A History of SEC Basketball airs Monday

During the upcoming college basketball season, SEC Network will premiere “Southern Hoops: A History of SEC Basketball,” a seven-part series. SEC Stoied documentary chronicling the origins and progression of the conference’s men’s and women’s sports as the sport approaches the 75th anniversary of the first NCAA Championship won by an SEC institution. New episodes will debut every Monday night at 9pm ET from January 30th through March 13th.

The series, directed by “Saturdays in the South: A History of SEC Football” filmmaker Fritz Mitchell, will span the history of SEC basketball, from Vanderbilt participating in the first men’s college game (1893) and Adolph Rupp leading Kentucky to the first SEC. national title (1948), for basketball through the lens of the civil rights movement, and the emergence of powerhouse women’s programs such as the Tennessee Lady Vols, led by the legendary head coach Pat Summitt, and the SEC and NCAA champions, the South Carolina Gamecocks. Dawn Staley.

“After my experience directing ‘Saturdays in the South,’ I wondered if my passion for basketball could match that of football in the SEC,” Mitchell said. “Traveling to SEC college towns rich in history is always a fun trip. Sonny Smith told me about the early bootlegging days and I chuckled as Wimp Sanderson told me about hiding in the bushes to ambush recruits. I visited Pat Summitt’s grave with his family, emotions still raw even a few years after his death. I found myself mesmerized listening to Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf articulate the words of Malcolm X and sitting enthralled as Andy Landers talked about the efforts of the roots of women’s basketball. I quickly found that yes, there is a passion for SEC basketball, and surprise in every corner.”

An Emmy and Peabody award-winning filmmaker, Mitchell began his television career as a reporter for CBS Sports in 1982, and has directed and produced documentaries for ESPN and PBS since 1998, including two films for the celebrated show. 30 for 30 series – “The Legend of Jimmy the Greek” and “Ghosts of Ole Miss.” In 2019, he directed the acclaimed 8-part/12.5-hour documentary “Saturday in the South: A History of SEC Football” for ESPN Football 150 job and franchise SEC Stoied. Most recently, he directed the Emmy-nominated “The Trials of Bobby Hoppe.”

PART ONE: Naismith to Rupp, 1930-1959 (Debuts January 30)
Adolph Rupp arrived at the University of Kentucky in 1930 – a 29-year-old who took classes at the University of Kansas from James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. Two years later, the SEC was formed, and Rupp’s Wildcats would dominate play in the conference for decades. Meanwhile, a future coaching legend was born in Clarksville, Tenn. It was many years before Pat Summitt became a household name but the early years of his journey foretold tremendous promise.

PART 2: Pioneers, 1960-1970 (Debuts February 6)
As the South was transformed by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, so was the SEC. Texas Western’s historic victory with an all-Black starting five over Coach Rupp’s all-white Kentucky Wildcats in the 1966 NCAA finals marked a turning point for basketball in the SEC. Vanderbilt’s Perry Wallace then became the first black player in the conference, leading the way for the pioneers who would travel the difficult road to history. In Baton Rouge at LSU, Pete Maravich built one of the most remarkable basketball careers of all time. In 1970, another transformative SEC basketball figure in Dawn Staley was born in Philadelphia.

PART 3: Changing of the Guard, 1971-1979 (Debuts February 13)
The 1970s brought a new generation of breakthrough equipment to the SEC. Dale Brown, a North Dakota native, brings an infectious personality and fierce competitiveness to LSU basketball men. In 1974, the incomparable Pat Summitt began his legendary coaching career at Tennessee at the age of just 22. Meanwhile, the year after Coach Rupp’s death in 1977, his successor Joe B. Hall and a pair of local Lexington stars led Kentucky. The Wildcats earned an unforgettable national title, the program’s first in 20 years.

PART FOUR: The Entertainers, 1980-1989 (Debuts February 20)
There aren’t two more exciting and exciting players in the SEC than Georgia’s Dominique Wilkins and Auburn’s Charles Barkley. The duo headlined conference success in the early 1980s, while LSU’s Coach Brown took two teams to the Men’s Final Four. Coach Summitt won his first national title with the Lady Vols in 1987 and 1989. Tennessee was pushed by the developing power in Georgia under head coach Andy Landers, as well as the strong Auburn program led by coach Joe Ciampi that made it to three straight NCAAs. title game. The Lady Vols defeated the Tigers for the 1989 championship.

PART FIVE: From Country to City, 1990-1999 (Debuts February 27)
In 1991 and 1992, young Dawn Staley completed a successful college basketball career – earning the Naismith College Player of the Year award in her junior and senior seasons – even meeting Coach Summitt’s Lady Vols in the 1991 NCAA title game. Meanwhile Arkansas joined the SEC and the Razorbacks directly became one of the top men’s teams in the conference, led by fearless coach Nolan Richardson and his “40 Minutes of Hell” attack. Arkansas won the NCAA championship in 1994, while Kentucky returned to prominence under Rick Pitino, who led the Wildcats to the national title in 1996 in a Men’s Final Four that included a surprising Mississippi State team. Back in Knoxville, Coach Summitt enjoyed his greatest decade at Tennessee, winning three consecutive national championships from 1996 to 1998.

PART SIX: A Brave New World, 2000-2011 (Debuts March 6)
Kentucky entered the new century led by the first Black head coach, Tubby Smith, who had taken the Wildcats to the national championship in his first season in 1998. Later in the decade, Florida’s back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007 under the coach. Billy Donovan marks the rise of a new power in the SEC. Coach Summitt and superstar Candace Parker led the Lady Vols to their own set of consecutive national championships in 2007 and 2008. And down in Baton Rouge, two memorable figures cemented their legacy. Three of LSU’s five Women’s Final Four appearances were led by two-time Naismith College player of the Year Seimone Augustus, with the latter led by former Ole Miss coach Van Chancellor. On the men’s side, Garrett Temple, the son of the first Black basketball player for the Tigers, helped LSU to the Men’s Final Four in 2006.

PART 7: From the Old South to the New South, 2012-2022 (Debuts March 13)
The past decade has seen the expanded SEC continue to grow at the center of America’s college basketball story. John Calipari has continued his tradition of excellence at Kentucky, leading the Wildcats to four Men’s Final Four appearances including a national championship in 2012. That same year, Missouri and Texas A&M joined the conference, the season after head coach Gary Blair led the Aggies to the Women’s Final Four and national title. In 2016, the basketball world said goodbye to one of its greatest legends with the loss of Pat Summitt after a five-year battle with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. In 2017, Vic Schaefer led Mississippi State to the first of two consecutive national title appearances after defeating top-seeded and undefeated UConn in the semifinals, before falling to Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks led by A’ja Wilson. This is the first NCAA championship for Coach Staley, with the second title, featuring Naismith College Player of the Year Aliyah Boston, coming five years later in 2022.