Yes, average reader, it is entirely too early for looking towards next year’s March Madness.  Honestly, who, at this point in the year, would spend time looking at next years college hoops season? Oh. Right.

What Joe made famous, Joe now delivers year round.  Let’s take a look at the ACC and SEC according to Lunardi.

Atlantic Coast Conference

North Carolina – 1 seed
Duke – 1 seed
Virginia Tech – 4 seed
Miami FL – 4 seed
Wake Forest – 7 seed
Clemson – 11 seed

What Joe doesn’t say here is who Duke will lose to in the second or third round.  Based on his early bracket however, it would be the Baylor/Georgetown winner (would the Earth implode if JT3 and Duke met in the second round?) or the survivor of the West Virginia/Gonzaga second round matchup (read: WVU).

Wouldn’t that be a beautiful site?

As always, North Carolina gets the early (pre-)season love, and Clemson deservedly gets a one-and-done spot.  The peculiar pick here is Wake at a 7.  Is Tim Duncan planning a comeback?  Maybe that’s why Dave Odom “retired.”

Oh, and I buy Miami-FL as a 4 seed about as often as I go to Homestead looking for a babysitter.

Southeastern Conference

Florida – 3 seed
Mississippi State – 6 seed
Kentucky – 6 seed
Mississippi – 8 seed
Tennessee – 9 seed
Alabama – 11 seed

Joe’s prognostications leave Felton’s SEC Tourney champion Bulldogs and Stallings depleted Commodores out of the field, which I’m not here to argue with.  No one expects much of Darrin Horn at Carolina this year, but leaving out the Razorbacks?  After a year under Pelphrey?  Joe, you’re letting us down.

After watching the last 2 SEC seasons, I’m also not convinced that we’ll see an even number of East and West teams in the dance.  And having veteran Tennessee squad as a 9 seed behind a Florida team it handled easily twice last season and behind a Kentucky squad full of question marks seems like a bit of a reach, based solely on returning players and high school/JUCO commitments.

I’ll take Carolina to make a late surge and get in the dance, and Andy Kennedy to coach his way out of it once again.  The SEC should look pretty similar this year with the exceptions of Vandy on the demise and Florida heading back towards the top.

Other than that, we’ll just have to wait and see.  (And keep reading Joe’s updates… right?)

[ESPN]

Most teams would kill for a 19-0 start in any sport.  That is exactly how the 2008 Kentucky Wildcat baseball team started out the year.  Right now, the Bat Cats are 26-7.  UK has played .500 baseball over the past 14 games of their schedule.  What has brought this on?  A couple of things have contributed, but the main two are competition and road games. 

Most Cats fans were ecstatic about the 19-0 start.  What team’s fans wouldn’t be?  One question lingered entering SEC play.  How will the blue and white fare against major NCAA competition?  A few wins against Butler and Oakland look good on the win-loss stats, but they don’t strike fear into Georgia. 

So the Cats season was popping right along before SEC play and then they go all Vanderbilt basketball on us.  You all remember what happened to Vandy on the hardwood this year.  They started out 15-0 before conference play and won their first SEC game against the Gamecocks.  At home. 

That home court distinction is important as Vandy went on to play 10-6 basketball in SEC play with all six of those losses coming on the road and only two road wins to their credit (poor GA and USC!).  Even with their early exit from the NCAA tournament, I don’t think anyone’s ready to say Vandy wasn’t a top tier team this year.  Were they top 10?  Definitely not.  Top 25?  Well, maybe there’s some discussion, but you’re still pleading a tight case in my opinion.  But they were still a solid basketball team.

Where does that put UK baseball though?  Well, that SEC record sits at 7-7 (before Sunday’s Georgia tilt) and a little deeper look at their records unveils very Vany-like results.  The Cats are 5-1 in the SEC at home.  That puts their road record at 2-6 on the road.  Even if they take the series finale against UGA today they will still have lost twice as many on the road as at home in SEC play.

The Cats also lead the SEC in several key statistics as well.  Through 31 games UK led the league in batting average (hitting .350!), runs, ERA, and fielding percentage.  This means that the Cats have flat out played better baseball than anyone else in the league, against the competition they have played. 

So UK can put up some runs and can shut teams down when not playing elite competition on the road.  That sounds very similar to a Vandy team that ran off 16 straight to start the season and beat a #1 team at home late in the season.  What’s this mean to the overall sucess of the Bat Cats’ season?  Who knows?  They have 5 series left in SEC play with 3 of those at home.  They also have several mid-week games on the road throughout the rest of the season, but none of those teams (save maybe Louisville) are SEC caliber opponents.

So UK should put up good numbers down the stretch and continue to mount that win total toward 40 before the SEC tournament begins.  If the boys can get a little more mentally tough and continue to execute they will be able to make some noise down in Hoover this year.  Then a run toward Omaha will loom.  Here’s hoping that they can use all their talent and make some dreams come true this year.  If I’m John Cohen I put in a highlight reel of 2007-2008 Commodore basketball and ask my team one question.  “Do you want to get blown out by Siena in the first round?” 

Buried beneath a week full of tragedy surrounding the University of Kentucky, on a completely different level was even more bad news. While the news pales in comparison to the deaths of Bill Keightley and Marvin Stone, Scotty Hopson’s commitment to Bruce Pearl and the Vols also made waves. Hopson is a McDonald’s All-American, although he may not be the best player in his own region. He led his team to an “All-A Classic” Championship (see: small school State Tournament in most other states), and a Sweet Sixteen (Kentucky’s State Tournament) berth. He and Darius Miller, UK commitment, battled each other all year to see who would win Mr. Basketball. Hopson’s perceived laziness by coaches and media hurt his campaign, he seemingly could never do anything right. Miller had committed to UK in the fall (a UK commitment always helps in the voting) and won MVP honors leading his Mason County team to the State Championship. Hopson, no doubt, is a great coup for Pearl and UT; but is Scotty going south the worst thing for UK?

For all we know right now, Kentucky only has four scholarships to give for 2008-09. Miller and DeAndre Liggins (Findlay Prep in Las Vegas) signed National Letters of Intent back in the fall. Liggins was expected to play a combo-guard role, and Miller is a wing/slasher much like Hopson. Then, in the last month, Kevin Galloway (JUCO) verbally committed to Billy G. The Cats bring back Derrick Jasper, Jodie Meeks, and Michael Porter as guards. Ramon Harris and AJ Stewart, who both came into their own towards the end of the year, return as small forwards. Patterson will obviously (hopefully he returns without a hitch) play power forward. We should all hope and pray the “Mark Coury Starting Experience” will end, and Perry Stevenson should play center. That seems to show a lot of depth in the backcourt, and a lack thereof in the frontcourt. Was another wing-player, like Hopson, the answer? No.

Kentucky needs a big man in this class. Patterson needs help, he needs another presence so that he’s not getting double-teamed every time he catches the basketball. Apparently, there are options out there for UK. Kentucky Sports Radio always seems to be on the ball about UK’s latest recruits. Yesterday, they reported Maurice Sutton could be the big man who would give some depth in the frontcourt next year. There are also rumors that one, or more players may transfer before next season. Little used big men Jared Carter and Mike Williams would be the most likely candidates. Even if they were to leave, Kentucky would still need a big more than backcourt help.

This is not written in any way to discount Hopson. He could definitely have helped Kentucky next year. However, he is probably looking to be a one-year player (see: asking Tyler Smith to stay one more year). Kentucky fans will lament Gillispie, for sure, when Hopson comes to Rupp next year and drops 25 points and gets 10 rebounds. You can hear them on the call-in shows, “We got this dang Miller kid, and Hopson’s the real deal!” That may be true, but in Lexington we hang National Championship banners, and in Knoxville they hang Sweet Sixteen banners.

[ Kentucky Sports Radio ]