SEC basketball used to playing second fiddle

Just look at the basketball talent that has come out of the SEC. Theres Al Horford and Joe Johnson, both with the Atlanta Hawks from Florida and Arkansas, respectively; Auburns Marquis Daniels and LSUs Glen Davis playing for the Boston Celtics; Ronnie Brewer (Arkansas), Joakim Noah (Florida) and C.J. Watson (Tennessee) with the Bulls; Mo Williams (Alabama) with the Cavs, and Jason Williams (Florida) and Brandon Bass (LSU) with the Magic, just to name a few. Then there is the All Star list of NBA alumni: guys like Robert Horry, Shaquille ONeal, The Round Mound of Rebound himself, Charles Barkley, and the greatest college basketball player of all time, Pistol Pete Maravich. So, with a history of great talent and a plethora of teams that advance through the first couple of rounds of the NCAA tournament every year, why does SEC basketball get so little attention and respect? Why is the ACC full of rabid fans who pack arenas every night and light up message boards like the carpet bombing of Baghdad while the SEC gets a lot of polite golf claps and oh thats nice platitudes? The answer is simple and two-fold: First, its one word: football. When you have six consecutive BCS Championships and are on track for a potential seventh, basketball is going to take a backseat no matter how good a team you put on the hardwood. Part of it is timing. The first tipoff is mid-October, right at the height of football season when every Saturday promises a handful of critical conference games. Then theres Christmas and Bowl Season, and the elongated BCS games. By the time SEC fans get around to paying attention to their basketball teams, the season is more than half over. Plus, humans only have so much enthusiasm in them. After four months of pompoms and face paint for the football team, many fans are emotionally spent. Even supporters from schools like Vanderbilt and Mississippi State, where the basketball team has a better winning percentage than the football program, only have so much to give. By February, its hard to ramp up a lot of full-throated vigor for basketball. The second part of the answer is even more obvious: Kentucky. Of all the NBA players listed above Kentucky alum were intentionally left off the list because of the gap Big Blue has over the rest of the pack. Rajon Rondo (Suns), Jodie Meeks (76ers), John Wall (Wizards), DeMarcus Cousins (Kings), Patrick Patterson (Rockets), Eric Bledsoe (Clippers), Daniel Orton (Magic), Enes Kanter (Jazz), Brandon Knight (Pistons), Josh Harrelson (Knicks), DeAndre Liggins (Magic): And thats just guys on active rosters. The alumni push the Wildcat list into triple digits. When you play against the most successful college basketball program in history and the No.1-ranked team in the country, its difficult to ramp up a lot of energy for basketball prior to the conference and NCAA tournaments. Even then, there is almost a sense of resignation among everyone not from Kentucky. The coaches dont think that way. Billy Donovan, Mark Fox, Rick Stansbury, Kevin Stallings and the rest will tell you how competitive the conference is and how they love the support they get from their fans. But compared to the scenes at North Carolina, Duke, Pittsburgh, and UConn, SEC basketball has all the zeal of a cricket match. Its a shame. They play very good basketball in football country. It might even be better if more people noticed.