BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Andy Kennedy backed down from very few questions Wednesday at the SEC Basketball Media Days event. As the Ole Miss coach expected entering the day's festivities, the majority of questions pertained to reigning Southeastern Conference tournament MVP and All-SEC guard Marshall Henderson, who ran into his fair share of offseason trouble and is still suspended indefinitely.
Kennedy even played along with what he called the "inevitable comparison" between Henderson and outgoing Heisman winner and Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel.
"I hope that he can have half the success Johnny Manziel has as a player (this year)," said Kennedy, who said both athletes were free spirits enjoying life. The fact that the Manziel name is a sore subject in Oxford following his latest exploits was not lost on Kennedy, either.
However, though the comparison may be a convenient because of their controversial reputations amongst fans and media members, it's a weak one — Henderson's recent legal issues alone have created much more tangible off-the-court troubles for the Rebels' program. Though he was officially suspended for a violation of team rules, subsequent reports found police records stating that Henderson had run-ins with Oxford police on three separate occasions over the summer.
From July to August, Kennedy barred Henderson from practice facilities until he proved to the coach and the team he deserved to be back on the team. Since the Rebels returned to school in early August, the volume-scoring guard, who averaged 20.1 points per game in his first season at Ole Miss -- he transferred from Utah -- has been conditioning and practicing with the team. His return date is still unknown.
"The thing I'm most proud of is that he's owned it," Kennedy said. "He didn't try to run from it."
Kennedy and Ole Miss' player representative at Media Days, Jarvis Summers, said Henderson's presence has yet to be a distraction — he's still the high-energy, high-emotion player that garnered so much backlash during the team's third-round run in the NCAA tourney last season. It's all a work in progress, according to the Rebels.
"Before he can tone it down he's gotta earn the right to get back on the floor," Kennedy said of his lone returning senior. "I've challenged him to be more of a leader on the floor. … My hope is that he can walk that walk."
Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings admits he's a little biased when it comes to the city of Nashville hosting the SEC Tournament for nine times in a 12-year span starting in 2015, a new deal the league's athletic directors voted for unanimously over the summer and that the conference announced earlier this week.
After all, it's not hard to tell that the tourney's new unofficial home is also Stallings' place of residence.
But as far as competitive advantages go for the Commodores, Stallings doesn't see an inherent advantage.
"I certainly think Nashville has been the best venue for our tournament and it certainly has not been advantageous to us. We've done about the same there as we've done every place else," said Stallings, whose team upset top-ranked Kentucky to capture the 2012 tourney title. "I think that the intimacy of 18-, 19,000 seats is better than the (Georgia) Dome. I think the quality of play is higher because of that. … I just think that generally the play you see at the NCAA Tournament is better when you're in more of a traditional setting than you are when you're in a Dome setting. The shooting background in a dome are very difficult."
Regardless of the minimal statistical evidence available that domed stadium's do, indeed, affect shooting at any significant rate, Stallings' positive sentiments were echoed throughout Wednesday afternoon (with a minor exception of Georgia coach Mark Fox, who didn't mind holding the tournament in Atlanta for selfish reasons). Kennedy, who has also coached or served as an assistant at South Alabama, UAB and Cincinnati, believes there's something to be said for tradition.
"I had an opportunity to coach in the Big East and you knew (at the time) that every single year the tournament is going to be at Madison Square Garden," Kennedy said. "I just think it brings an identity to the league."
And as for teams like Vanderbilt or Kentucky — the latter being a team that had needed very little help of the years — benefitting from a built-in advantage due to campus proximity?
"I kinda liked Nashville," said a smiling Kennedy, who captured the 2013 tourney title in Nashville, "especially up there perched on that ladder."
As difficult as the offseason may have been for the reigning SEC tournament champion Ole Miss Rebels, the suspension of Henderson cannot match the heavy, unforeseen losses Vanderbilt suffered. The Commodores lost three of their best players, including leading scorer Kedren Johnson (13.5 points per game), over the summer and now look to somehow build upon the positive momentum of winning eight of their final 12 games last season.
Johnson was suspended one year for undisclosed reasons back in July and will miss the entirety of the 2013-14 season, according to his open letter disseminated by the school. Stallings and the school have not offered any further explanation of the situation since, though Johnson wrote that the suspension was exacted for using "poor judgement."
"It hurts me when I realize the consequences of my action, which happened near the end of the last school year," Johnson wrote. "It was a violation of the good conduct expected of all Vanderbilt students. I take full responsibility and now must begin working to regain the trust and respect of my school, the student body, our fans and especially my coaches and friends on the team. I understand this will take time."
His loss, coupled with the departure of 29-game starter Kevin Bright — the 6-foot-5 guard signed a pro contract in Frankfurt, Germany, near his hometown of Mannheim — and prospective starter Sheldon Jeter, who transferred to Pittsburgh, will be felt by Stallings and his staff this season.
The 15-year headman at Vandy said he believes incoming players like Tulsa transfer Eric McClellan and incoming freshman Damian Jones, a four-star recruit at forward, will help shoulder the load.
Still, it's been a strange offseason on West End.
"I've lost three guys in the summer time. Usually it's been to graduation," Stallings said. "The timing was a little peculiar ... I look at those losses just like I do when a guy gets or injured or a guy graduates. You absorb losses, that's what you do in college basketball. Your team changes every year just about. Are disappointed about those losses? Absolutely. Would we have been a better team? Absolutely, if all those guys were back."
Given the amount of talent John Calipari has accumulated in Lexington, it should come as little surprise that the Kentucky Wildcats were once again picked by the media as the conference's top team. Sporting 21 first-place votes, the Wildcats, who were bounced from the first round of the NIT last season, finished directly ahead of Florida (five first-place votes) and Tennessee (one).
LSU and Missouri rounded out the media's top five.
As for the preseason All-SEC team, an upperclassmen-laden group features one conspicuous freshman from … you guessed it: Kentucky's Julius Randle, one of the top-rated recruits in the entire 2013 class, was also voted the preseason SEC Player of the Year:
Guard: Trevor Releford, Sr., Alabama
Guard: Jordan McRae, Sr., Tennessee
Guard: Marshall Henderson, Sr., Ole Miss
Forward: Julius Randle, Fr., Kentucky
Forward: Johnny O'Bryant III, Jr., LSU
