We are smack dab in the heart of March Madness.  The Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games await us this weekend and all of corporate America will soon be eyeing the brackets to determine who still has a chance to capture their local cash pot.  It’s time to talk college basketball and as such I’d like to add my thoughts regarding the SEC Conference and the Florida Gators.  First, I’ll start with the SEC.

(UPDATE - Major apologies to all O&BHue readers.  While editing a picture I unwittingly deleted a few sentences in the last section regarding tournament ratings.  I apologize for not catching what turned into a confusing slew of gibberish once the beginning of the topic was lost. - KG)
 
SEC BASKETBALL
 
Prior to the season the consensus of thought ran that it would be a down year in the conference.  Of course we had heard similar thoughts back in 2005/2006 when an SEC team won the National Championship (UF), the SEC had two teams in the Final Four (UF and LSU) and another SEC team won the NIT Championship (South Carolina).  Many self-proclaimed experts found themselves looking foolish making those early predictions.  The SEC WAS in fact a “young conference” (Both LSU and UF were upstart teams led by underclassmen) but talent overtook any lack of experience. 
 
The 2007/2008 season began with largely the same scenario.  Only one team looked to return a top caliber and experienced squad (Tennessee) while most other teams would be relying on newcomers or underclassmen as their focal points.  While the talent of the league might have been as good as ever, this season turned out far differently than two seasons prior.  The SEC was a weak league in basketball.  Kentucky struggled to get to .500 in the preseason yet won at a 75% clip in conference, Vanderbilt struggled to win away from Memorial Gymnasium and Arkansas seemed to consistently underachieve all season long.
 

It became even more obvious how down the conference was in the tournament.  Vanderbilt was blown out by a team seeded 9 spots lower in the first round, Kentucky struggled to score against a sound Marquette squad while the SEC Tournament Champion, Georgia, put up a gutsy performance but eventually fell by double digits to Xavier.  Arkansas managed to outlast an Indiana team that continued its post-Sampson firing swoon in the first round only to be embarrassed by top seed North Carolina in the second round.  Tennessee, the highest seeded and ranked SEC team, found itself in a contested first round matchup against pesky American University and then needed overtime to defeat Butler to reach the Sweet Sixteen.
 
The bright spots for the conference this postseason have been few.  Mississippi State represented itself admirably with a comeback win against Oregon and then fighting tooth and nail in a highly contested loss to number one seed Memphis in the second round.  Outside of the NCAA Tournament both Mississippi and Florida have both advanced to the NIT Final Four in New York City.  This year UT is the only NCAA tournament team left to carry the SEC Flag but the success of Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Florida, the last two both NCAA bubble teams, bodes well for the future.
 
FLORIDA GATORS
 
Perhaps the most impressive aspect about the Gators run in this year’s NIT Tournament is has been the increase in defensive intensity.  The NIT might turn out to be the best thing for this Gator team.  Had they made the NCAA they would have been a lower seed and their season would likely be over by now.  Thanks to the NIT the Gators will have an extra two weeks of practice including a win in a hostile environment (at Arizona State) and either one or two games against quality opponents at a neutral site.  While there’s no chance that the Florida administration will be adding another display for an NIT trophy to set beside the 06 and 07 NCAA Championship trophies, the fact that the Gators are getting extra playing and practice time is HUGE in the overall scheme of things.
 
Nick Calathes seems to be playing a little more in control in the tournament.  Of course the NIT competition is not on par with the likes of MSU, Tennessee and Kentucky (Florida’s last three regular season games/losses) but Nick looks as if he has become more comfortable in the sets and schemes.  Chandler Parsons has been playing at a very high level in all facets of the game recently.  He still has not even come close to realizing his eventual potential but at least seems to be heading in that general direction.  Speights seems to have brought his “A” game this postseason (perhaps realizing these are probably the last games he will be playing at a Gator) while Hodge continues to provide the vocal leadership and perimeter sharp shooting upon which this team relies.
 
The national press that Billy Donovan received after locking his players out of the practice facility and instructing them not to wear Gator gear was highly overblown.  This kind of motivational maneuver is common in college basketball.  Even Tom Izzo admitted to doing something similar numerous times to get his team’s attention.  The fact that it became such a news story is simply a tribute to what the Florida name has become in college basketball.  And with the way the team has responded the only question remaining seems to be whether Billy should have tried this earlier in the season. 

NCAA RATINGS
 
All I have heard for years about NCAA tournament ratings is that they would suffer if the “big, traditional programs” were not involved.  Apparently because of these supposed “huge” fan bases that teams like North Carolina, Duke, UCLA, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, etc, had.  Given the fact that all those teams (except Indiana and Kentucky which were eliminated in their first round games) played all of last weekend how do you explain the 9% dip in ratings over the previous year?  Perhaps the presence of the traditional programs are not what is important after all.  It could be that all that matters is having a lot of compelling games with late game drama/heroics where fans feel as if they could be missing something historic if they don’t have the tournament on.