March 12, 2007
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Band Together: Wear White During Post-Season Play
Banding Together
There were many favorable comments about our “Banding Together” promotion at the SEC Men’s Tournament. Most of our fans wore white shirts and headbands to make our sections distinctive in the arena. We will carry that forward in both NCAA tournaments. Wear white shirts; if you are among those attending the games, the headbands will be handed out prior to the game. If you are staying home, have some fun and wear a white headband, too, and email us your pictures. For more details, visit our Band Together official site (click here).
A Diamond Gem
It’s March Madness in the gymnasium but there is early “madness” in Hawkins Field this weekend as our baseball team opens SEC play against Ole Miss – a rematch of last year’s SEC Championship game.
The pre-season has been real good to Tim Corbin’s bunch but they will not be lulled to sleep and our fans should not either. We need only to recall one year ago when Mississippi State went 17-0 and did not even make the SEC Tournament. Everyone believes this SEC pennant race will be as competitive as any in history. There are no soft touches.
Pull yourselves away from the television set and support the nation’s No. 1 rated team. They have earned our full support and will need it every game.
And the SEC “Player of the Year” is…
Ever find it curious that the two “major” post-season all-conference teams often don’t agree on the SEC Player of the Year and the Coach of the Year? Part of the discrepancy lies with the depth of talent in this great conference. You could make a case in most years that any one of several student-athletes has earned serious Player of Year consideration.
Who is voting is an important consideration. Similar to why one political candidate may run better in, say, South Carolina than Massachusetts, some programs are going to fare better with Associated Press writers than with the peer coaches. These two organizations compile the two major post-season teams around these parts.
You likely saw that the sports writers – or at least the dozen designated by the AP to do its voting – chose Tennessee’s great shooter Chris Lofton and Andy Kennedy of Ole Miss as Coach of the Year. Both legitimate picks.
The next day, SEC Coaches announced Derrick Byars and Kevin Stallings as their honored choices. Also legit, obviously totally different.
This isn’t one of the great mysteries of our time; perhaps both votes were as pure as the driven snow. But I would have predicted, had I been told in advance that the winners differed – that the coaches would go with our guys and the media might look elsewhere.
Certain things will impress a given set of voters. Writers are often partial to those whom they consider “good” with the media; some media are smitten with Bruce Pearl’s Tennessee program right now, for instance. Writers can get caught up with a program’s tradition, or lack thereof. Coaches, as a general rule, are more apt to reward blue-collar over-achievers and I believe they pay less attention to history and headlines. In a close vote, intangibles can creep into the subconscious.
I still recall how some of the league media scoffed when the football coaches named Jay Cutler as the pre-season first-team quarterback. They had a tough time understanding that Cutler was better than the quarterbacks at the glamour programs. By season’s end, their opinion changed.
This isn’t to say the writer’s teams are always less credible than the coaches’ teams. I’ve known of cases where a head coach delegates his voting to an assistant or even graduate assistant with less than outstanding results.
As I said, this isn’t some conspiracy and there are no right or wrong answers. Just like it’s OK for a Republican to win South Carolina and a Democrat to win Massachusetts. Sometimes it is just a matter of your point of view.
If You Need More Sports This Weekend
Our bowling team has its only home tournament of the year. The nation’s top collegiate bowlers will be at the Smyrna Bowling Center Saturday from late morning through the afternoon. Sunday morning wraps up the Columbia 300 Music City Classic. Admission is free.