My Way Too Early 2020-2021 SEC Men's Basketball Predictions

#51
#51
The Dog said:
Starting to look like Eric Musselman is going to get it done at Arkansas. Not that a like to see other SEC teams land a good coach and recruit in the top 10, nationally, but I've always had a soft spot for the Razorbacks. Good for the league when they are good, imo
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Yes, Arkansas and A&M are in really good shape with their head coaches. But the same thing could have been said about LSU a year or two ago.
 
#54
#54
walkenvol said:
And Georgia, Alabubba, Miss State, also.
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Crean doesn't impress me and Howland is approaching his mid-60s. It's a little early to tell with Oats.

Pearl is about to turn 60. But Auburn is a good place to be when you cheat. They're a good fit for each other.

As long as Will Wade gets to keep buying players, he's in a good spot.

White's seat is heating up.

TN and Mississippi have older coaches. TN might have several good options to follow CRB.

Missouri is a smoldering dumpster fire.

Vanderbilt kind of gets a pass in 2019-20. Stackhouse needs to show a lot of improvement. Maybe get to .500, at least overall.

USC is okay, unless they run off Frank.

KY is KY.

I think that Arkansas and A&M are in the best shape. KY is fine too.
 
#55
#55
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Crean doesn't impress me and Howland is approaching his mid-60s. It's a little early to tell with Oats.

Pearl is about to turn 60. But Auburn is a good place to be when you cheat. They're a good fit for each other.

As long as Will Wade gets to keep buying players, he's in a good spot.

White's seat is heating up.

TN and Mississippi have older coaches. TN might have several good options to follow CRB.

Missouri is a smoldering dumpster fire.

Vanderbilt kind of gets a pass in 2019-20. Stackhouse needs to show a lot of improvement. Maybe get to .500, at least overall.

USC is okay, unless they run off Frank.

KY is KY.

I think that Arkansas and A&M are in the best shape. KY is fine too.
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Things change very quickly in college athletics. Personally I like our situation as much as anyone’s. A &M and Arkansas seem to have good younger coaches but I bet If North Carolina or some other big name come calling they will be out of there. I think Barnes gives us a few more years and that is really about as far out as you can hope for. Too much success and the big boys come calling or the NCAA starts looking around. Not too many Kentucky’s type basketball programs out there who will roll out the armored truck and have the other qualities to keep a big name coach long term.
 
#56
#56
LeannaVol said:
Things change very quickly in college athletics. Personally I like our situation as much as anyone’s. A &M and Arkansas seem to have good younger coaches but I bet If North Carolina or some other big name come calling they will be out of there. I think Barnes gives us a few more years and that is really about as far out as you can hope for. Too much success and the big boys come calling or the NCAA starts looking around. Not too many Kentucky’s type basketball programs out there who will roll out the armored truck and have the other qualities to keep a big name coach long term.
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True. But Tx A&M is loaded (maybe not so much with the oil business cratering though) and Arkansas has a lot of tradition. But if you're getting paid millions, would you rather live in Arkansas or College Station as opposed to Chapel Hill?

Good point. One or both of those 2 could end up at Duke or UNC or KY or KU.
 
#57
#57
And TN could go either way. Fans might be expecting too much from this freshman class. An older coach and a mad fan base are a bad combination to keep the recruiting at a high level. Plus, Kim English may not stick around beyond a 2nd year. Barnes really needs to get it rolling strong with the talent he'll have for the next couple of years.

The 2021 recruiting class will be interesting. There's not a lot of immediate playing time available on the perimeter unless a couple leave early. Banchero or another top inside player would be huge (there will be some PT available at the post with Fulk/Pons/Anasike being seniors).
 
#58
#58
Thunder Good-Oil said:
True. But Tx A&M is loaded (maybe not so much with the oil business cratering though) and Arkansas has a lot of tradition. But if you're getting paid millions, would you rather live in Arkansas or College Station as opposed to Chapel Hill?

Good point. One or both of those 2 could end up at Duke or UNC or KY or KU.
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Don't know anything about their family situations or if they have any previous connections to Fayetteville or College Station. But all things equal, if a spouse is involved there are probably a lot of other places they would rather settle down and offers will probably start coming in. IMO there are several higher profile programs that have older coaches or underperforming coaches that will be looking the next couple of years.
 
#59
#59
LeannaVol said:
Don't know anything about their family situations or if they have any previous connections to Fayetteville or College Station. But all things equal, if a spouse is involved there are probably a lot of other places they would rather settle down and offers will probably start coming in. IMO there are several higher profile programs that have older coaches or underperforming coaches that will be looking the next couple of years.
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Recruiting might be an issue. Do the top 50 players really want to be in Bumf*** Arkansas or Yee Haw, Texas? I guess it will depend on their strong a** offers.
 
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#60
#60
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Crean doesn't impress me and Howland is approaching his mid-60s. It's a little early to tell with Oats.

Pearl is about to turn 60. But Auburn is a good place to be when you cheat. They're a good fit for each other.

As long as Will Wade gets to keep buying players, he's in a good spot.

White's seat is heating up.

TN and Mississippi have older coaches. TN might have several good options to follow CRB.

Missouri is a smoldering dumpster fire.

Vanderbilt kind of gets a pass in 2019-20. Stackhouse needs to show a lot of improvement. Maybe get to .500, at least overall.

USC is okay, unless they run off Frank.

KY is KY.

I think that Arkansas and A&M are in the best shape. KY is fine too.
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If I am a Bama fan, I’m happy with where things are heading with Oats. I would put them in the same category as Arkansas and A&M.
 
#62
#62
I think the SEC is poised to be really good for the next several years. That's a good thing for us. Look at the Big 10 this past year. If you listened to the ESPN pundits, they were going to get about 15 teams in of the 14 in the conference :)
 
#63
#63
Thunder Good-Oil said:
He might fit the jump at a more prestigious opportunity more than the ARK and A&M coaches.
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Buzz Williams and Eric Musselman already have bigger profiles than Oats, so it would seem more likely that they get a higher profile job offer, sooner, but Oats may be more likely to jump based on situation.
 
#64
#64
cncchris33 said:
Buzz Williams and Eric Musselman already have bigger profiles than Oats, so it would seem more likely that they get a higher profile job offer, sooner, but Oats may be more likely to jump based on situation.
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Buzz could end up making a fortune at A&M and creating his own legacy. Musselman will always have to deal with the ghost of Nolan, maybe he'd zoom. But I'm not aware of a connection that Oats has at Bama. He might grow weary of the Gumps and always being a red headed step child to football. If he makes Bama an SEC title contender and gets them to the S16 or beyond I bet he'll be high on every big program's shopping list and very obtainable.
 
#65
#65
Buzz Williams was an assistant coach under Billy Gillespie when he was the head coach at Texas A&M. He has coached at Marquette and Virginia Tech, and taken both to the NCAA tournament multiple times. IMHO, he’s right where he wants to be, and is not going anywhere. He’s largely never coached “one and done” players, as he usually has 3 to 4 year players who are more experienced.

He took an untalented roster, and went 10-8 in the SEC this year. He beat Arkansas, Tennessee on the road, Auburn on the road, and Alabama on the road. Arkansas went 7-11 in the SEC.

He didn’t have an Isiah Joe or Mason Jones type player on his roster. IMHO, he did a better coaching job than Oats or Musselman, relative to the talent that he had. That’s why he was AP SEC coach of the year.

He’s already gotten 2 top 30 players to commit for the 2021 class. He is not Bruce Pearl as a coach in terms of how he coaches.
 
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#66
#66
Thunder Good-Oil said:
Buzz could end up making a fortune at A&M and creating his own legacy. Musselman will always have to deal with the ghost of Nolan, maybe he'd zoom. But I'm not aware of a connection that Oats has at Bama. He might grow weary of the Gumps and always being a red headed step child to football. If he makes Bama an SEC title contender and gets them to the S16 or beyond I bet he'll be high on every big program's shopping list and very obtainable.
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Yeah, that was basically my line of thinking.
 
#67
#67
zooguy said:
Buzz Williams was an assistant coach under Billy Gillespie when he was the head coach at Texas A&M. He has coached at Marquette and Virginia Tech, and taken both to the NCAA tournament multiple times. IMHO, he’s right where he wants to be, and is not going anywhere. He’s largely never coached “one and done” players, as he usually has 3 to 4 year players who are more experienced.

He took an untalented roster, and went 10-8 in the SEC this year. He beat Arkansas, Tennessee on the road, Auburn on the road, and Alabama on the road. Arkansas went 7-11 in the SEC.

He didn’t have an Isiah Joe or Mason Jones type player on his roster. IMHO, he did a better coaching job than Oats or Musselman, relative to the talent that he had. That’s why he was AP SEV coach of the year.

He’s already gotten 2 top 30 players to commit for the 2021 class. He is not Bruce Pearl as a coach in terms of how he coaches.
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I agree that Buzz is likely at A&M for the long run unless some blue blood comes calling (Duke, UNC, Kentucky, Kansas, etc). Even then, A&M can likely match dollars, so it would simply come down to Buzz wanting to prove himself at the highest level of college basketball. Does he have that desire down the road? None of us really know that answer.
 
#70
#70
Even if Auburn loses a lot I wouldn't count them out. Pearl will beat coaches with better rosters. He is just simply the best coach in the league and I have reached a point where I think it's not even close. Say what you will about his recruting tactics. This is just simply a statement about his coaching ability.
 
#71
#71
ColinS said:
Even if Auburn loses a lot I wouldn't count them out. Pearl will beat coaches with better rosters. He is just simply the best coach in the league and I have reached a point where I think it's not even close. Say what you will about his recruting tactics. This is just simply a statement about his coaching ability.
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His whole defensive strategy is built on pressuring the inbounds passer and geting the steal or trapping the first guy that catches the inbounds pass, if that doesn't work, fall back and continue to bomb 3s. He owes everything to Dr. Tom Davis and then if that doesn't work, he results to lying, cheating and trying to bully refs. Decent coach, hell of a con-man and bully
 
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#72
#72
ColinS said:
Even if Auburn loses a lot I wouldn't count them out. Pearl will beat coaches with better rosters. He is just simply the best coach in the league and I have reached a point where I think it's not even close. Say what you will about his recruting tactics. This is just simply a statement about his coaching ability.
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So what happened the first 3 years when he finished 13th, 13th and 11th in the SEC?
 
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#73
#73
Pearl is a good coach, but not the best coach in the SEC. You have to look at who has done more with less and maximizes their player’s talents.
 
#74
#74
The Dog said:
His whole defensive strategy is built on pressuring the inbounds passer and geting the steal or trapping the first guy that catches the inbounds pass, if that doesn't work, fall back and continue to bomb 3s. He owes everything to Dr. Tom Davis and then if that doesn't work, he results to lying, cheating and trying to bully refs. Decent coach, hell of a con-man and bully
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Get real. The guy is kicking our ass and mostly everyone elses ass at freaking Auburn. Probably one of the five worst destinations in power 5 basketball. Why can't you just admit that he is a great coach and move on. Do you think he is the only coach that works the refs? As far as cheating he probably isn't doing anything that two thirds of the other coaches are doing. He is probably doing less than programs like Kansas and North Carolina who have been given a license to cheat by the NCAA are doing.
 
#75
#75
zooguy said:
Pearl is a good coach, but not the best coach in the SEC. You have to look at who has done more with less and maximizes their player’s talents.
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As an admitted A&M fan, it’s painfully obvious that you think Buzz Williams is God’s gift to basketball. I think Pearl is a piece of crap, but right now, he is much more accomplished than every SEC coach outside of Calipari and Barnes. You can’t just arbitrarily judge the quality of a coach by solely comparing who does more with less. Part of being a really good college coach is getting really good players, managing egos, and meshing talents. Pearl and Calipari have done a great job of that. It’s really no surprise that those two teams have been the most successful over the past three years. Buzz may prove to be that level of coach after some time at A&M.
 
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