Everyone knows that SEC basketball has been down the past few years, so it was interesting to note that when four head coaching jobs came open last spring, two schools grabbed proven winners from the highest level of college basketball, one took a bit of a shot, and the other looked to the NBA.
Mississippi State added Ben Howland, who previously took three teams -- Northern Arizona, Pittsburgh and UCLA -- to the NCAA Tournament. The stop at UCLA included three Final Four appearances.
Tennessee hired Rick Barnes, who had taken Providence, Clemson and Texas to March Madness. Barnes had one Final Four appearance with the Longhorns.
Florida grabbed Michael White to replace Billy Donovan, who left to coach the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA. White was having some overall success at Louisiana Tech.
Alabama went off the grid and hired Avery Johnson, whose college experience was as a student-athlete. But he had been the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets, leading the Mavericks to the NBA Finals.
It is still early and anything can happen, especially in the SEC, but here's a look at how those coaches are faring so far as the league scratches its head and asks how Kentucky was in fourth place Tuesday.
Howland's last big victory came while he was at UCLA, and the Bulldogs are off to a rough start. They were 7-9 overall before Tuesday night's game at Florida and winless in the SEC, putting them behind Missouri in the standings.
Barnes took over a Tennessee program that has basically been in turmoil since Bruce Pearl, now in his second year at Auburn, was fired. There isn't much depth and the front court is not very talented. But the Vols have a quality victory over Florida and close losses to Auburn and league-leading Texas A&M.
Johnson used the nonconference schedule to chalk up nine of the team's 10 victories, but two of those -- over Wichita State and Notre Dame -- were quality victories. The Crimson Tide are playing with a lot of enthusiasm, and that was a big part of their handing South Carolina its only loss of the season.
White quietly has the Gators playing some pretty good basketball and appears to be on everyone's NCAA Tournament radar. He had the luxury of stepping into a program that wasn't used to losing -- the Gators were 16-17 last season but were 36-3 and in the Final Four the season before -- but White still has to fill the shoes of Donovan, who won two national championships at Florida, back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.
Including Howland, who obviously needs more time, the hires seem to have helped the SEC. Experts are predicting that four, possibly five teams make it to March Madness.
For now, everyone is chasing Texas A&M, which hosted LSU in a late game Tuesday night.
Not much is really known about Aggies Coach Billy Kennedy, other than he's tougher than a new claw hammer on a thumbtack.
In 2011, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's and said he was taking a leave of absence for a long-term treatment plan. The leave lasted one game. He's made the Aggies into a very tough team.
He doesn't have the most talented team; that honor this season may belong to LSU, which features freshman phenom Ben Simmons. But the Aggies are well-coached and gritty.
South Carolina is much better than expected under fourth-year Coach Frank Martin, who had success at Kansas State. And then there's Kentucky, which no doubt will figure it out sooner than later.
Perhaps for the first time in a few years, the SEC appears headed in the right direction in basketball.
Sports on 01/20/2016