String Music: The Rise and Rivalries of SEC Basketball

by Chris Dortch

Overview

Long known primarily as a "football conference," today's Southeastern Conference has become much more than that. There is no denying that the excitement of basketball and March Madness has infected the twelve schools of the SEC, fueled by the increased emphasis on and amazing success of the league's teams. Chris Dortch traces the rise of the SEC from 1991's expansion through the 2001-02 season, a time period in which every single school reached postseason play.

Drawing on fourteen months of exhaustive research that included interviews with every SEC coach and more than fifteen years covering the league as a beat writer, Chris Dortch is able to give readers the most detailed look ever at SEC basketball and its inner workings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781574887020
Publisher:	Potomac Books
Publication date:	10/31/2003
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

For fifteen years, Chris Dortch has covered college basketball as a sports journalist. Editor of the bestselling Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, he’s also written for Sporting News, including its College Basketball Yearbook, Lindy's College Basketball Yearbook, Dick Vitale's College Basketball Yearbook, ESPN Magazine, and Preview Sports College Basketball Yearbook as well as several internet sites, including AOL, CNN/SI, CBS Sportsline, ESPN.com, and Fox Sports Online. He lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Table of Contents

	List of Photographs	vi
	Acknowledgments	vii
	Introduction	1
Chapter 1	Alabama	11
Chapter 2	Arkansas	34
Chapter 3	Auburn	60
Chapter 4	Florida	83
Chapter 5	Georgia	107
Chapter 6	Kentucky	132
Chapter 7	LSU	163
Chapter 8	Mississippi State	187
Chapter 9	Ole Miss	213
Chapter 10	South Carolina	237
Chapter 11	Tennessee	258
Chapter 12	Vanderbilt	282
Chapter 13	SEC Tournament	306
	Epilogue	320
	Index	333
	About the Author	339

Editorial Reviews

"A terrific piece of hoops reporting, with engaging content and big-picture context."

"Finally someone has written a book that gives SEC basketball its due."

"An entertaining and informative look at SEC basketball that every sports enthusiast can enjoy."

From the Publisher

"A terrific piece of hoops reporting, with engaging content and big-picture context."—Alex Wolff, Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated - Alex Wolff

"Finally someone has written a book that gives SEC basketball its due."—Sonny Smith, former Auburn coach

Sonny Smith

"An entertaining and informative look at SEC basketball that every sports enthusiast can enjoy."—Dave Neal, host of Fox Sports Net South's SEC-TV

Dave Neal

With the exception of the storied program at the University of Kentucky, the most important sport at the colleges that make up the Southeastern Conference had historically been football, not basketball. But that began to change in the 1991-1992 season when Kentucky won yet another national basketball championship and the SEC added two more schools to its ranks, including the basketball powerhouse the University of Arkansas. In this smoothly written account, Dortch (editor of Blue Ribbon Basketball Forecast) devotes a chapter on how each of the basketball teams at the 12 colleges in the SEC fared in the 10-year period that began in 1991-1992. As basketball steadily grew in stature within the SEC, Dortch tells of the bruising recruiting battles for top talent and the fierce rivalries that developed among the schools. Dortch also charts the highs and lows of each program, including the myriad coaching changes that took place in the decade as each school jockeyed to improve its basketball fortunes. Because the schools competed for many of the same players-and obviously battled each other on the court-there is some repetition of events in what is otherwise a winning look at how basketball came to share with football a place in the hearts of SEC followers. (Jan.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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