ShareThisSoutheastern Conference men's basketball is changing shape. To what degree was the topic of discussion Monday when the coaches surfaced for a teleconference.
Proposed changes to the league schedule and, possibly, to the national recruiting calendar are very much on the minds of the SEC fraternity, which includes two new members, Cuonzo Martin at Tennessee and Mike Anderson at Arkansas.
The league voted last month to do away with East and West divisions and compete as one entity in men's basketball. What's yet to be decided is what the schedule will look like.
It's likely to increase from the current 16 games to 18, effective in 2012-13. A true round robin of 22 will also be on the table.
"I'm the most surprised guy in the room that I'm saying this," said Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings, "but it (22) is something to think about. We think we've been dragged through Armageddon when we finish 16. I can't imagine how we'd feel after 22. I don't think it'll get much traction."
It might with contrarian Rick Stansbury. The Mississippi State coach was the lone dissenter on dropping the East and West divisions. It's bad enough to finish sixth, he reasoned, so how's it going to feel finishing 12th?
"Am I in favor of playing 22?" Stansbury said. "I'm not sure. But if (ditching divisional play) was to get a true champion, the only way is to play each other twice."
The SEC has used a 16-game format since expansion to 12 teams in 1992. From 1967-91, there was a true 18-game round-robin schedule for the 10 teams.
Last season, numerous conferences employed the 18-game format, including the Big Ten (11 teams), Pac-10 (10 teams) and the gargantuan 16-team Big East. Martin, Tennessee's new coach, won his Missouri Valley Conference title in an 18-game round robin slate.
The SEC will revisit the topic later this summer and expects to have a decision prior to the 2012 Spring Meetings at the latest.
More league games, of course, means fewer non-conference games. That gets dicey.
Bruce Pearl made a point of upgrading Tennessee's non-conference schedule and it paid dividends come NCAA tournament seeding time.
"Sixteen or 18 is important, but not as important as your non-conference strength of schedule and RPI," said Kentucky's John Calipari.
"In other words, play the very best you can play and still win."
JULY ANXIETY: Coaches nationally are waiting to see what reductions the NCAA makes to the July evaluation period, when coaches flock to mass events and size up dozens of players under one roof. Previous legislation has curtailed April evaluations.
"It seems more and more," said Stansbury, "they keep taking opportunities away from us coaches who want to work."
Rushed evaluations are the undesirable result.
"The transfer list grows and grows every year because of that," said Martin.
NEW STAFF: Florida and Ole Miss underwent complete overhauls of the assistant-coach staff. Billy Donovan was glad to welcome former aide John Pelphrey back to Florida after Pelphrey was fired at Arkansas.
"We need people who know me and know Florida, and John knows it as well as anybody," Donovan said.
NEW HOUSE?: Ole Miss is exploring options for a new arena to replace Tad Smith Coliseum, the SEC's dingiest facility.
"So much has been done to improve athletic facilities as a whole (at Ole Miss)," said coach Andy Kennedy, "and I think they realize this is the last bastion, the last hurdle that needs to be cleared."
NEW TALENT: Ole Miss will unveil its first McDonald's All-American, Jelan Kendrick, a transfer from Memphis. . . . Kentucky brings in the nation's top-ranked recruiting class. Alabama and Arkansas also had top-10 classes, according to Rivalshoops.com. 11 of Rivals' top 32 recruits are SEC-bound. . . . Several high-profile transfers are ready to go, including Mike Rosario (Rutgers) at Florida, Varez Ward (Texas) at Auburn and Arnett Moultrie (UTEP) at Mississippi State.
(Contact Mike Strange of the Knoxville News-Sentinel at strangem(at)knoxnews.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/strangemike44 and http://blogs.knoxnews.com/strange.)
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