The Southeastern Conference basketball season has reached its halfway point, a perfect time to look back at what transpired in the last month.
BEST TEAM: Kentucky. The Wildcats (22-1, 8-0) are one play away — Christina Watford’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer that gave Indiana a 73-72 upset — from being the only undefeated power conference team.
Certainly, Kentucky has benefitted from its schedule. The Wildcats have yet to play Florida or Vanderbilt and still have to travel to Mississippi State. And they weren’t forced to play the Thursday-Saturday schedule that has allowed some other league teams to get seen on ESPN on Thursday but allows for limited preparation for the follow-up game on Saturday.
WORST TEAM: South Carolina. Bestowing this designation necessitated a tiebreaker, given that both the Gamecocks and Georgia are 1-7 in the league. The Bulldogs (10-11) beat Tennessee in overtime in Athens, and South Carolina (9-12) clipped Alabama by a basket in Columbia.
A closer look reveals that both teams have struggled to shoot, so South Carolina gets the nod because it has also struggled to guard. The Gamecocks are allowing their SEC opponents to shoot .489 from the field and .399 from 3-point range to .457 and .307 for Georgia.
MVP: Anthony Davis, Kentucky. His name is at the top of several key statistics, including rebounding (2nd, 10.2 rpg), field-goal percentage (1st, .650), and of course, blocked shots (1st, 4.7 bpg). But the numbers don’t begin to tell the story of how dominant he’s been so far.
Some critics might say he’s not scoring all that many points (13.5), but Kentucky has six players averaging in double figures; he doesn’t have to score a ton. And coach John Calipari doesn’t run a single play for the big man. Davis gets his points by fighting for garbage baskets, the occasional pick and roll and running the court.
BEST FRESHMAN: See above. Should Davis decide to put his name in the NBA draft, he’ll be the first player taken.
BEST TRANSFER: Arnett Moultrie, Mississippi State. This one was as easy to call as the previous two. Moultrie is a double-double machine (he’s fourth in the SEC in scoring at 16.8 ppg and leads in rebounding at 11.3 rpg) and may be the best rebounder in traffic in the country.
MOST IMPROVED PLAYERS: Vanderbilt’s Jeffrey Taylor and Auburn’s Kenny Gabriel. Taylor put in countless hours in the gym in the offseason, refining his 3-point shot, which has made him extremely difficult to guard. Gabriel has become a stat-sheet stuffer.
ALL-SEC TEAM: G-John Jenkins, Vanderbilt; Dee Bost, Mississippi State. F-Arnett Moultrie, Mississippi State; Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kentucky. C-Anthony Davis, Kentucky.
ALL-SEC FRESHMAN TEAM: Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist, B.J. Young, Arkansas; Bradley Beal, Florida; Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia.
COACH OF THE YEAR: John Calipari, Kentucky. Sure, Calipari has tons of talent, and his team didn’t face as stern a league schedule as, say, Tennessee, which played the Wildcats twice, along with Vanderbilt and Mississippi State on the road and Florida at home. But Cal deserves credit for getting his young players to defend at a high level and play together. If they’re still undefeated in the league after their second go-round, Cal will also be the national coach of the year.
