It’s safe to say a decision Florida coach Todd Golden made well before this season began has paid big dividends.
Golden wanted to put his best players in the starting lineup, which meant a promotion and position change for 6-foot-9, 210-pound Thomas Haugh. Golden switched Haugh, previously a reserve power forward, to small forward. Haugh has paired perfectly with Alex Condon and Reuben Chinyelu while leading the Gators in scoring (17.5 points per game), free throws made (100) and attempted (133) and minutes played (33.9 per game). The latter stat tops the SEC. Haugh is also second on the team in made three-pointers, fourth in assists, and third in steals and blocked shots.
“He’s just so good I wanted to keep him on the floor as much as possible,” Golden tells Hoops HQ. “He’s just such a mismatch issue. At the four, he can stretch teams out. At the three, he’s physical and can score in the post. He pounds the offensive glass. And he’s a great defender who can switch one through four. Even if he’s not scoring, he’s helping you win.”
Haugh has been a great example of perseverance. Not content with his scholarship offers out of high school, he chose to play a postgraduate year at Perkiomen in Pennsylvania. During his time there, he matured mentally and physically, enough to attract the attention of power conference schools. Haugh came to Florida with the promise of playing time, and Golden has lived up to his end of the bargain. On Feb. 11 at Georgia, Haugh played his 100th career game. He hasn’t missed a contest.
“What’s the saying? Your best ability is availability? That shows up for him quite a bit,” Golden said.
Haugh has done a lot more than simply show up. Last season, he led the nation in games played (40). He started just five times but averaged solid numbers (9.8 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, 48.5 percent from the field, 34.0 percent from three).
Haugh’s proficiency from behind the arc and the fact he’s more versatile than a pair of khakis led to Golden’s decision to put him in the starting lineup. And he’s performed, piling up 10 20-point games and four-double doubles. This week, he was selected to the Wooden Award Late Midseason Top 20.
What teams will claim double byes in the SEC Tournament?
It seems certain Florida (18-6, 9-2), currently atop the league standings, will claim one of the league’s top four spots. Arkansas and Kentucky are in good shape, too, both at 8-3. Behind them, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas A&M are tied at 7-4. Tennessee’s chances have been diminished because it won’t finish ahead of Florida, Arkansas, or Kentucky; all three teams have beaten the Vols. Kentucky has beaten them twice.
Tennessee still has to play Vanderbilt two times, travels to Missouri and hosts Alabama in a late-February game. So it controls its own destiny to some degree. Vanderbilt has to play at Missouri and Kentucky, plays the Vols twice and also hosts Georgia, which by the time the two teams play (Feb. 25), will be desperate for a signature win to stay on the correct side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Missouri still has to play Arkansas twice and plays Vanderbilt and Tennessee. A&M plays Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Kentucky, and on Feb. 25, a Texas team that, like Georgia, will be trying to play its way into the NCAA Tournament.
Alabama stills plays Arkansas at home, Tennessee on the road, Georgia on the road and ends the season at home against archrival Auburn.
None of the five teams deadlocked at 7-4 have an easy road. This time of year, coaches talk about growth, chemistry and meeting the moment. Which team will meet the moment? The double bye in the SEC quarterfinals is a big deal, because it means each of the four teams that earn it have to play only three games in as many days if they reach the championship game. That’s a big difference between four games in four days.
Bubble Watch: Missouri and Virginia Tech are Back In
Welcome to Bubble Watch, where we monitor who’s on the guest list and who’s on the curb ahead of the NCAA Tournament
Around the Rim
• The SEC might not be having the historic season it did a year ago, but it hasn’t fallen into oblivion either. The league leads the nation with 10 teams ranked in the Top 40 of the NCAA’s NET rankings, with eight teams that have had at least four Quad 1 wins, and with the most total Quad 1 games played (157).
The league is still atop the KenPom rankings, comfortably ahead of the Big Ten and Big 12.
• One out of every four SEC games this season have been decided by a possession. That’s why coaches like Tennessee’s Rick Barnes bemoan misses at the rim. Layups, dunks and tip-ins might seem easy enough to make, but they aren’t always a sure thing. In games the Vols lost this season, misses in the paint have proven critical. There’s a fine line between winning and losing.
Luke Schapker, Tennessee’s director of video and analytics, provided Hoops HQ with proof of that. Through Feb. 10, Top 25 teams shot 65 percent at the rim (layups, dunks and tip-ins), and 61 percent on layups. Tennessee, meanwhile, was at 60 percent at the rim and 55 percent on layups. Had a couple more shots gone down here or there, the Vols (16-7) would probably have won at least one of their two games against Kentucky, which were decided by a total of five points. Tennessee lost both, most recently last Saturday in Lexington when the Vols’ big men missed a handful of shots from point-blank range.
There are two ways Barnes could look at that, but he chooses to accentuate the positive. “We’re right there,” he tells Hoops HQ. “But there’s plenty of season left, and we work on those shots every day. We make them in practice. We just have to translate that more often to games.”
• After a massive win at Florida and another at home against Texas, Auburn has lost three in a row. The latest, on Feb. 10, ended in surprising fashion because Keyshawn Hall, a leading candidate for SEC Player of the Year, watched from the bench for the last 12 minutes.
Hall, who was called for a technical foul earlier in the game, left when the Tigers were trailing by 12 points and didn’t get back on the floor.
“I just went with the guys I thought put us in the position to get back in the game,” Pearl said. “We ended up cutting it to four. That group did a good job of clawing and fighting. Vanderbilt did a really good job when (Hall) had the ball of plugging the paint. They made it really difficult for him. Our offense wasn’t in sync when he was on the floor. It was a coach’s decision (not to play Hall). I wanted to go with the group that got us back into the game.”
• Mississippi State has struggled this season, relative to coach Chris Jans’ first three seasons during which the Bulldogs won 21 games and played in the NCAA Tournament each year. But junior guard Josh Hubbard is still doing what he’s done all that time. On Jan. 11 in a homecourt loss to Tennessee, he scored 31 points, including four three-pointers that tied him for the school’s all-time lead with Barry Stewart (2007-10). Stewart’s record of 280 is certain to fall the next time the Bulldogs play.
Hubbard is the first SEC player in the 2000s and the seventh in league history to score 500 or more points in each of his first three seasons.
• Ole Miss coach Chris Beard was honored Feb. 6, but he wasn’t around to receive it. That’s because Little Rock, the school where Beard began his Division-I coaching career, inducted the 2015-16 team into its hall of fame. That’s right — the entire team. Beard was busy preparing the Rebels for a game at Texas, another school he formerly coached.
Beard took the Little Rock job in 2015, and in his only season led the Trojans to a 30-5 record, the Sun Belt Conference regular-season and tournament championships, and an 85-83, double-overtime upset of Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Little Rock was 13-18 the season before Beard arrived.
Games to Watch
Kentucky at Florida, Saturday (ABC)
There was a time not that long ago that Kentucky and Florida played the biggest games in the SEC every year. It’s still a huge rivalry, but now when the Wildcats and Gators get together, it’s just another in a smorgasbord of great games. Valentine’s Day is loaded with them.
Auburn at Arkansas, Saturday (ESPN)
The Tigers need to bag another big win on the road and Arkansas has to hold serve at home after getting hammered by Vanderbilt (93-68 on Jan. 20) and Kentucky (85-77 on Jan. 31).
Texas A&M at Vanderbilt Saturday (SEC Network)
Vanderbilt doesn’t want a repeat of last Saturday, when Oklahoma, then 1-9 in the SEC, grabbed a huge lead that ultimately proved insurmountable. The Aggies of first-year coach Bucky MacMillan are a hard team to play, given their pressing and fondness for the three-ball, but Vanderbilt has a point guard in Tyler Tanner who can be a one-man press break. After jumping out to an 8-1 start in SEC while playing the 16th-rated strength of schedule in league games, the Aggies have lost three straight (Alabama, Florida and Missouri) after the schedule has toughened up.
Meet your guide
