SEC hoops coaches pick Tennessee to lead Eastern Division
Based on returning players to a winning program, Southeastern Conference basketball coaches tabbed Tennessee as a favorite to win the league’s Eastern Division. And UT Coach Bruce Pearl accepted that label.
“Certainly, we’re going to be picked by a number of people to be competitive,” Pearl said on a SEC coaches teleconference on Monday. “Our team is going to play for it. We’d like to think we can do that every year.”
But Pearl advised listeners to consider Kentucky a contender even though the Cats lost their leading scorer and rebounder (and their only proven low-post player), Randolph Morris.
“Kentucky may have lost Randolph Morris,” Pearl said before a moment later describing a de facto “trade” made by UK this off-season that included highly regarded freshmen Patrick Patterson and Alex Legion. “Morris for Patterson, Legion and an eighth-grader to be named later. I’d say that would be a good trade.”
New UK Coach Billy Gillispie was not asked whether his team should be considered a contender, but he downplayed any concern fans might have about Patterson’s handling the expectations that go with a highly publicized recruitment and McDonald’s All-American status.
“He’s a very mature player,” Gillispie said. “Maybe more so than freshmen I’ve been around.”
After noting Patterson’s attention to classwork and basketball this summer, the UK coach said the freshman might be able to shoulder an unusually heavy load.
Gillispie again hinted that Kentucky might need to maximize a guard-dominated roster in order to contend.
“I’d think this will probably be one of the smaller teams we’ll have,” he said. “I’m excited about how thick they are, very, very athletic. They’re strong (and) well versed in what how we want to play.
“I don’t know if it’ll be a conventional type of lineup where we have two strong posts. Or it could be a four-guard lineup.”
Gillispie noted that 7-footer Jared Carter was “recovering nicely” after requiring a second operation to mend a separated shoulder.
Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings and South Carolina’s Dave Odom cited Tennessee as the logical favorite in the Eastern Division. The Vols return four starters, including SEC Player of the Year Chris Lofton.
Odom said Tennessee could be “certainly top 10 nationally, maybe top five nationally.”
Stallings also suggested that Florida might be more competitive than expected despite the loss of the first six players in a rotation that propelled the Gators to back-to-back national championships. He noted the expected downturn when Florida lost David Lee, Anthony Roberson and Matt Walsh.
True enough, Florida Coach Billy Donovan said. But Donovan pointed out key differences, such as Corey Brewer and Al Horford starting as freshmen and three other players — Taurean Green, Lee Humphrey and Chris Richard — getting significant minutes behind Lee-Roberson-Walsh.
“Depth, without question, is an issue,” Donovan said of next season, when the Gators might have no more than nine scholarship players.
Ronald Steele recovering
Hobbled by injuries to both knees, Alabama point guard Ronald Steele was a pale imitation of himself last season. Alabama Coach Mark Gottfried said surgery on both knees on the same day in early April made him guardedly optimistic that Ronald Steele can return to form.
“We’re hoping he can get to 100 percent,” Gottfried said. “But he’d not there yet.”
Lofton cut
Pearl offered a straight forward assessment of why Lofton did not make the U.S. team to play in the Pan Am Games later this month.
“He just said he didn’t feel he played well enough to make the team,” Pearl said of his conversations with Lofton, the Maysville native. “He did not shoot the ball well (in the tryouts). Actually, he played better with the ball than without. That’s not his M.O.”
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