South Carolina women's basketball: Three takeaways from SEC Media Day

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1. Injuries – new and old

Every year there are preseason injuries, but it feels like this year has been especially brutal. Florida lost point guard Zippy Broughton, who last season averaged 14.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game in SEC play, for the season. Vanderbilt is down to nine players after season-ending Achilles injuries to Jordyn Cambridge and Kaylon Smith.

“We only have one starter from last year that will currently be playing this year,” Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph said. “We’ve added two grad transfers and three freshmen that will be expected to play a lot. Right now we have nine healthy players. We had a roster of 12. But that is what it is. That’s part of sports. All nine of these players can be contributors and will be expected to be contributors.”

On the flip side, there are some key players coming back from injuries. LSU’s Alexis Morris and Tennessee’s Jordan Horston had late-season injuries last year and both teams had disappointing finishes. They are back fully healthy. The top two point guards for South Carolina, the unanimous no. 1 in the AP preseason top 25, are Raven Johnson and Kierra Fletcher, both of whom are coming off season-ending injuries. The post-Rhyne Howard era at Kentucky is going to rely heavily on Blair Green, who is coming off an Achilles injury.

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2. Turnover

Not turnovers, but roster turnover. Maybe it was just because of one reporter who really wanted to talk about the WNBA, but former players seemed to come up almost as often as current players. Kentucky has to replace Howard, the WNBA rookie of the year. Ole Miss has to replace Shakira Austin, who was runner-up. South Carolina has to replace the star of the national championship game, Destanni Henderson. Tennessee lost Rae Burrell. LSU lost Khayla Pointer. The SEC was full of seniors and super seniors last season which means there is a lot of talent to replace.

Tennessee and LSU reloaded through the transfer portal, but now they have to get all the new faces to mesh. They were more selective with transfers, while other programs underwent wholesale changes. Kentucky, Georgia, and other places it seems like more than half the roster is new (I haven’t actually counted yet, but that’s how it feels). Kim Mulkey talked about the challenge of getting returning players, transfers, and freshmen on the same page, and she could have been speaking for most of the other coaches.

“We will at some point, you just don’t know when,” she said. “I think that progress is probably evaluated when you see that you don’t have to repeat the same thing over and over and over, and I think we’ve done a lot in a short period of time with new players.”

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3. Tournament expansion

Expanding the NCAA tournament has been a hot topic at the various conference media days. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, whose opinion probably matters as much as anyone, supported expansion. So did Mike Neighbors and Robin Pingeton. It’s not surprising. Arkansas and Missouri are frequently on the tournament bubble so expansion makes them more likely to get in. The SEC is top-heavy this year, with South Carolina, Tennessee, and LSU at the top, a group of about ten teams that seem pretty even, and then Vanderbilt (sorry, Vandy). They all want to make the tournament, too. The SEC’s influence in women’s basketball isn’t as oversized as it is in football, but it is still one of the most important voices (stolen from the media notes: one out of every four Final Four teams ever has been an SEC team). Regardless of the merits of expansion, the momentum is gathering.

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