Guest Contributor Ray Floriani: BE-SEC 1st Night at the Garden

by Ray Floriani

NEW YORK CITY - Many times the game does not live up to the hype. Not last night. UConn-UK gave us everything. Intensity of March, a packed (15,000 plus) Garden, the first collegiate appearance in New York of Kentucky’s eminently praised freshman sensation John Wall and two marquee programs laying it all on the line in the feature contest of the SEC-Big east Challenge. Kentucky defeated UConn 64-61 in a game not decided until the last possession (two missed treys by the Huskies).

Possession numbers:
Went over calculations a few times but still had a three possession difference. Many times possessions are even sometimes they deviate by one or two. A difference of three is not a regular occurrence.

		Off.
	Poss.	Eff.
Kentucky	71	90
UConn	67	91

Kentucky opened the first four minutes with a 12-0 run. During that stretch UCONN had more timeouts (2) than points (0). They never panicked and gradually got back in it. Transition opportunities fueled by some solid inside play allowed UConn to establish a run to take the lead.

UConn led 29-23 at the break but Kentucky opened strong and gradually rebuilt a slim lead. With a minute to go UConn led 61-60. With half a minute to go and the entire Garden knowing his number would be called, John Wall , UK’s marquee freshman, converted a conventional three point play for the ultimate margin of victory.

The four factors:

		FTM
	eFG%	FGA	OReb%	TO%
Kentucky	41	17	36	20
UConn	46	28	44	30

The UConn turnover rate stands out as absurdly high. The work on the offensive boards offset the turnovers to a degree for UCONN. A glaring figure on the stat sheet was UConn’s 14 of 24 from the line. A game breaker in a one possession affair as this.

Wall led all scorers with 25 points. He scored four of UK’s 5 field goals the last 8 minutes. Calipari quickly notes the signs of youth, 2 assists 7 turnovers. But for a highly touted frosh to come into a packed MSG, against an outstanding program, and will his team to win in crunch time speaks volumes of his ability and collective poise.

Patrick Patterson had a solid 16 point effort for the Wildcats. UCONN was led by Jerome Dyson with 17 points. Gavin Edwards continues to impress. A career 3 ppg scorer entering this season, the 6-10 senior came off the bench to contribute 16 points 8 rebounds.

The first game saw St.John’s earn a 66-56 victory over Georgia. Following the game Georgia coach Mark Fox commented, “I thought in the first half we played pretty well.” A breakdown at the half with St.John’s leading 28-25.

		Off.
	Poss.	Eff.
St. John's	31	90
Georgia	32	78

‘Pretty well’? The defensive efficiency of 90 can get you a fair amount of wins. Even there, St.John’s eFG percentage was 45% and the turnover rate was under 20%. Georgia defense was respectable the first twenty minutes, nothing great. The offense was ‘offensive’. A 78 OE is putrid. Even colleagues without calculators going while quotes were being scribbled, wondered about Fox’s assessment of the first twenty minutes.

For the game:

		Off.
	Poss.	Eff.
St. John's	63	105
Georgia	63	89

The four factors:

		FTM
	eFG%	FGA	OReb%	TO%
St. John's	56	18	29	24
Georgia	40	32	32	22

St.John’s coach Norm Roberts cited ball pressure on the guards and a good defensive effort as keys. Turnover rate was largely due to some carelessness with the ball with a double digit lead in the waning minutes, something Roberts wants to address.

Dwight Hardy led St.John’s with 12 points. DJ Kennedy, Paris Horne and Sean Evans did not start due to being 3 minutes late for the team bus. The St.John’s trio all played 29-31 minutes and contributed.

Red Storm improved to 7-1 and a significant sign to date, they are beating the teams they should.

Trey Thompkins, a 6-10 soph, led all scorers with 19 points. He is the Bulldogs lone signature or go to player. It figures to be a long year in Athens, Georgia.

“This team has a nice will to win. We have to stop drinking the poison (listening to the hype) and just get better in practice.” - UK coach John Calipari

“(John) Wall is ‘all of that’ He’s a tremendous, tremendous player. He is a big time player.” - UConn coach Jim Calhoun

Coaching Carousal Part 3 -- 'Tis the Season...

As the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve witness the largest single period of retail sales, so the four weekends (plus) bookmarked by the end of conference tournaments (this week) and the National Championship Game (roughly 4 weekends and a day from now) will mark the largest upswing in turnovers ("resignation", "mutual agreement", "moving on", "more time with my loved ones" fired by any other name...) of D1 coaching jobs. If various mid-winter celebrations (Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas...) are the triggers for retail sales, so "Year-end Evaluations" that inevitably follow elimination from the post season tournament pool, combined with the little covered -- but nevertheless massive -- Job Fair that permeates the Final Four Weekend, have triggered this annual rite of early spring. The SEC for the second season running kicked off the turnover with 2 mid-season turnovers. Alabama's Mark Gottfried earned the dubious distinction of being this season's first D1 coach ousted, but thoughts that the economic downturn might limit the bleeding to a few southern land grant universities with, apparently fat wallets, were refuted yesterday when Boston University's Dennis Wolff, a 15 year veteran at BU who had compiled a 247-197 career record at the New England university, was, as reported by Hoops Weiss, dismissed Tuesday. Wolff's Terrier team finished 3rd in the American East Conference this season, compiling a 17-13 record in the process.

If the cyclical nature of D1 coaching turnovers, as described by Ken Pomeroy, holds (given the SEC mid-season dismissals, I have little hope that economics will play more than a marginal role in holding down the turnover rate...), this off season should see another decline in the number of coaching changes. Small consolation to Gottfried, Felton and Wolff.

Coaching Carousal -- Another One Falls in the SEC

Mark Gottfried's sudden (and less-than-voluntary?) resignation may have initiated a general house cleaning in the SEC as Georgia's AD Damon Evans fired Bulldog head coach Dennis Felton Thursday morning, 8 hours after the Bulldogs' 26 loss to Billy Donovan's Florida team. Felton, the Dean of SEC basketball coaches, dodged the bullet last spring when Georgia unexpectedly ran the table at the SEC post season tournament and earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAAs. A rocky 9-11 start, exacerbated by an 0-5 start to the SEC season, triggered the mid-season ouster. Interesting that the local press actually (as exemplied by Terence Moore of the Atlanta Journal and Constituion) applauded the move, rather than question the timing and example set by the AD. I guess that is the way they do things in the SEC.

Felton is the 6th SEC head coach to resign under duress or be fired outright since the Florida Gators won the National Championship in 2007. That is half of the conference's coaches. In less than three seasons. And if Pat Forde (see below) is to be believed, there may be another SEC ouster at season's end.

While ESPN's Pat Forde focused part of his latest Forde's Minutes column on nine other head coaches (four in the Big East alone...) who are under increased pressure this season, he appears to have ignored, aside from the mention of Felton and Gottfried, and a note that Auburn's (SEC also) Jeff Lebo might have problems, the significant turnover in the SEC coaching ranks.

Two early names in the mix as replacements include Minnesota's Tubby Smith (proposed by the same Terence Moore who cheered Felton's ouster -- not sure why Tubby would return to the conference, and especially to a school that fired its coach mid-season...) and Oklahoma's Jeff Capel, suggested by Hoops Weiss.