Commentary

Burning questions facing the SEC

Will Kentucky make it back to the Final Four? Which team will surprise?

Updated: November 2, 2011, 12:38 PM ET
By John Gasaway | Special to ESPN Insider

Editor's note: For the next several weeks, the college basketball experts of ESPN Insider will examine the key questions facing some of the nation's top conferences as we prepare for the 2011-12 season. Today, John Gasaway takes a look at the SEC.

1. Where can the Kentucky Wildcats improve from last season, and will they?
Last year, everyone kept fretting about the Wildcats because coach John Calipari's team was losing all those close games on the road. But the actual difference in performance between that team (10-6 in the SEC, outscoring conference opponents by 0.12 points per possession) and the one led by John Wall that stormed through the league in 2010 (14-2 SEC, outscoring league foes by 0.14 points per trip) was much smaller than people thought. So it was no surprise to me when UK made it all the way to Houston -- in fact, that was the Final Four only pick I got right. (No, I didn't have Connecticut, Butler or VCU. Hey, it was a weird year.)


To see Gasaway's answers to the key questions facing the SEC, sign up for ESPN Insider.

John Gasaway

ESPN Insider
  • ESPN Insider college basketball contributor
  • First began covering college hoops in 2004
  • Has written for Basketball Prospectus and the Wall Street Journal

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