Calipari already making impact

With John Calipari at the helm of the SEC's flagship basketball program, coaches say the conference is heading in the right direction.

In addition to the buzz swirling around Calipari and UK, several of the better players in the SEC last year are returning to school.

"Basketball in the Southeastern Conference is alive and well," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said.

Last season, it appeared to be on its death bed.

Only three SEC teams made it to the 2009 NCAA tournament and mighty Kentucky was not one of them.

Now the winningest program in men's college basketball has a new celebrity coach who has assembled the best incoming freshman class in the country, according to various recruiting web sites.

Calipari, hired on March 31, embraces being an ambassador for the university and says he has been busy.

"Those first 90 days are vital that you get off running and that you do so many things," Calipari said. "One of those is just learning and I'm learning as fast as I can.

"It's been an absolute whirlwind."

A whirlwind not without a couple of hiccups. His former school, Memphis, faces possible major NCAA rules violations, though the NCAA has said Calipari is not "at risk." Calipari also lost last season's leading scorer, junior Jodie Meeks, who opted to take his game to the NBA. Meeks was drafted 41st by the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday.

But that just means more minutes for players like Darius Miller, Ramon Harris, Darnell Dodson and Jon Hood, Calipari said.

The fact reporters were asking other league coaches about Calipari and Kentucky, four months away from basketball season, showed the impact of the new hire, Mississippi St. coach Rick Stansbury said.

"It's very obvious already the impact he's had," Stansbury said. "All through that state, that's all everybody's talking about."

And the timing couldn't be better.

"Last year whatever the perception was, it was fair," Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. "It was accurate. The league was young."

Experience will be on the conference's side next season. All-Conference players who considered the NBA draft but decided to return to campus include Kentucky's Patrick Patterson, South Carolina's Devan Downey, Tennessee's Tyler Smith and LSU's Tasmin Mitchell.

Pearl said Florida won back-to-back national titles when a group of upperclassmen put their NBA dreams on hold.

"Obviously our league is due a cycle up," Pearl said.

And the collective efforts of SEC team's will be critical to the conference's revival. LSU coach Trent Johnson pointed out that it's up to each team to pick up the league, not just the traditional standard bearer.

"If you win your share of games, whether Kentucky or Ole Miss, that's what's going to benefit your league," Johnson said.

Meeting: The attorney for Renardo Sidney says the NCAA has rescheduled meetings with the Mississippi State men's basketball signee and his family for next week.

Meetings at Don Jackson's Montgomery, Ala., law offices were scheduled for Wednesday, but the NCAA asked to move them to Monday and Tuesday.

The NCAA is investigating whether Sidney and his family may have received benefits not allowed under amateurism rules. A Los Angeles Times report citing anonymous sources questioned how the family could afford to live in million-dollar homes and fund a club basketball team after moving to California from Jackson.

Jackson says the family has done nothing wrong and has provided the NCAA with documents he hopes will clear the top recruit in time to play next season.