may be awards to come but she never has those as goals.

 

“I just want to be the best player I can be, to contribute to the team,” she said. “We’re just excited to be back at it this year and to finish what we started.”

 

By the way, she starts the season with blue hair. She had figured it looks better on TV.

 

“It’s a different feel,” said Staley of establishing a new team identity with two superlatives graduated. “They had a presence on the floor for us and you have a certain discomfort knowing they are leaving.

 

“But there’s a lot of talent, no doubt about it, on our team. Our players will have to grow into it.

 

“Hopefully we don’t lose. As much value there is in experience, I don’t want them to feel that. They are so dedicated, so coachable. They want it so very badly.

 

“We needed to break the monotony of playing against our practice guys. My anticipation level is really high, not so much for me but for our players.” 

 

There is danger all around campus. The men’s team had to forfeit a game due to a Covid outbreak. The football team had to cancel its bowl appearance for the same reason.

 

Because they are so dominant, the first several league games should be walkovers.

 

lTexas A&M: Gary Blair is the undisputed best man in the league and has been there the longest as he starts his 18th Aggie season, after 10 years at Arkansas, with a national title to his credit.  

 

They are No. 9 right now, having already matched victories over ranked teams – two  -- from last season. At 9-0 for the first time in program history  they are the best of the top SEC teams.

 

He will pull the trigger on retirement whenever he wants to, though he never mentions it. 

 

All-American Chennedy Carter left for the WNBA with a season of eligibility left. She made the pro all-rookie team after being drafted No. 4.

 

She was an impact player, maybe the best overall in the league.

 

Her leaving stopped a Blair experiment of starting the same five players for three straight seasons. It has never happened before in Division 1 basketball, men or women.

 

Blair says his basic coaching ethic will make the transfer of power without Carter easy.

 

He said he had run the same plays off Carter as he had run for decades for the scorers on many of his teams. 

 

The same plays.

 

The difference with the stardom of Carter: “No one at Texas A&M or anywhere else has been able to create her own shots like Chennedy.  

 

But it’s the same offense; I haven’t changed a thing.”

 

He said a strength is “the depth that I have and it is proven depth,” with seven newcomers, some of whom have played at major universities.

 

“Our safety regulations were pretty doggone tough. We could have no contact. But everything is fluid and the schedule could even change.”

 

Among the returnees, smooth rebounders N’dea Jones and Ciera Johnson are among the league’s best. They are on every forward line watch list. 

 

Kayla Wells rises to the same standard among scoring guards, though not so much this season. Jones has already been the league Player of the Week.

 

They also started the season ranked, are no No. 9, and have run off to 9-0, including at No. 19 DePaul, a rare Top 20 win outside of conference.

 

Blair signed a bevy of immediately eligible transfers to completely remake his team, destroying whatever advance scouting reports other teams many have had in the Covid fog.

 

Junior College All-American center Ella Tofaeono , a native of Australia, came first, at 6-5 she has two years of eligibility. She averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds.

 

Destiny Pitts transferred in from three years at Minnesota, where she had been the freshman of the year and all-Big Ten player. 

 

A 5-10 guard, she averaged 16 points per game. Blair said she is among the best 3 shooters nationwide. She is already on national award watch lists.

 

Alexis Morris came in after a redshirt season at Rutgers, also immediately eligible. 

 

Before that, she was a Big 12 all-freshman player at Baylor.

 

 Current Aggies Aliyah Wilson and Johnson were her high school teammates in Texas when they won the state title. 

 

She basically wanted to come, Blair said. He had first gone to see her play when she was in the seventh grade.

 

From that same high school comes transfer Zarielle "Zaay" Green after two seasons with the Tennessee Lady Volunteers. She was MVP of two high school state title tournaments. Her college sophomore season ended after two games when she wrecked her knee.

 The 6-foot guard was a 2019 SEC All-Freshman Team member.

 

 Green averaged 10.3 points per game and 4.8 rebounds per game in SEC play, starting 24 games as a freshman. 

 

She earned SEC Freshman of the Week twice, and scored double digits on 14 different occasions.

 

She basically has chosen her third college coach. 

 

Among SEC freshmen in 2019, Green ranked second in scoring and rebounding, third in assists and steals and sixth in blocks.

 

 She is still a sophomore under the new NCAA rules and is now active.

 

Freshman Kay Kay Green created her own introductory video. The sixth and seventh additions to the team are forward line payers Maliyah Johnson and Kenyal Perry.

 

At 6-6, Perry is the tallest Aggie.

 

lArkansas: lost its best player, Alexis Tolefree. But it has the effervescent Chelsea Dungee back. 

 

Coach Mike Neighbors has made national impact by encouraging every play a catch-and-shoot, raining 3s, a shot within 10 seconds of receiving a pass.  

 

Other coaches may brag on increasing tempo. He has already installed it in the No. 10 team in the nation.

 

They are 9-1,  the most games in America. The impact win was beating defending national champ Baylor. Their wins are tied in the conference with Texas A&M.

 

With the two top coaches vacating, they now can move permanently into the first four in the league at No. 2, maintaining the steady upward chart from the mess of a program he inherited from a high school coach. 

 

No one now sees Little Rock as a place to catch your breath. 

 

“I am one of those people who are going to bash 2020 to death, get this thing over with,” Neighbors  said.

 

He said all three freshmen will make an immediate impact, “Because they give us quality depth. They will all three have a role in a time in a game with impact. Our sophomores have made that quality freshman jump, as teammates and as players.”

 

What he is looking for is a “ninth starter.”

 

“We know we have six starters. I have two more. We need to identify who us next. We have plenty of depth.”

 

In the past, after his first six, it was a bag or marbles. It is not that anymore. He has a full second team and so the catch-it-and-shoot-it offense is in full flight.

 

Amber Ramirez fits easily into a running and gunning mate to Dungee.

 

The newbies are guards Elauna Eaton and Rylee Langerman and forward Destinee McGee. 

 

Arkansas has the best scoring offense in the league, 92.1, but the 13^th best scoring defense, 68.

 

The 264 3-point attempts per game leads the conference by plenty.. Dungee leads scoring with 19 per game .

 

Destiny Slocum, in for a year from Oregon State, is next at 16.

 

 She is on every guard watch list. She started her career at Maryland.

 

lMississippi State: By far, the biggest SEC loss was Vince Schaefer abandoning ship to move to Texas.

 

 Among the saddest parts is the fact he never met with his discarded team to explain. 

 

It shatters any myth of “family” when the leader and among the three best league coaches bolt without a farewell and takes the entire coaching staff with him. 

 

It makes commitment a one-way street, players to the program and the coach just another guy.

 

 Sadly, it is nothing new.

 

It lessens the SEC image as well.

 

We will never know when this move began, though Texas said it was all within one week before the jump.

 

 Schaefer had crafted State as a team to be feared, a recent Final Four participant in back-back.  

 

Like Auburn in the ‘80s, with three straight Final Four appearances, he did not win either.

 

They were a year removed from dominating the league with a program first season and conference tournament title. They had produced a national player of the year.

 

Schaefer had reloaded well. 

 

By the final game of the season, he was starting three dominant freshmen. He leaves a full team. His statement was one of gratitude with little remorse.

 

Part of the surprise is Texas had a coach. She was dismissed and, two days later, he was in. Was that a planned scenario, did Texas not fire one coach before they had a great replacement lined up?

 

Ever since college women’s basketball began, Texas had been a destination of favor for many in the women’s game. 

 

Part of the lure is a financial foundation of mostly oil legacies which means it is the one place where a coach does not have to fund raise.

 

 It had a fine tradition started by Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt. It once had a national player of  the year in Hall of fame point guard Kamie Ethridge, now the head coach at Washington State.

 

They won the 1986 title. They twice finished ranked No. 1 in the country. Conradt was the second woman’s coach to win 900 games by the time she retired.

 

They hired away the Duke coach and that did not work out. The current dismissal was the next hire.

 

 Texas said Schaefer was always on the dream list, with Conradt’s approval.

 

They asked if he was interested and he said sure. The athletic director went all in and sent the university plane.

 

Much to his astonishment, Schaefer brought his whole family for the visit. 

 

The AD said that was the first sign of the dream coming true. He was anxious to make the deal that very day.

 

So was Schaefer. And so the shock waves began.

 

All the State assistants came along. They already have Texas in the Top 20.

 

They had a commitment from a top 100 point guard. Schaefer had signed two Top 100s at State.

 

Interestingly, Schaefer is back in his home state (born in Houston) and more interestingly still, he is back in the state with his mentor, Texas A&M’s Gary Blair, competing for attention and players.

 

He will earn twice as much as his predecessor. 

 

The really Big Orange also covered his buyout fee of more than a million. We will miss his passion and candor, his wonderful post-game observations.

 

The replacement is from Old Dominion, yet another former Tennessee player under Pat Head,

 

She is unlikely to maintain the excellence beyond this season and the inherited players. Old  Dominion is not Mississippi State. They are 5-1 and ranked No. 12.

 

 Nikki McCray-Penson claims she has already improved the practices, pushing more uptempo an intensity than ever before.

 

 That is a slap at the previous coaching administration.

 

“Ýou have the experience, but we don’t have recent post-season play. We will rely heavily on our vets. I coach to win. I want to play on the last day of the season. We have to stay disciplined,” she said.

 

“They are embracing it. We will shoot a lot of 3s.”

 

McCray-Penson is no Schaefer. They rest at No. 12, 5-1.

 

Her three best are juniors Myah Taylor and Jessika Carter and sophomore Rickea Jackson. All are on national watch lists.

 

Carter has taken over the team in recent weeks. Jackson is not the leading scorer, as was expected. She was the centerpiece under Schaefer. She is not that now.

 

Schaefer had signed a second McDonald’s All-American, Madison Hayes and an import from Germany, 6-5 Charlotte Kuhl.

 

Vasnderbilt’s Sunday visit has been postponed due to Covid concerns.

 

lKentucky: Kyra Elzy, yet another Pat Head All-American and assistant coach, will try and guide the team. 

 

She is not ready take on a such a mammoth program as her first top job and so was initially designated as the interim coach. 

 

Yet you do not turn down such a magnificent opportunity. She has a 7-1 record and has fallen to the No. 13 team in America, but the starting ranking was based on the former coach, as was the preseason choice as the SEC third-place team. That vote was taken before the coaching change. 

 

 What is missing is, of course, veteran coach Matthew Mitchell. His departure is a stunning blow to the league.

 

While on vacation, he fell and hurt his head. He had brain surgery. 

 

He tried to stay with the program as late as the preseason league gathering and media interviews but finally had to retire. Pffft, gone after 13 seasons.

 

Mitchell said: “After much conversation with my family, I have decided to retire from coaching and effectively have resigned as head coach at Kentucky. This was a difficult decision and I know the timing is not ideal, but I do not feel I can give the job what it requires at this time.

 

“As has been much publicized, I have had an eventful offseason with my injury and subsequent surgery. I have been open about the fact the surgery and recovery process has been life-altering for me and my family.

 

“Through that, my priorities towards my family and my faith has grown even larger than before and that has led me to make this decision. Although so much about today is sad because I will greatly miss the relationships and people that have constantly lifted up my family and me the last 13 years, I am resolute in my decision and comfortable with beginning the next chapter of my life.

 

”To the current players, thank you for all the support and love you have shown me, not only this year, but in years past. Each one of you has truly left a lasting impact on me and I will cherish our time together. 

 

“To my former players, assistant coaches and support staff – each one of you has made me a better person and I will always extend a listening ear and encouraging word whenever you need it. I would be remiss if I did not thank the Kentucky administration for their commitment and support to women’s basketball at Kentucky and giving me a chance many years ago to be a part of this great university. 

 

To Big Blue Nation, 13 years ago you welcomed me and my family . We are so blessed to have this place in our lives.”

 

It is another dramatic loss to the standards of the SEC.

This had been a proud coaches’ league. With two of the top four gone, it is no longer.

 

Elzy said: “Coach Mitchell means so much to me and I owe him an enormous amount of gratitude for his guidance throughout my coaching career. 

 

This is not  easy for any of us as we come to grips with his decision to retire. 

 

My immediate focus is on our players and making sure that they are dealing with this change that has happened so abruptly. As you can understand, this has  been difficult for them to process.

 

 “We met with the players and their families and ensured them that this program will stand on the same principles moving forward. I want to thank our administration for trusting me as the interim head coach.

 

 Coach Mitchell has set this program on a path for distinguished success, and as interim head coach, I promise that our staff will work tirelessly to make sure the program continues to build upon the success that Coach Mitchell has had at Kentucky.”

 

She inherits the returning league player of the year in All-American Rhyne Howard. 

 

  But under the Elzy system, not all plays are designed for her. She no longer leads the team in scoring. She had a two-game suspension for violating new team rules. 

 

It may be not possible to repeat as league player of the year, much less All-American if someone on your team supersedes you,

 

 She is on every watch list. There are plenty of other returning players, Mitchell had planned for a serious national run with veterans this season. 

 

The junior class is loaded.

 

The newbies are guards Treasure Hunt and Erin Toller and 6-3 forward Nyah Leveretter. They had already signed a sterling 2021 class. 

 

lTennessee lost only a supportive senior and came out with a mixed first -year grade on Kellie Harper.

 

The founders of the SEC have settled in, satisfied as the No. 5 team in the league and out of the national rankings. 

 

Last year, they won at Notre Dame, ranked before they collapsed so much their coach retired, and themselves never beat a ranked team after that. 

 

They started unranked this season for only the second time in women’s basketball history and have another upset in the Hoosier state, at Indiana.

 

. Tennesse snuck in a rescheduled game with Lipscomb over the break to move to 6-1 having lost other games to Covid cancellations and scrambling to replace those games on the fly.

 

 At least it limited The Lady Vols’ time away from the health bubble at home.

 

The expectations over arch reality. They await the real challenge in league play as unknowns and could easily start a multi-game  losing streak.

 

 This already is a season of serious judgment at one of the most hallowed women’s programs. 

 

UT is not used to residing at No. 5 in the league, not used to looking up at ranked conference teams that are in reality better than themselves and certainly not ready to accept a second-level plateau. 

 

Harper still digs in with a team she did not recruit having run off two inherited players, one to A&M and one to Kentucky.

 

 Freshman guard Marta Suarez will be one if those new impact players that can turn a program around. She can drive, rebound, pass and defend. From Spain, she is relatively unknown to American fans. The other rookies are Tess Darby and Destiny Salary.

 

Junior Rae Burrell keeps getting better and better and leads the team in scoring. Keyen Green is a transfer from Liberty University, having started 90 of 93 games there. 

 

Jordan Walker is a transfer from Western Michigan University.  Harper is marking her territory. 

 

The undisputed lynchpin is playmaker Rennia Davis, the last star of what was once the nation’s best recruiting class. She needs a wakeup call. She is willing and able to pull UT into a Sweet 16 position. 

 

She is on many national watch lists for post-season awards.  She had 30 straight games in double figures but is no longer the player who each play flows through and is no longer a real All-American candidate. 

 

She did come up with 19 in the upset at a Top 20 team, Indiana.

 

 “Rennia has improved every year,” Harper said. :We want to build on that. We just want her to be Rennia.

 

 “We’re excited to play basketball and this upcoming season.. I love the way this team is shaping up.

 

“We want to keep our players safe. Our players are so much better at communications than they were a year ago. The energy is up on defense. I like the thought process we are making on defense.”

 

After the Top 5 in the SEC, the rest are just a pick-‘ems, reaching into a bag of magic beans. 

 

Some of them could be ranked, at least for a while. But there is no real order of finish, except for the bottom feeders who will stay there.

 

lFlorida: Coach Cameron Newbauer  has surfed the wave of some startling successes in his three seasons, bettering the previous season’s record by eight in 2020, finishing 15-15. 

 

He is the league coach to watch as he has almost assembled a team of all his own players. Last season, they won at Missouri and at ranked Arkansas. 

 

They’ve missed canceled games but are 4-1 chasing past glories in a respected program with great institutional support.

 

 They can easily be the No. 6 team in conference and get into the elimination games with SEC upsets. 

 

The Florida at Vanderbilt game has been postponed due to Covid concerns.

 

No worries. The Gators will instead move up a late February game to open at South Carolina as the Gamecocks lost the Ole Miss game.

 

Emily Sullivan comes in as a grad transfer after four seasons at North Carolina. Cydnee Kinslow is the other grad transfer, from Long Beach State. She hit a team-best 39 3s. Guard Yasmeen Chang is eligible after transferring from Miami with three years available.

 

Among the familiar returnees are guards Lavender Briggs and Kiara Smith. The rookies are Brynn Farrell and Floor Toonders, at 6-4 another big, from the Netherlands.

 

“I had an awesome moment when, in practice, Yasmine was guarding Lavender and afterwards, she went up to Yasmine and gave her five and said ‘That’s some (good) defense. Thank you for getting after me,’ ” Newbauer said. 

 

“It’s taken us some time it get here, the right players,  challenging people are in the right way. Just go and be your best self.”

 

lLSU: The Ben-gals long ago plateaued as a middling team. After starting 0-3, now 2-4, they are worse. 

 

Nikki Fargas, yet another Pat Head legacy, suddenly finds herself third in terms in seasons (10) at an SEC school.

 

So should they be better? Yes. But they never are.

 

 She brings in Australian Sharna Ayres, Amirah O’Neal, Ajae Petty, Treasure Thompson and Destinee Lombard with no real upperclass star to build around. 

 

Senior  Kahyla Pointer is at 1,006  points as she starts her senior SEC season.

 

“We’re going to have a higher pace, shoot a lot,” said Fargas “But we might not be able to guard anybody.

 

“Our nucleus is ready. Last season is a way for them to realize the world in which we live.

 

“We did not even share basketballs and assigned baskets (in opening practices). That allowed us to give them a place, a place to get up shots. There was a hunger there.  We are shooting more 3s. Everyone can take a 3, but can you make a 3. Everyone is hungry for shooting.

 

“On defense it is about heart, about hustle, about where is your teammate.  Our defense may be questionable because of schemes, but not about heart.”

 

lVanderbilt: They have a good coach in Stephanie White, but the clock is running. 

 

They start the SEC season with three postponements caused by Commodore covid concerns.

 

Last season she had five starters all miss time with injuries. 

This mess of an administration with football and men’s basketball in disrepair, has bought her time and yet an opportunity to rule Commodore campus if only they could get some traction, like enough wins for an NCAA invite, revisiting the success of the ’70s. She is in her fifth season, and a respectable 4-1 after their first three games were canceled and now the next three. The young team just needs game experience.

 

“Our freshmen gave us solid minutes,” White said of them playing for the injured. That means depth.

 

At 6-6, freshman Emily Bowden “is a game changer,” said White.

“You can’t coach someone to be 6-6 but she is learning. W never had anyone that long.” The other rookie is guard Bella LaChance.

 

Adding depth to the team is former Missouri player and all-SEC as a freshman Akira Levy. Enna Pehadzic is a 5-9 guard, a grad transfer, from South Florida, born in Denmark.

 

“ She is coaching in the game, explaining things to other players, she talks situations,” said White, which makes it a valuable asset with all the younger players.

 

“The biggest thing of the injured players is getting back in shape, getting to move cleanly and fluidly,” White said

 

. “So now they’re feeling comfortable in playing again. Now we have depth. They want to get the program to that other level.”

 

lGeorgia: Coach Joni Taylor had two good seasons in her career since 2015, inheriting players from the legendary Andy Landers. 

 

The program has more institutional support than she has earned.

 

 She has finally reached 100 wins against 58 losses. She signed three in the early period. Another floater, a plateaued team despite a 8-0 start, the best in seven seasons.

 

Her best player is senior center Jenna Staiti.

 

“We have been able to hammer home the idea of life without basketball,” she said of the crisis.

 

“Jenn Staiti was coming off nine games of doubles. To have four starters return speaks to the culture of what we have here.” 

 

Staiti is one of two Bulldogs in double figures, at 15 per game. She averages eight rebounds.

 

Like most teams this year, Taylor has a deep bench with immediately eligible players. 

 

The most-recent is 6-4 sophomore Maori Davenport from Rutgers who is so new her bio has yet to be updated on the school website.

 

They meet immediate challenges in the first two weeks of the league season, opening with  Mississippi State at home, then onto South Carolina the next week.

 

lAlabama:  Kristy Curry has been the Tide coach since 2013.  

 

She has seven wins this season. She more than 400 career wins at various schools, 125 at ‘Bama.

 

 Her best returning players are seniors Jasmine Walker and junior Meghan Abrams.

Newcomers include Keyara Jones from Jones County Community College after first year try at Arkansas/Little Rock ended with a fractured left  tibia; 6-5 center and graduate student Ruth Koang from South Plains college; 6-3 forward Alana Busby-Dunphy from Dodge City Community College; and one freshman, Myra Gordon.

 

So it is a bet on experience with little regard for the future.

 

 Curry was begging for an NCAA  invite after closing with five wins in an 18-win season, the final flurry including Mississippi  State and Arkansas, 

 

She was banking on the league tradition of receiving one last gift entrant for the NCAAs, but battled not winning 20.

 

They won’t qualify this season either.  

 

They cannot find 13 SEC wins.

 

When the games ended in March, Curry was whistling past the graveyard as the coach most likely on the bubble, saying “she couldn’t be prouder of the program.

 

 Accepting mediocrity usually does not pay if the administration cares. Stuffed into the phone booth of time, the Tide has no room to move up and not the talent to do more than the rare upsets.

 

 She will be gone for a cheaper, shinier  replacement in this era where everyone is losing money due to Covid.

 

“A lot of our players have spent a lot of time here.”

 

 She said the true veterans have the best group of teammates around them.

 

 But if they start out as less-than players compared to other league players, there seems not much room to rise on up.

 

Another 18-win season may be as close as they ever get. 

 

lOle Miss. Yolette McPhee-McCuin is the coach, but you could not prove it by listening to SEC broadcasters who gave her a season of being the clown leading the parade by only referring to her by nickname and actually praised her for an 0-for SEC season.  

 

Ole Miss once had remarkable players and a national, Olympic and WNBA winning coach.

 

 This is definitely not that.

 

Her third season brings in a top national recruit, Madison Scott, a true McDonald’s All-American. 

 

Other freshmen are  Jacorriah Bracey, 6-3 Aleah Sorerntino, 6-4 Romanian  Sarah Dumitrescu,  and Snudda Collins.

 

 They also add transfers Donnetta Johnson from Georgia and Andelja Puckett from Cincinnati. There is no scouting report that can cover all that in a coach’s second season.

 

They had games canceled and are a thin 6-0. 

 

McPhee-McCuin’s anticipation made her “feel like the kid in the candy store”  with all her new friends.

 

“I wanted to build the excitement I felt as a player. I like my group. We’re looking great, an immediate impact when (Madison Scott) is on the floor.

 

“We were able to get the new players because they wanted to bring their winning experiences to improve this new phase of the program. I am able to be more demanding because we can hold them to expectations. I am sleeping better, I can tell you that.

 

“We are way more athletic, we have depth and fans will be able to see the kind of basketball we want to play. We can compete night in and night out.”

 

lAuburn. Coach Terri Williams-Flournoy is likeable. She has been likeable into her ninth season, but a 5-3 non-conference season does not project SEC success. She is down there with Ole Miss and LSU. 

 

Can she accept just being a survivor.

 

 She may be an example of why dump a coach and pay her off in a universe of the schools already losing money.

 

 That sets her apart from the other state school in terms of survivability. 

 

But a 12-win season, some backsliding from recent seasons past and an already-tagged “rebuilding” season does not exude confidence. 

 

Auburn once had All-Americans, a national coach in Joe Ciampi and a run of three straight National Championship games under him.

 

Going 22-10 showed something in 2019, but it also showed the inconsistency of 13 wins the season before and 11 wins last season. 

 

The fact the coach didn’t have to sell her house probably signals double-secret probation and the likeability thing.

 

Her freshmen are Aichia Coulibaly , Carson McFadden and Israeli Roma Levy. 

 

Other newcomers are Baylor transfer Honesty Scott-Grayson with three years of eligibility left; sophomore transfer Alaina Rice from Florida A&M; 6-2 sophomore Jala Jordan who sat out a season after starting at West Virginia.

 

They will have to better support senior All-SEC Unique Thompson, an honorable mention All-American who would be a legitimate national star if only  she had better teammates.

 

“It’s a totally new roster,” observes Williams-Flournoy of the start, erasing memories of what we couldn’t do, We could not the defensive stop. We had no outside shooter, which allowed them to sag on Unique,

 

“We have a lot of options.”

 

lMissouri has kept its string of non-participation in our reports. They are in the bottom tier anyway