More photos » by James Crisp - AP

Elvis is just as popular in Lexington.

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Part Three of our weeklong preview of the upcoming Tennessee Basketball season, which tips off Friday, November 13.  Part One - Last Year  Part Two - The Roster

The SEC struggled through its worst overall basketball season in the modern era in 2008-09:  only three teams made the NCAA Tournament, and it would've been only two had the Vols gotten the best of Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament finals, where the Bulldogs secured an automatic bid.  Regular season champion LSU was the league's highest seed - at an 8 - and was the only SEC team in the final Top 25 poll of the regular season, at #17.  The league placed no teams in the tournament's second weekend, and no players in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft (though Jodie Meeks, Marcus Thornton and Nick Calathes were all taken in the second).

But if it's always darkest before the dawn, prepare for the bounceback in 2009-10.

This time around, the league has three teams in the preseason polls, two in the top ten, and four others receiving votes.  Aside from the three names taken in the NBA Draft, almost every major player from last season is back, joined by superstar recruits and a couple of new head coaches you might have heard of.  Just one year after being the worst of the major conferences in college basketball, the SEC will have a chance to be one of the best.

A quick preview of Tennessee's competition: 

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In the middle of this week (most likely July 1st), I'll have a post up on Dave Clawson.  I don't want to give anything away on it, but I do think you'll enjoy it (especially the Vols fans).  Until then, let me ask you this question:

More photos » by Charlie Riedel - AP

Four negative and national headlines for Kentucky today? Really? I blame Lane Kiffin.

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Yesterday was not a good day for Kentucky. Former coach Billy Gillispie sued the school for $6M, recruit John Wall pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and entered a program for first time offenders, they've lost three players from last year's team, and new coach John Calipari has been "asked" to participate in a hearing related to NCAA allegations that the University of Memphis men's basketball program committed major violations, including "knowing fraudulence or misconduct," during the 2007-08 season under Calipari. Oh, and Calipari's making mistakes on Twitter.

That's a lot of bad news all at once, but it may seem much worse than it actually is. First, Gillispie didn't have a formal contract with Kentucky; they were working under a "memorandum of understanding." Depending on what that document says, Gillisipie may or may not have a case. News flash: some contracts need not be written to be enforceable agreements and things like letters of intent or memoranda of understanding can be reviewed to see what the parties might have believed their oral agreement to be. Generally, though, those documents expressly say that they are not enforceable and that there is no agreement (written or verbal) until the thing is formalized in a more extensive document signed by both parties. I suspect that Kentucky's had language similar to that. On the other hand, they did actually start acting as if there was some form of agreement -- Gillisipie coached and Kentucky paid him to do so -- so you simply can't know the merits of the case without seeing the language of the memo of understanding. Anyone seen a copy of that?

Second, Wall's misdemeanor seems extraordinarily tame to me. He was cited when walking out of a vacant house, and he'll likely have his record cleared by performing community service. That's practically nothing.

Third, Kentucky needed to lose players to get down to the scholarship limit of 11. They actually still have to "lose" two more. That's a type of Saban-shady (emulated by Ole Miss to the extreme this past recruiting season), and we've been guilty of oversigning before, so the initial impression one might get from seeing that headline in the midst of all of the others -- that players are running screaming from the internal horrors of the program -- isn't quite fair.

And finally, Calipari has received a letter from the NCAA saying that he himself not at risk of being charged with any violations. Frankly, I'm not sure how they can say that at this time (before talking to him), and if the allegations include "knowing fraudulence or misconduct," who did the knowing? Perhaps they're just talking about the player with the suspect ACT score, but would it be a "major" violation if that were the case? My limited understanding of NCAA rules/regs/etc. is that you only get into the "major" stuff if there was some form of institutional culpability, and if that's the case, then is it really likely that the institution knew and Calipari didn't? I don't think so.

But we'll see.

The good news for Kentucky fans is that John Adams has awarded Wildcat football coach Rich Brooks the . . . Rich Brooks Award. So that ought to make it all better.

UT's not in it, so I'm not writing about the final two teams.

/pout

Enjoy the game and leave comments if you wish.

--ditto for the women's game

So, yeah, I thought the first game started at 6:45 for some reason.  Imagine my surprise when I saw it was already a full minute into the game.  But enough of that.  Enjoy the games as much as you can (since we're not in them), and leave any thoughts here!

--We'll go ahead and use this thread for the Women's Final Four as well.  --hooper

More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

7 months ago: Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie returns to his office after meeting with the basketball team in Lexington, Ky., Friday, March 27, 2009. Gillispie is out as Kentucky's basketball coach, ending a tumultuous two years at the head of college basketball's all-time winningest program. The university said Friday March 27, 2009, it will announce "a change in the head coaching position of the men's basketball program" at a 4:30 p.m. news conference. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

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Billy Gillispie is . . . wondering if it's safe to come out of hiding and re-holster his dead cell phone.

John Calipari is . . . trying to figure out how to take FedEx with him to Kentucky.

Tubby Smith is . . . rubbing his hands together and laughing maniacally.

Bumped to the front for tonight's games.  Enjoy!  [Note by hooper, 03/27/09 5:37 PM EDT ]

In what is appearing to be a post-Vols tourney tradition, this thread is being opened up after the first set of games are already over for today.  I'll keep it open for Friday's games as well, making this the talking zone for Sweet Sixteen action.

Like before, if you have any observations/thoughts/etc. feel free to leave them here.  I don't anticipate heavy commenting, but it's the one time that college basketball draws national interest, so have at it.

It's official:  Gillispie is no longer the Kentucky men's basketball coach.  The conditional language I used may now be ignored; the rest of my feelings still hold on the matter.  [Note by hooper, 03/27/09 4:30 PM EDT ]

At the time I write this, the closest thing to a confirmed report is a Louisville news station reporting that their insiders say that Gillispie will no longer be Kentucky's men's basketball coach - and a subsequent denial by UK.  (Both sides are sticking to their guns, so we still know nothing.)  What is certainly true, though, it that the possibility of Gillispie's termination is very, very real.  That means that, after two years and a $4 million dollar buyout, the Wildcats would be starting over yet again with a new coach.  Rumormongering out of the Commonwealth is naming all the "hot" names like Donovan, Calipari, Ford, Pelphrey, etc.  That's natural; any program that sees themselves as a historical power always looks to the biggest fish first.  We did the same thing last fall for a different sport.

At any rate, the prospect of this early departure scares me.

I'm not at all worried about the actual basketball games between Kentucky and Tennessee.  Assuming that Gillispie is indeed out (and I'm going to write under this assumption for the rest of this article), even if we knew who the successor was, it'd be too early to surmise the impact the change would have in the SEC East.  UK was getting great recruits under Gillispie and would have been a dangerous team; there's no reason to believe that it would be substantially different under a new hire.

What scares me about the whole thing is the level of unrest in basketball fanbases in the SEC this year.  Much of the Kentucky faithful are drawing daggers.  Florida's Donovan has complained about unrealistic fan expectations (what? you can't win the NCAA tournament every year?), as has Pearl (what? the best four consecutive years in program history aren't good enough?).  Last year, LSU got rid of Brady for perceived underachieving, and now Arkansas is showing signs of malcontent in their program.  All of this unhappiness is coming from the "top" programs in the league (with no disrespect to Vandy and MSU).  Those who are having the most success are the most dissatisfied and the most demanding for more.

It's not just griping on chatboards and at watercoolers, either.  That kind of complaint is ignorable; it happens at every program and is just part of being a fan.  It's the tumultuous attendance and drop in revenues that is coupled with the complaints that are problems.  Like Fulmer at UT, no coach can survive dramatic revenue losses combined with discontent and apathy.  (Oddly enough, UK fans aren't even apathetic and aren't staying home.  This is happening because the Kentucky AD fears apathy in the future.)  The margin for error is rapidly shrinking across the entire conference, as fans at all of the aforementioned schools are beginning to leave (or have left) seats empty.

As if all of these coaches can magically will the team to win championships every single year.

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