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By Jamie H. Vaught
Like the old popular television program, The Wild Wild West, back in the late 1960s, we should rename SEC for this season as The Wild Wild SEC.
As you know, the conference unbelievably has 10 schools ranked in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll. It is the first time since at least the start of the 2012-13 season that one league has 10 ranked teams. In addition, the SEC leads the nation with 14 teams ranked in the Top 50 of the NCAA’s NET rankings.
Under first-year coach Mark Pope, the Wildcats, who finished their non-conference schedule with an 11-2 mark after Tuesday afternoon’s 88-54 blowout win over Brown at Rupp Arena, are currently ranked 10th, behind four SEC teams – No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Auburn, No. 5 Alabama and No. 6 Florida.
And Kentucky will begin its 18-game conference schedule with a very important Top 10 showdown against Florida Saturday morning at Rupp Arena. ESPN will carry the game, beginning at 11 a.m.
Pope said playing in the SEC will be “a bloodbath.” How will Kentucky survive?
“Every game is going to feel like a tossup,” said the coach in a postgame press conference on New Year’s Eve. “It's going to have a little bit of an NBA feel where you can't get too high or too low because you don't have time to emotionally rehab from letting yourself be devastated or elated. You play the No. 3 team in the country and two days later you going on the road to play the No. 1 team in the country and then you are playing the No. 10 team in the country. I think it's going to be a matter of just those two things. Where are you on the execution scale and where are you on that durability scale, right? And those are going to matter.”
Graduate student Andrew Carr, who led the Wildcats with 14 points, his fifth straight double-figure game against Brown, is very excited about playing against top-notch SEC competition.
“The league is super talented,” said Carr. “For us to be as prepared as we possibly can to go out there and win a national championship, which is what this league will prepare us to do, I think. Being able to bring crazy intensity each and every game and you’re going to get looks from top to bottom of the league. Not everyone plays the same, so it’ll be super fun to see our team grow throughout that.”
Added freshman guard Travis Perry, who had four points, including a three-pointer in nearly 14 minutes against Brown, “I’ve watched SEC basketball for forever, so to be able to be a part of it is something that I’m excited for, and I’m excited for our team to get to face that challenge. It’s a completely different game. Whenever you’re playing against SEC teams. Every single night, there’s no rest, no off day, so it will be a good challenge. I think we’re ready for it.”
Florida is unbeaten with a 13-0 mark with victories over North Carolina, Arizona State, Virginia, Wake Forest and Florida State, and its 13-game winning streak is the longest active streak in the nation. The Gators, who have five players who are 6-foot-10 or taller on the roster, are led by 6-foot-2 All-SEC senior guard Walter Clayton Jr., who is averaging 17.2 points.
By the way, don’t expect to see the world’s tallest college basketball player, Olivier Rioux, in action for the Gators at Rupp Arena. The 7-foot-9, 305-pounder from Canada is redshirting this season.
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of six books about UK basketball, including recently-published “Forever Crazy About The Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro., he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.
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