A few years ago, the SEC was known only as a football league. But thanks to some new blood in the coaching ranks, it’s now become just as much a basketball league.
When Kentucky University hired John Calipari nearly a decade ago, the Florida Gators were just coming off their back-to-back national titles. But the league as a whole was balanced, with quite a few teams playing into the equation.
However, the rash of recruits that came to the Wildcats changed the balance of power, heavily in their favor. The other teams couldn’t keep up, and after consecutive seasons of just getting three teams into the NCAA Tournament, changes had to be made.
Almost all of the schools hired new coaches, who already had a high name-ID, allowing them to recruit on a national level. And this season’s number of bids showed the fruits of their labor.
Here is the coaching transition for each team since 2012-13:
Auburn Tigers: Tony Barbee – Bruce Pearl
Alabama: Anthony Grant – Avery Johnson
Florida: Billy Donovan (left to go to NBA) – Mike White
Mississippi State: Rick Ray – Ben Howland
Missouri: Kim Anderson – Cuanzo Martin
Tennessee: Donnie Tyndall – Rick Barnes
South Carolina: Darrin Horn – Frank Martin
LSU: Johnny Jones – Will Wade
Vanderbilt: Kevin Stallings (left to go to Pittsburgh) – Bryce Drew
Georgia: Mark Fox – Tom Crean (recent move)
Mississippi: Andy Kennedy – Kermit Davis (recent move)
Billy Kennedy replaced Mark Turgeon for Texas A&M in 2012, with Mike Anderson replacing John Pelphrey in the same year. That means every school in the SEC has changed coaches in the past decade.
The South itself isn’t the great recruiting grounds, but these new coaches are able to leave outside of their area and go anywhere they want to get players. Never before have so many top-100 recruits have gone to the SEC at one time, and the results are showing.
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With eight teams making it to the Big Dance this season, the SEC was tied with the most bids. There’s a real possibility that they can match or even surpass that, with so many great players likely to return. The investments made by each team has shown that any program can be successful. And it doesn’t look like any of these teams have plans on regressing.