SEC Coaches Awards

From SECsports.com The SEC Coaches awards were announced today. Patrick Patterson and Jodie Meeks both were named to the all SEC first team.

Birmingham, Ala. — The Southeastern Conference unveiled its men’s basketball coaches postseason awards Tuesday to cap off another exciting season of SEC basketball.

LSU’s Trent Johnson earned SEC Coach of the Year honors and LSU senior guard Marcus Thornton was selected SEC Player of the Year by the league’s coaches. Ole Miss’ Terrico White took the SEC Freshman of the Year award and Alabama’s Justin Knox earned SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors. Jarvis Varnado of Mississippi State was picked as the SEC Defensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row. South Carolina’s Brandis Raley-Ross earned SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year honors.

In his first season at LSU, Johnson led the Tigers to their first SEC championship since 2006 with a 13-3 mark in league play.

Thornton garnered SEC Player of the Year honors in leading LSU to a 25-win season and the SEC championship. One of five unanimous All-SEC First Team selections, Thornton ranked second the league in scoring with 20.9 ppg.

White led all SEC freshmen with 18.4 ppg in league play. White was among three unanimous All-Freshman team members.

Knox earned the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, sporting a 3.219 grade-point average in Pre-Business.

Varnado leads the nation in blocked shots (4.6) and is 15 blocks shy of the breaking the single-season SEC record of 157. Last year he tied the record Shaquille O’Neal set in 1992.

Raley-Ross won the SEC’s Sixth Man of the Year award. A key part of South Carolina winning a share of the SEC East Division title, he is averaging 7.2 points per game.

Coaches voted on eight member teams for First Team All-SEC, Second Team All-SEC and for the SEC All-Freshman Team. They voted on a five-player squad for the SEC All-Defensive Team. They were not permitted to vote for their own players and ties were not broken.

A complete list of the 2009 SEC Men’s Basketball postseason awards follows.

First Team All-SEC
*Nick Calathes, Florida – G, 6-6, 194, So., Casselberry, Fla.
*Jodie Meeks, Kentucky – 6-4, 208, Jr., Norcross, Ga.
Patrick Patterson, Kentucky – 6-9, 235, So., Huntington, W.Va.
Tasmin Mitchell, LSU – F, 6-7, 240, Jr., Denham Springs, La.
*Marcus Thornton, LSU – G, 6-4, 205, Sr., Baton Rouge, La.
Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State – F/C, 6-9, 210, Jr., Brownsville, Tenn.
*Devan Downey, South Carolina – G, 5-9, 175, Jr., Chester, S.C.
*Tyler Smith, Tennessee – F, 6-7, 215, Jr., Pulaski, Tenn.

Second Team All-SEC
Alonzo Gee, Alabama – G, 6-6, 219, Sr., Riviera Beach, Fla.
Michael Washington, Arkansas – F, 6-9, 239, Jr., McGehee, Ark.
Korvotney Barber, Auburn – F, 6-7, 225, Sr., Manchester, Ga.
^Garrett Temple, LSU – G, 6-6, 190, Sr., Baton Rouge, La.
David Huertas, Ole Miss – G, 6-5, 200, Jr., Humacao, Puerto Rico
Terrico White, Ole Miss – G, 6-5, 211, Fr,. Memphis, Tenn.
^Dominique Archie, South Carolina – F, 6-7, 200, Jr., Augusta, Ga.
^Zam Fredrick, South Carolina – G, 6-0, 203, Sr., St. Matthews, S.C.
Wayne Chism, Tennessee – F, 609, 242, Jr., Jackson, Tenn.
A.J. Ogilvy, Vanderbilt – C, 6-11, 250, So., Sydney, Australia

SEC All-Freshman Team
*JaMychal Green, Alabama – F, 6-9, 220, Fr., Montgomery, Ala.
Courtney Fortson, Arkansas – G, 5-11, 180, Fr., Montgomery, Ala.
Erving Walker, Florida – 5-8, 161, Fr., New York, N.Y.
Trey Thompkins, Georgia – F, 6-8, 245, Fr., Lithonia, Ga.
*Terrico White, Ole Miss – G, 6-5, 211, Fr,. Memphis, Tenn.
*Dee Bost, Mississippi State – G, 6-2, 170, Fr., Concord, N.C.
Scotty Hopson, Tennessee – G, 6-7, 185, Fr., Hopkinsville, Ky.
Jeffery Taylor, Vanderbilt – G/F, 6-7, 210, Fr., Norrkoping, Sweden

SEC All-Defensive Team
^Quantez Robertson, Auburn – G, 6-3, 200, Sr., Cincinnati, Ohio
Garrett Temple, LSU – G, 6-6, 190, Sr., Baton Rouge, La.
Chris Johnson, LSU – C, 6-11, 210, Sr., Montross, Va.
*Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State – F/C, 6-9, 210, Jr., Brownsville, Tenn.
^Dominique Archie, South Carolina – F, 6-7, 200, Jr., Augusta, Ga.
Devan Downey, South Carolina – G, 5-9, 175, Jr., Chester, S.C.

SEC Coach of the Year: Trent Johnson, LSU
SEC Player of the Year: Marcus Thornton, LSU
SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Justin Knox, Alabama
SEC Freshman of the Year: Terrico White, Ole Miss
SEC Sixth-Man of the Year: Brandis Raley-Ross, South Carolina
SEC Defensive Player of the Year: Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State

*-Unanimous selection
^-Ties are not broken

Gamecocks Flog Cats 77-59

The South Carolina Gamecocks showed us all last night why they should be in first place in the SEC East – and not us…They outplayed us…They outhustled us…and worse, they humiliated us. SC, not accustomed to being in this spot this time of the year, made the most of it last night, beating UK for the second time this year, and showing us what a matchup problem UK has with SC’s guards. Native son, Darrin Horn, must be basking in the glory after defeating UK twice in one season…SC, riding the wave of 16 blocked shots on the inside by its big men, and 9 alone on 2Pat, flogged UK for the second time in a row this season, and this one’s going to “hurt us for a long, long, time”….

For as good as UK looked on Saturday in the confines of Rupp; that’s how bad they looked on the road before a packed house of screaming Gamecock Fans…Indeed, UK showed it has the youth and immaturity to lose at any time should they not play with the passion commensurate with the situation. Playing for 1^st in the SEC East, UK looked like a bunch of high-schoolers getting their dose of humble pie before a packed house of screaming “I told you so’s….. We came out and looked rigid and tight and never really had a chance. Patrick Patterson was the only player that I could discern that played very hard while he was out there.

Sc rode the heady play of guard Devan Downey and came out and hit 4 of their first 6 three’s and the game was over for all intents and purposes. In my pre-game pep-talk I suggested that Porter might need lots of help with Downey. He did, and he didn’t…He did need help; he didn’t get it, in anyone that BCG put on Downey. He is just too quick and too good. The substitution pattern on this night went beyond logic into bizarre world…I don’t have the numbers on minutes played, but it looked as if Galloway could have been uses if available, for all those useless 30 minutes or so that Liggins stood out there. And, to play Porter and Sloan at the same time on SC’s guards was the biggest mismatch since Hawaii took on……just kidding Bill!,,, you guys know what I mean…There isn’t a way that those two can handle SC’s two at any time. Nuff Said!

Since BCG is always eager to take the blame for a loss, I will eagerly give him some of it; given he played the same defense against SC he played in Lexington and lost worse here than there…I wonder how BCG wanted us to double down on Downey and Frederick as they drove the lane when we couldn’t do it in Lexington and prevent them from the kick out pass to the man with the open 3.

BCG did have this to say about the game:

“They have a point guard; we don’t”

On Perry Stevenson: “He is just not playing hard enough”, Gillispie said. “That’s two times in the last, what, week or eight days that I’ve said something about a guy not playing hard enough and that’s the first two times in my career I’ve ever said that. That’s shameful, in my opinion, to everyone involved.”

SC and Darrin Horn, had the easy, logical, perfect game plan, and we had the task to crack it. We did not. We let them run the ,”drive and kick”, on their first 6-3 balls and they hit 4 of them. It would be better to let the guards go on those drives than the wing defender to collapse on him and let Downey kick to the open shooter…..But that is what happened last night and that is how they took us out in Lexington….

AND, don’t get me started on the substitution patterns…Can we hire Bruce Pearl’s guy who does his for him..BCG’s patterns were illogical based on even his last game and I don’t think that anyone did anything in practice since Saturday to radically change the way one would expect it would be. I suspect that after BCG watches last night’s game for the 20^th time, maybe he would concede that.

UK needed a “team effort” to play in this game, and they hardly looked like one all night. As bad as we made UT look on Saturday, SC made us look last night. That is basketball, but this glaring weakness is one that teams will exploit until BCG and Co. Stops it. Maybe we don’t have the personnel to stop it. Maybe we do not have the point guard the SEC requires to overcome it. We shall see.

UK vs SC PEP TALK

“Basketball Jones…..I got a Basketball Jones….I got a Basketball Jones… Oh Baby..” , the song goes…., and I have one, a “Basketball Jones that is…I want to see if UK can repeat the performance they had in Rupp arena on Saturday. Saturday was UK’s finest hour based on the number and production of players not named Jodie or Patrick….

We’re on the road now with this group and they are playing a FINE SEC squad that beat us at home, on a last second shot by Devan Downey, who else?…SC has a pair of dynamic guards led by Devan Downey, a mini-mini version of Allen Iverson, who is almost unstoppable off the bounce. He must be contained assist-wise for us to win, and a win would be for 1st Place in the always tight SEC East…

UK will have its hands full and the logical thought is that Liggins or Galloway will have to spell Porter more than normal. Keeping up with either of SC’s guards will be a chore for him. Winning this game though, is entirely within the realm of this team should we manage the play we exhibited Saturday…

If we play the way Gillespie says they are STILL playing we lose…

Billy Gillispie had this to say on the topic of whether the players have known their roles so far this season: – from KSR

“We are very far away from that. They have been defiant. Every single person has to defensive rebound much better. We have to help defend much better. We have to offensive rebound much better. We have to reverse the basketball better. We have to feed the post better. And when you talk about those things that need improving as a team, those are the things that individuals must do to improve as a team and we are not doing that right now. “

Play like you did Saturday…., LADS - the rest will take care of itself…:)

Coaches are never happy…And so it goes………….