Martin: SEC hoops must make changes

Good article Wes. Coach is right and the five teams you mentioned that had abysmal strength of schedules need to pick up the slack.

Wes, how well do some of the fans of these schools support basketball? I know Georgia does not support the basketball team nearly as well as they do the football team. Is that part of the problem? Is their a lack of emphasis on basketball at these schools?

Video from GVX: Martin: SEC needs to be smarter about scheduling

Video from GVX: Cuonzo Martin on Mercer, NIT

I'm thinking the new TV deal is finally going to force the lack-of-effort issue.

Scheduling is one issue. Facilities are another.

Until the last year or two, there were only one or two SEC games on regional TV a week. Nobody much ever saw what kind of dumps places like Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama and Miss State play in. Does Ole Miss really think those porcelain water fountains on the end lines look like bigtime hoops? And when are we going to compel Vanderbilt to build a real arena instead of a four-sided opera house? Their floor looks like nine acres of empty prairie on the tube.

The people who are shelling out big money to buy SEC basketball rights are not going to put up with pisspoor effort from the hind end of the league.

I've said for years that it's too arbitrary, especially with committee member turnover in the interest of "fairness." Only solution, IMO, is to go with straight RPI, unless 75% or so (let the conf. commishes decide the exact requirement) of whatever the committee quorum is decides otherwise, in which case they can override. And make them back it up by making all their names and all their votes public. The computer may screw some people, but it will do so impartially, with no bias or media-driven "perception" which overrides reality, and it will be consistent in how it weighs various components of its formula.

Sportswriters sometimes have to say a team, a player, a coach, and/or an administrator sucks, VERY publicly, and then show up and ask them questions the next day. These wussified administrators need to grow a pair and make them thar votes pub-lick. And so should all the votes in any CFB poll used as a component of the BCS, as well as all Heisman votes.

Well, UT placed 3rd in the conference behind UK & Arky in total revenue at 14.4 million. IMO that's impressive for UT to be in the top 3 in both major sports fb&bb..

Chicken? Egg?

Great players want to play in great programs. Great programs play against other great teams. They play in classic match-ups. They become "classic" because they sustain their apprearances in the NCAA tournament. Who wants to go to a school and play against Podunk State's all season, even if you do win 18 games every year but find yourself snubbed from the Dance? FEW.

Martin is right. SEC teams have to schedule more aggressively. That doesn't mean that everyone needs to play the top 5 winningest programs in history every year. It means that every team has to strategically set themselves up to be in the top 150 RPI's. Does that put the pressure on to win? Yes. You have to be able to coach and play. And if you show you can do that, your recruiting will improve. Then the positive momentum takes effect. Or, if you like the wind of winning and recruiting fills your sails.

But you have to set your sails if you want to catch any wind. I like CCM.

Vols!!