Hog Calls

Scheduling puts damper on basketball

Southeastern Conference commissioner, Greg Sankey, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, Monday, May 23, 2016, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

FAYETTEVILLE -- The SEC took two major hiring steps at improving its men's basketball programs and image, then the conference caved to TV and undid it.

Since spring, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey hired Mike Tranghese as a "special adviser" on men's basketball and also hired Dan Leibovitz as associate commissioner for men's basketball.

Both moves indicated the all-powerful football conference finally noticed Kentucky has become about it for the league in generating national basketball interest.

Tranghese is the former commissioner of the Big East, back when it was an elite basketball conference.

Leibovitz formerly was an assistant coach under Hall of Famer John Chaney at Temple, was an assistant coach in the Ivy League at the University of Pennsylvania and was head coach at the University of Hartford. He worked in the NBA as an assistant coach for player development with the Charlotte Hornets and in collegiate administration as associate men's basketball commissioner in the American Athletic Conference.

Both hires drew national acclaim.

Since their arrival, the SEC has taken common sense steps. The league stressed improving its teams' nonconference schedules and moved SEC basketball media days out of Charlotte, N.C. -- in the heart of ACC country while the SEC has no school in North Carolina -- to Nashville, Tenn., the site of the SEC Tournament in March.

Holding the event in Charlotte was for the convenience of the SEC Network, which is housed there.

Those admirable steps forward just retreated in scheduling disarray.

Obviously at TV's whim to accommodate the SEC vs. Big 12 Challenge day of Jan. 28, for the first time the SEC schedules its first games of conference play between Christmas and New Year's Day.

Pat Foster recalled the days when athletic directors who had played and coached the games exerted some control over the games that suits in TV and at athletic shoe companies control now.

The former Razorbacks All-Southwest Conference basketball player from Emerson is a retired coach after 29 years. He first assisted Lanny Van Eman for two years, then Eddie Sutton for six years at Arkansas. Later, he served as a head coach at Lamar, Houston and Nevada.

He laments the November empty seats prevalent in most places for a college basketball season that is started too soon.

"There should be no college basketball game played before Dec. 1 and no conference game until the second week of January," Foster said. "What's happening is non-athletic people have got control of the show, and they are making decisions like that."

Sports on 12/10/2016