Southern Hoops: A History of SEC Basketball Episode Rating Graph

In 1991 and 1992, a younger Dawn Staley was ending up a stellar school basketball profession – incomes Naismith College Player of the Year honors in her junior and senior seasons – even assembly Coach Summitt’s Lady Vols within the 1991 NCAA title recreation. Meanwhile Arkansas joined the SEC and the Razorbacks immediately grew to become one of the convention’s prime males’s groups, led by their fearless, fiery coach Nolan Richardson and his “40 Minutes of Hell” assault. Arkansas received an NCAA championship in 1994, whereas Kentucky returned to prominence beneath Rick Pitino, who led the Wildcats to a nationwide title in 1996 in a Men’s Final Four that included a stunning Mississippi State staff. Back in Knoxville, Coach Summitt loved her biggest decade at Tennessee, profitable three consecutive nationwide championships from 1996 to 1998.

Kentucky entered a brand new century led by their first Black head coach, Tubby Smith, who had taken the Wildcats to the nationwide championship in his first season in 1998. Later within the decade, Florida’s back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007 beneath coach Billy Donovan marked the rise of a brand new energy within the SEC. Coach Summitt and famous person Candace Parker led the Lady Vols to their very own set of consecutive nationwide championships in 2007 and 2008. And down in Baton Rouge, two memorable figures cemented their legacies. Three of LSU’s 5 straight Women’s Final Four appearances had been fueled by two-time Naismith College Player of the Year Seimone Augustus, with the final one coming beneath the helm of former Ole Miss coach Van Chancellor. On the lads’s facet, tenacious guard Garrett Temple, the son of the primary Black basketball participant for the Tigers, helped take LSU to the Men’s Final Four in 2006.

The previous decade has seen the expanded SEC proceed to thrive on the heart of the story of school basketball in America. John Calipari has continued the custom of excellence at Kentucky, main the Wildcats to 4 Men’s Final Four appearances together with a nationwide championship in 2012. That similar yr, Missouri and Texas A&M joined the convention, a season after head coach Gary Blair led the Aggies to the Women’s Final Four and a nationwide title. In 2016, the basketball world mentioned goodbye to at least one of its biggest legends with the loss of Pat Summitt after a five-year battle with early-onset Alzheimer’s illness. In 2017, Vic Schaefer led Mississippi State to the primary of two consecutive nationwide title video games after knocking off top-ranked and undefeated UConn within the semifinals, earlier than falling to Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks led by A’ja Wilson. It was the primary NCAA championship for Coach Staley, with the second title...