anthony grant alabama lsu 2015.jpg
Anthony Grant led Alabama to only one NCAA Tournament appearance during his six years as head coach from 2009-15. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)
The SEC has a basketball problem. You know it, I know it and Greg Sankey knows it, too.
When a Power 5 conference sends only three teams to the NCAA Tournament - while the other four Power 5 leagues send seven each - that's a problem.
When a Power 5 conference gets only three NCAA bids - while the Big East gets five and the American Athletic Conference gets four - that's a problem.
Some problems are bigger than others. If this year were an outlier, people who care about SEC basketball could brush it off and do what we usually do in times of trouble - hope for Kentucky to make a run and make the league look better than it is.
But this year is not an outlier. It's not a curiosity. As Sankey noted Monday, it's the continuation of a troubling trend. It's the third time in the last four years the SEC has sent only three teams into the NCAA Tournament. It also happened in 2013 and 2014.
How to put that swoon in perspective? The previous three times the SEC received only three bids: 2009, 1990 and 1982 - or three times in 28 years.
The SEC's 14 combined NCAA bids since 2013 is the worst four-year stretch since the league also sent 14 teams dancing from 1980-83.
So it hasn't been this bad in a long time. From 1991-2008, the SEC received at least four bids for 18 straight years. From 1997-2008, the SEC received five or six bids for 12 straight years.
There's ample historical data proving that quality basketball - outside of Lexington - in the nation's premier football conference is more than possible. It used to be a way of life.
What's changed?
You can't blame the league office. Recently retired SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, with Sankey as his right-hand man, made basketball a renewed priority, in part by making the sport the focus of Associate Commissioner Mark Whitworth. Schools got the message by pouring more money into coaching salaries and facilities and, with a few exceptions - looking at you, South Carolina, getting ready for the NIT - they upgraded their non-conference schedules.
But as Sankey also mentioned Monday, you can't just play quality opponents. You have to beat them. The league went 3-7 in the Jan. 30 Big 12/SEC Challenge. It was a sign of another sorry Selection Sunday to come.
Sankey was quick to take action, hiring former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese as "special advisor to the commissioner for men's basketball." It's a positive step, but it won't resolve a more fundamental issue.
If the commitment is there from the conference and the schools themselves, who's not getting the job done? Who's primarily responsible for turning the SEC into a league in which football is bigger than ever and basketball has shrunk in comparison?
It's gotta be the coaches. The SEC has hired too many coaches in the last decade and change who couldn't get it done.
Why couldn't they get it done? Ask Wimp Sanderson. The Alabama legend was one of the best coaches in league history because he was one of the best recruiters, as an assistant and a head coach.
"The answer to all of it is you have to have coaches that have a staff as well as themselves that will burn the midnight oil as far as recruiting," Sanderson said. "The coaches have to understand where success comes from, and success comes from you and your staff recruiting really good players."
Sanderson admitted it's harder than ever to recruit the kind of stars he and Auburn's Sonny Smith signed and developed back in the day. In-state loyalty isn't what it used to be. SEC football is bigger than ever, sending some recruits in the league's footprint in search of basketball programs in basketball states.
Like Kentucky, which remains the only SEC state where roundball matters more than football.
Whatever the challenges, the bottom line doesn't lie. Mark Gottfried wasn't Sanderson, but Alabama hasn't been as good since it bid Gottfried farewell. Ditto for Auburn since Cliff Ellis, LSU since John Brady, Mississippi State since Rick Stansbury, South Carolina since Eddie Fogler and Tennessee since Bruce Pearl.
Arkansas hasn't come close to living up to Nolan Richardson's standards, despite finally bringing back his coaching son, Mike Anderson. Missouri hasn't been the same since Anderson left there for Fayetteville.
It doesn't mean some of those coaching changes weren't justified. It does mean too many of the replacements haven't been as good as advertised. See Johnny Jones. That responsibility lands on the people who hired them.
Some of the newest coaches in the league have brought hope and proven credentials but haven't been on the job long enough to make noise in March. Pearl, Ben Howland and Rick Barnes have a combined 40 NCAA trips among them. If they don't start putting Auburn, Mississippi State and Tennessee into the field on a regular basis, it'll be an upset.
Either that, or it'll be a sign that SEC basketball on the rebound can't compete with SEC football on top of its game.