Does this gator team have a chance to win the SEC? Tennessee and Alabama are getting all the media attention but we did make it to the SEC finals last year and we’re a lot better defensively.
Of course they have a chance, but Auburn and Tennessee’s algorithm ratings are through the roof, so those two would definitely be the computer favorites right now. Florida has a slightly higher KenPom rating than Bama and UK at the moment, but those two have better Massey ratings, so I would probably consider these three teams as the conference tier two. I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of these five teams win the SEC. Relative strength of schedules will obviously matter too. It looks these five will all play each other and sprinkle in some tier three teams (eg Arky, TAMU, and the Mississippis). Bama better build their record early because they close with a full on fortnight of doom: UK MSU @Tenn UF @Aub
2010-2011 Parsons, Tyus, Macklin, Young, Murphy, Yeguete was pretty good. Parsons was SEC player of the year and we should have been in the final four. We all know why we weren't.
If Chinyelu plays like he did yesterday and Richard can be a consistent X factor. Martin, Clayton and Condon look like champions. The bench is good enough.
One of the things I was curious to see coming into the season was how many alphas we had. Very obvious that Martin is THE guy in that regard. He absolutely set the tone last night in the first defensive possession. But Clayton and Condon are right behind him in terms is guys who get better the more competitive the game is. Richard, Haugh, Aberdeen all have shown a ton of competitiveness on both ends, too. Still need to see how they respond when a really good team punches them in the mouth, but so far have loved how they compete when things don’t go their way to start a game (USF, last two games, even FAMU to a degree). That middle 20-24 is when a good team knows how to turn a game in its favor.
Clayton's defense, eyeball-test-wise, seems so much better. Especially fighting over screens. Also, bodying-up to cut off drives without a blocking file. He seems to really care about defense.
I agree, both he and Richard are playing better defense than last year. They took the coaching to heart. And Martin is an elite defender.
And your Cats look like a Final Four team. Are they even playing Andrew Carr? He killed us last year with Wake.
