STRING MUSIC: Inside the Rise of SEC Basketball

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.)