A new day

I have mixed feelings about Bruce Pearl.  On the one hand, he's a cheater, a liar, and a snitch.  On the other hand, he's a good basketball coach and an entertainer.

My feelings about John Calipari can wait for another day.

I do not, however, have mixed feelings about their desire to raise the profile of SEC basketball.

Those of you who can remember about a decade ago will know that the SEC is capable of fielding some pretty good basketball teams.  Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia all trotted out quite a bit of talent in the early 2000's.  Throw in Mississippi State, LSU, and even Auburn occasionally and you had a conference that was competitive at a national level.

Fast-forward to today and the SEC is a talented-but-top-heavy conference with big dreams:

"This is as focused as I've seen this league and these coaches and the programs and the ADs in how do we move this ball forward," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "We had three teams in the Elite Eight, two teams in the Final Four, a team in the national championship game and still ... come on now. Our goal is let's get half of our teams in within the next three years and two of us playing for a national championship."

What Calipari understands is that a good SEC is good for everyone in the conference.  There is a very real chance that Kentucky will go 16-0 in conference next year.  Wouldn't it be better if they did that in a conference that wasn't a national punchline?

Enter non-conference scheduling:

Better nonconference schedules could help. The league hired former NCAA tournament guru Greg Shaheen as a scheduling consultant last year.

Shaheen made his second consecutive trip to the annual SEC meetings this week, giving detailed presentations to coaches and athletic directors. It's essentially scheduling analytics, which show coaches that who they play in November and December affects everyone they play -- fellow SEC teams -- in January and February.

I have to wonder what those presentations looked like.  Did he show Mark Fox an Appalachian State logo with a big frowny face next to it?

This isn't rocket science:

"If every program just took the bottom-feeder off its schedule -- just one bottom-feeder -- then we go from seventh in RPI to second," Pearl said. "What's best for the league is what's best for the upper half of the league. Let's look at the best playing against the best because that's what fans want, that's what television wants and that ultimately is going to get us more teams in the tournament."

The aforementioned Appalachian State finished with an RPI of 336 last year.  Scheduling can be difficult, I know, but Georgia should not be playing teams with an RPI of 336 (and in case you're curious, last year it was Jacksonville, at 331).

Mark Fox has definitely gotten this message.  The non-conference schedule this coming season is tough, but not brutal.  It is good enough to set up a tournament run, and ultimately, having teams in the dance is the best way to raise the conference profile.

h/t ESPN