Thursday, May 18th marked the start of the Dead Period for College Basketball Recruiting. That means until the 26th of May no coach may have face-to-face or in-person contact with any recruit or their parents. The coaches can still reach out via phone, email, and social media during this time.
Every season this marks the end of the first phase of the offseason. Teams have already done the majority of the heavy lifting for their roster and may have one or two spots still open for those players who decide to come back after the NBA draft entry deadline of May 31st. Outside of that and the late signees most of the recruiting is done and teams are gearing up for their summer programs and foreign trips.
Given that the first phase of recruiting is over I can now confidently give an early offseason grade to all of the teams in one of the premier conferences in the country. SEC Basketball performed like one of the best conferences in the country heading into the NCAA tournament. The league earned the top seed in the tournament with Alabama, Arkansas beating Kansas, Tennessee beating Duke, Auburn had a half-time lead over Houston, and finally, the SEC Player of the Year has worked his way into being one of the top players taken in the NBA Draft.
Even with all of that the SEC was a huge letdown in March because many expected a champion to be crowned from the league and when that didn’t happen it seemed like a letdown. The offseason was not kind to some of these teams but for others, it was a haul and it looks like those teams will have more great years. The SEC is going to be a premier league in the NCAA again next year. Who has had the best offseason so far? Who has had the worst?