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For SEC Coaches, This Year Has Been Rough

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By MICK ELLIOTT

melliott@tampatrib.com

Published: March 11, 2009

Updated: 03/11/2009 11:44 pm

TAMPA - How's life treating you?

In that case, cheer up. Any circumstance that does not include at least two of the seven deadly sins, popcorn stuck between your back teeth or a nasty rash puts you a leg up on the average Southeastern Conference basketball coach.

The SEC Tournament tips off today at the St. Pete Times Forum, turning out the lights on a regular season that, quite honestly, already faded to black for several members.

Last year in Atlanta, a tornado struck during tournament play and peeled sections of roof off The Georgia Dome. Competition tips off today at 1 p.m., amid speculation that the sky is falling.

Seriously, check out this tumultuous action.

Two league coaches didn't make it through the season. Dennis Felton, who last year led the Georgia Bulldogs to an improbable SEC Tournament title, was fired in January with his team 9-11 overall and 0-5 in the SEC. The same month, Alabama's Mark Gottfried, after 10 years leading the Crimson Tide, resigned under pressure. Speaking of pressure, Kentucky's Billy Gillispie must be feeling it. Early in the Wildcats' schedule, they were beaten by Virginia Military Institute. VMI? Now UK has lost eight of 11 and four in a row. In Gillispie's second year at the helm of the SEC's flagship program, Kentucky likely will miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since scandal kept it out in 1991.

Maybe that helps explain Gillispie twice going bizarro during halftime interviews with ESPN reporter Jeanine Edwards.

"There are challenges every single year, every singe day, every single game," Gillispie said. "We had two coaching changes in our league during the season, which is not something that happens very often, but we all know we have to win games on a very regular basis."

Weird is what this season has been. Ask anybody. Talk to a cab driver.

OK, not that cab driver.

During an Ole Miss road trip to Cincinnati in mid-December, Coach Andy Kennedy was arrested by police after a cabbie accused the coach of punching him while shouting "bin Laden" and other racial insults.

A short time later a police cruiser's dashboard camera recorded the 1:15 a.m. arrest and Kennedy's attempt to talk his way out of the predicament.

"Please trust me on this," the tape shows Kennedy pleading. "This is going to be a national incident, sir."

In response, the officer provides one of the all-time great comeback lines:

"You think we've never arrested somebody that's made national media? We deal with the Bengals all the time."

Declaring his innocence, Kennedy filed a defamation lawsuit against the cab driver and restaurant valet who said he witnessed the incident and corroborated the story. As part of the countersuit, Kennedy's wife, Kimber, claims the incident so traumatized her husband that it has affected the couple's sex life.

Just plain unusual is what this season has been.

A year after starting 18-3 only to lose eight of its final 11 to miss the NCAA Tournament, Florida opened this season 18-3. Going into Saturday's final game, the Gators had lost six of their last nine. A win Saturday against Kentucky did prevent an exact repeat of last year, but after winning back-to-back NCAA titles, the Gators remain on the verge of sitting out March Madness for the second year in a row.

Two seasons removed from one of the strongest eras in league history, the SEC begins play today with only one school ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 - LSU at No. 20.

During a five-year stretch between the 2002-03 and 2006-07 seasons, the league had three Final Four teams (including two national championships by Florida), three regional finalists and four Sweet 16 teams.

Last season, six SEC teams received NCAA Tournaments bids for the eighth time in 10 years. The league has had at least five teams in the field for 12 consecutive seasons.

This year, the SEC could have as few as three teams invited. Going into today's action, Tennessee (23rd), LSU (37th) and Florida (49th) are the only league members ranked in the top 50 of college basketball's RPI, a system that weighs strength of schedule and winning percentages.

In the SEC's defense, the dip, while no less bothersome, is easily explained - and, most likely, temporary.

"I think in college basketball right now there is a lot of turnover," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "A lot of good guys have come out early and left the league. Probably half of our league is playing with a lot of young people right now. So I think the future for a lot of programs looks very good."

The numbers back Donovan's explanation. Of the 60 players who start for the 12 SEC teams, 40 percent are freshmen or sophomores. Eleven freshmen start for seven different teams, including three for Arkansas. The first five players off the bench for Florida have been freshmen.

"You've got a couple of leagues ACC, Big East that you might be catching at an all-time high, and you might be catching us at an all-time young," said Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings, in his 10th season with the Commodores.

"People want to make a big deal of it right now, and that's OK. They need to take their shots while they can, because we won't be young forever."

Not after this season.

Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534.

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