Musical Chairs
January 24, 2008 at 6:05am by TipsterHog
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Basketball
In an article written yesterday by Jim Kleinpeter of The Times-Picayune, a college basketball analyst predicts that the SEC may only have four teams selected to be in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
Jerry Palm, who runs collegerpi.com, says the SEC is currently ranked fifth overall but is “much closer to the No. 6 Big Ten than to the No. 4 Big 12.”
Palm: “Tennessee could be a No. 1 seed. But the SEC is down this year. They may not put more than four teams in the tournament.”
The most recent RPI standings have four SEC teams in the top 40: Tennessee (1), Vanderbilt (10), Ole Miss (15) and Arkansas (40). The next two, Florida and Mississippi State are at 70 and 75, respectively. Everyone else is 102 or worse.
As Palm points out, the RPI numbers for the SEC will improve as the conference season plays out. For the Razorbacks, however, losses already suffered to some of those “102 or worse” teams certainly doesn’t help their postseason résumé.
If it plays out that only four conference teams make the ‘Big Dance,’ the Hogs will need to turn things around quickly. And that would mean showing a little more urgency than this quote suggests:
Steven Hill: “It’s difficult when you drop two in a row after winning back-to-back in the SEC to start. It’s deflating. But at the same time, we realize it’s a 16-game schedule in the SEC.”
As HogBaller said earlier this week, suffering consecutive defeats to South Carolina (102 RPI) and Georgia (118 RPI) should be a wake up call. But with these seniors…past history says that the snooze button will be hit several times between now and March.
Update: Speaking of wake up calls…we read in this morning’s paper that a 1:30 a.m. practice was held after getting off the plane from Georgia. Nice.
I think Ole Miss will win the West this year. I was tabbing them as a very dangerous team before the season started, mainly because of how well coached they were, and that they had some exsperience coming back. With the injuries that Auburn and LSU have suffered through this year, combined with inconsistant play from the Hogs and Crimson Tide, it look’s like the best threat the Rebs will get this season will come from the Miss.St. Bulldogs. If you think Steven Hill is a shot-blocking machine, get a load of that center that play’s for the Bulldogs. I can’t remember his name right off, but there was 1 game (Kentucky I think) were he got 10 blocks. You’ve got to be kidding!
I was living in Cincinnati during the one season that Andy Kennedy coached UC after Huggins was run off, and he did a fantastic job. They missed the tournament, but probably should have made it, they just gassed out toward the end. The guy you are thinking of is Jarvis Varnado, I referenced him in my blog after the UK game. That was fun to watch.