Monday, November 9, 2009

SEC East Hoops Preview

From the Daily Gamecock.

I would assume from the words of the article that the writer thinks that USC will come in 4th in the SEC East.

Not a whole lot new in this preview. Everybody's preview has UK first. Tennessee deserves its general position as second in the pre-season rankings. Beyond that, though, it's anybody's guess.

Vanderbilt will be really good this year. Florida has Coach Donovan, a newly eligible transfer at center, and a scoring guard who will put up big numbers. South Carolina was strong last year and could surprise, even in an SEC East that is much tougher.

Georgia is generally ranked last in all the previews. It's hard to argue otherwise, since no one knows how Georgia will perform. We were in the cellar last year, and though we all may want to put Georgia in some other spot, in fairness to the process we'd have to have a reason to do so.

The Daily Gamecock's writers point out that Coach Fox brought on Vince Williams, an under-sized point guard. Other than that, Fox is going to battle with players that Felton recruited. True, Ebuka Anyaorah was injured last year, and since this is his first season playing, he could be seen as a new player. But the point remains that most of the other teams in the division brought in some pretty talented freshmen, and Georgia's class was not highly ranked at all.

I disagree with the writer's contention that Vince Williams and Demario Mayfield have to contribute a lot. They have to be at least serviceable for Georgia to win, but the key to this season are Thompkins, Ware and Leslie. If the big three play up to potential, Georgia can be competitive.

With that said, I have no argument with the preview's ranking having UGA as last. I certainly hope we do better.

Preview

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