I’m still working on a lot of proposals on my day job, which has cut down on my time to do serious blogging. But I have a little bit of a break tonight to talk hoops.

I really don’t think the Calipari era will mean that UK completely dominates the SEC like Memphis dominated C-USA, simply because the depth of the conference is so much better. Billy Donovan at my alma mater has two national championships and another Final Four appearance, which stands for something even if the team has been a bit down the past two years. Bruce Pearl will continue to keep Tennessee in a good position. Darrin Horn and Kevin Stallings will keep their schools in the mix more often than not. And I haven’t even discussed the West, which is due to stop being full of underachievers.

In short, the thing Calipari will have to contend with the most in his new league is that he’s competing against the some of the best coaches in the country, many of whom have access to facilities that are the equal to or better than UK’s. (UT’s arena is bigger, UF’s practice facility is newer.) In Memphis, he was able to use the combo of an NBA arena, NBA market, and weak conference, along with some good scheduling practices to build a power. He loses some of that advantage in Lexington. Sure the name will carry some cachet, but not as much as it would have 15 years ago.