Save the Shield! A Vanderbilt sports blog

This week NYD and I appear to have repaired the bottleneck in our joint writing process (namely the sloth of PhilipVU94) and we got our ballot in on time. I can heartily endorse Google Wave for its online groupware (collaboration) functionality, although it is still beta - hit me up if you’d like a free invitation.

I still have to let him write the Kentucky ones because I can’t say anything nice about the program that hired the game’s biggest scumbag regardless of if they win every game 157 to nothing. I don’t know why that bunch of fans gets so excited about honors that, the track record suggests, will most likely be vacated before 2015 rolls around. Try building a good team while following these rules one of these years like the coach you ran off used to do and I’ll pay attention.

Here’s the ballot:

1. 1 Kentucky - Yes, they’ve clearly performed the best of any SEC squad to date, but there are still questions as to just how good they are, and as to whether or not they really have any marquee wins.
2. Tennessee - Thanks to a certain football coach, the Vols’ celebration after beating #1 was even shorter-lived than the one after beating Memphis in 2008.
3. Vanderbilt - Free throws? We don’t need no stinkin’ free throws. Shaq didn’t need free throws. In 2008 Memphis didn’t need… um, OK, they needed one free throw.
4. Miss State - Jarvis Varnardo rejected the comment we had prepared for the Bulldogs this week. Oh well.
5. S Carolina - Certain pygmy tribes actually have a taller starting five than the Gamecocks… though Carolina does have some bulk on the Hobbits.
6. Florida - The reality is that Billy D no longer has a team whose sum is greater than the whole of its parts… and he hasn’t since the Fab Four carried the chemistry out the door.
7. Ole Miss - The home loss to MSU will sting for a little while, but Ole Miss still should be in the hunt at season’s end for Western Division champs.
8. Alabama - Anthony Grant may have to wait for the right players to run his preferred up-tempo style. But he’s got a pesky, turnover-causing team that’s annoying to play.
9. Georgia - Two close conference losses and a mixed OOC slate are still good enough for 9th.
10. Arkansas - Just barely got that first SEC game in before the polls closed. But the season highlight is still a close loss to Texas.
11. Auburn - Is there anything worse than getting rid of all-around good guy Jeff Lebo and not having any tangible improvement to show on the court?
12. LSU - Methinks the LSU pharmacology squad has been spending too much time with the D-Line and not enough time with the Frontcourt.