Enlightening Insight from SEC Basketball Coaches During Press Conference

Today, all the SEC Basketball coaches had a press conference (which can be heard on www.sec.org). The topics were insightful: the pros and cons of red shirting, does the perception of the SEC go down when Kentucky is down, Florida's problems at Point Guard, NCAA secondary violations...insightful!

Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings was asked if the perception of the SEC is that of a weaker conference when Kentucky is down. Stallings replied, in so many words, that people do perceive the SEC as a down conference when the Wildcats are having a down year. Stallings went on to say, perhaps jokingly, that he hopes that Kentucky will not be good this coming season, but said that Kentucky will in fact be good this year. "The perception of our league has suffered at times when Kentucky is down. I don't particularly want Kentucky to be good because we already have enough good teams in this league. Kentucky will be good. They were good with Tubby, they were good with Billy, and they will be good with John {Calipari}."

In fact, Stallings, Florida Ass. Head Coach Larry Shyatt and South Carolina Head Coach Darren Horn all said that the league will be on a tremendous up swing this coming season. "You will see an exact oposite of last season.", Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said. All the coaches pretty much agree that last year, the league was young, and some programs were in the middle of major transitions, but with the top returning players coming back, the 09/2010 season will show the SEC to be much better than last year. They agree that the returning players like Devin Downey of South Carolina, Dinardo of Mississippi St., Trey Tompkins of Georgia and others, will raise the quality of their play, therefore, raising the quality of the SEC.

The Gators are in desperate need of a point guard. "We are very, very thin in the back court and we most definitely need a point guard in that 2010 Class." Florida Ass. Head Coach Larry Shyatt said (Billy Donovan could not make the press conference). Shyatt said that they plan on playing Irving Walker at the point at this time. Walker, a rising Sophomore from Brooklyn, NY, is a excellent shooting point guard who can penetrate and breakdown defenses. During his Freshman season, Walker earned SEC All-Freshman honors and was the Gators’ sixth man a year ago before winding up in the starting lineup the final three games of the season.

Vanderbilt Head Coach Kevin Stallings was asked about the pros and cons of red shirting. "I think red shirting is very good for the right guy." Stallings said. "Are policy is that nobody has to red shirt. A lot of times in red shirting, your betting that the player will be much better in his fifth year than he was in his first." Stallings went on to say that at Vanderbilt, they have had guys who wouldn't come to their program is they couldn't red shirt. That sounds very unusual in this success-now society.

Both Stallings and Georgia Head Coach Mark Fox were asked if they felt that the growing number of NCAA secondary violations is a problem. One reporter commented that there were over 4,000 secondary violations committed by coaches last year and that coaches were saying that if committing a secondary violation would get a top recruit into their school, it was worth it. "I don't know if it's a problem, but I can tell you this. The penalties will be much different for a secondary violation than they were last year." Coach Fox said. "Those who are willing to commit a secondary violation to get a top recruit are the same ones who would commit a major violation to get that recruit." Coach Stallings said.

Interesting and enlightening stuff from the SEC coaches. One thing they all seem to agree on, the SEC will be back to being among the top conferences in College Basketball. Information in this article was obtained from www.sec.org and www.gatorzone.com.