Posted by Mechelle Voepel
Last season was, of course, an unusual one in the SEC. Tennessee finished tied for fifth and found itself having to watch a few big celebrations from opponents used to coming up short against the Orange Crush.
Vanderbilt beat Tennessee for the first time since 2002. Auburn did it for the first time since 1997.
Florida had done it as recently as 2006, but last season's win over Tennessee was just the Gator program's third ever in the series. Kentucky, which also upset Tennessee in 2006, won last season for just the seventh time in the series.
Mississippi State gave it a good run in trying to win for the first time ever against Tennessee, and Mississippi barely missed its first victory against Pat Summitt's crew since 1996.
Neither quite happened. Mississippi State fell by seven in a game that actually was much closer than that in Starkville, Miss. (Tennessee then won the rematch in Knoxville by 14 points). And it took Angie Bjorklund's late 3-pointer to save Tennessee against Ole Miss, 60-59.
The fact that the Bulldogs and Rebels got so close were just two more indicators last year that things were different for a league in which Tennessee has won 14 regular-season titles.
Further, the SEC as a whole -- typically a very high achiever in the postseason -- did not have a characteristic NCAA tournament. Only one of the seven SEC teams in the field made it to the Sweet 16: Vanderbilt. For the first time in NCAA tournament history, Tennessee didn't get that far, losing in the first round.
So all that said, we now take an early look at this season, when things might be largely back to "normal" in the SEC: Tennessee is undefeated -- one of seven teams in the league that hasn't lost yet -- and looking strong.
Sunday, another of last season's out-of-the-ordinary losses was avenged by Tennessee as it beat Virginia 77-63. (A year ago, the Cavaliers won for just the second time in their series with Tennessee, 83-82.)
Bjorklund talked before this season about how she regretted not taking a more vocal and active leadership role for a young Tennessee squad last year. She said she wouldn't make that mistake again, and that has been very evident in Tennessee's three games thus far.
Sunday, she led the team with 24 points, including five 3-pointers. And Shekinna Stricklen, who's averaging a team-best 20.3 points per game, had 20 against the Cavaliers.
Summitt said going into this season that the SEC team she thought was deserving of more attention than it was getting was Mississippi State. After an 84-55 pounding of Maryland on Sunday, led by 43 points from Alexis Rack, Mississippi State should gain some more acclaim.
Admittedly, this is a Maryland squad greatly diminished by graduation (Marissa Coleman, Kristi Toliver), transfers (Marah Strickland, Drey Mingo) and dismissal for academic issues (Demauria Liles). Still, both the thoroughness of the victory and Rack's performance -- she hit seven 3-pointers and had six rebounds and six assists -- made this Mississippi State result stand out.
Mississippi State will face Texas, Rutgers and Southern Cal in the Paradise Jam this week in the Virgin Islands. Also there at that event will be SEC "hopeful climber" South Carolina, which meets Oklahoma, Notre Dame and San Diego Sate. The Gamecocks are 2-1 after Sunday's victory over Penn State.
Also on Sunday, LSU pounded Nicholls State, moving to 4-0. And Georgia moved to 3-0 after rallying to beat Rutgers 49-48 despite shooting just 25.9 percent from the field.
Meanwhile, the team that won the SEC regular-season title in 2009 -- Auburn -- and the team that tied Tennessee for fifth -- Florida -- both have had predictable difficulties out of the gate because of graduation losses. The Tigers are 2-2, falling to Temple and Texas A&M. The Gators are 1-2, losing to Florida State and Pittsburgh.
The SEC is expanding to a 16-game league schedule this season. And while it's still too early to presume a lot about the SEC, it's not too soon to already bank on some things. Such as the window of vulnerability for Tennessee -- which had a rare opening last year -- seems to have closed again.
Posted by Mechelle Voepel
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Middle Tennessee might be considered the Sun Belt favorite, but coach Rick Insell doesn't want to depend on winning the league's automatic bid in order to go to the NCAA tournament.
Yes, his squad has won the conference tournament three of his four years at MTSU. But he'd rather make sure his RPI and strength of schedule are strong enough to get his team an at-large berth if the Blue Raiders fall short of the automatic.
Certainly, Middle Tennessee is playing a tough schedule, including traveling Wednesday to No 15 LSU. On Nov. 25, the Blue Raiders' Murphy Center is expected to be sold out for a visit from No. 5 Tennessee. MTSU also will face No. 14 Xavier, No. 19 Louisville and South Dakota State -- all on the road -- and hosts Kentucky.
"I would much rather play teams like that than have an easy schedule," MTSU forward Brandi Brown said. "Ever since I've been here, that's what Coach Insell has tried to do."
But the Blue Raiders want to do more than just face a lot of strong opponents; they want to beat them.
"This is our fifth year here," said Insell, who took over the program in May 2005 after an extremely successful 28-year career at Shelbyville Central High in Tennessee. "And one of the things we felt when we came here was that if we were going to get this program up with some of the best in the country, then our out-of-conference schedule would have to be tougher. So we did it by design.
"And we felt like if we could win some of those games, it would enhance our chances at an at-large bid if we needed that. We know we're not going to win all those games, but we're going to take the chance that we'll win some of them."
Middle Tennessee is ready for this difficult of a nonconference slate thanks to a six-member senior class led by Alysha Clark. She led Division I in scoring last season (27.5 ppg) and was one of ESPN.com's first-team All-Americans.
Clark is already off to a strong start, being named Sun Belt player of the week after her 32-point, 15-rebound performance Sunday in the Blue Raiders' 78-53 season-opening victory over Central Florida.
Middle Tennessee does face a problem all-too-familiar for good programs outside the so-called "big six" conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Pac-10). Many schools from those leagues don't want to face MTSU, even if the Blue Raiders are willing to go on the road to play them. MTSU's success has made the Blue Raiders too "risky" an opponent to some teams.
"A lot of them won't schedule us," Insell said. "And I can't blame those people because when they go into their conference, like in the SEC, they're thinking their league schedule is tough enough. Everybody has to do what's best for their program. Our thoughts are to schedule as tough as we can. We lose these seniors after this year, but next year we're still going to schedule as tough as we can."
Tennessee, however, is willing to play MTSU and comes to Murfreesboro, which is about a half-hour south of Nashville. In fact, Insell and Tennessee's Pat Summitt are appearing at a breakfast with fans the morning of the Nov. 25 game. Both coaches will address the crowd; 700 tickets have already been sold.
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