UGA's Fox takes steps to mold Bulldogs

Jackson said it took him about three hours.

Said Jackson, "We haven't had any trouble since."

Jackson's clean-shaven head was further evidence of Fox's impact on the team. Fox has a rule on hair length, which the dreadlocked Jackson violated. Without being directly told by Fox, Jackson shaved his dreadlocks, which he had had since high school.

"I really wanted to show him and my teammates that I was buying in, because I'm a senior," Jackson said. "If I didn't buy in, they weren't going to buy in."

Said Fox, "There's an expectation for going to school, and it is a privilege to play basketball at Georgia. I think I got their attention early. Now we can focus on basketball."

Jackson was in a cast Thursday after fracturing his left hand while dunking a ball. Jackson has not missed practice, and hopes to be ready by the time the season begins.

Wall ball

Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson, voted the SEC preseason player of the year, had heard about freshman guard John Wall, considered by some to be the top recruit in the country. He was eager to see if he measured up to the hype.

"Tremendous basketball player, tremendous athlete, quick, can jump out of the gym, not afraid of contact, not afraid to take over a game, can shoot the ball," Patterson said. "He still does it all at the college level. For him to still be able to do that, he lives up to the hype in what people expect of him."

Young Wildcats

Kentucky coach John Calipari said that he might start three freshmen. Calipari, who came to the Wildcats in April from Memphis, brought in five freshmen and one junior college transfer who have been tabbed the nation's best recruiting class.

"We may start a junior, three freshmen and a sophomore," Calipari said. "We may be the youngest team in the country at the end of the day."

Calipari has almost 890,000 followers on Twitter.

"It's kind of like they've been sad for a little while and now they feel hope, so they're going nuts," he said of Wildcats fans.

Landers goes back to grind

Georgia women's coach Andy Landers said he has been attempting to restore the team's work ethic. Injuries have shortened the roster in recent seasons, he said, limiting the team's ability to practice hard. Last year, the Bulldogs finished a disappointing 18-14 and lost in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

"We haven't been able to grind," he said. "So we've got to get all that back."

Landers said he hopes that his team will run and press more. He'll have to do it with six freshmen on the 13-player roster, one of whom, returning starter Christy Marshall, is out for the year with an ACL tear.

"We're just trying to make sure everybody knows what we're doing with our plays and the style we play in, just to get to know each other and get to feel each other," said forward Angel Robinson, a preseason first-team All-SEC pick.

Visual overload

Coaches were crowing about the conference's contract with ESPN. On its various platforms, the network will televise 102 conference games, 91 in the regular season and 11 conference tournament games.

"It helps recruiting," Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury said. "All these young kids nowadays, they want two things: to be on TV and get to the NBA. That's it."

Lots of blocks

Mississippi State forward/center Jarvis Varnado is 142 blocks away from breaking the NCAA career record of 535, set by Wojciech Mydra of Louisiana-Monroe (1998-2002). Varnado, a two-time SEC defensive player of the year, had an NCAA-leading 170 blocks last year.

"You think about the Bill Russells, Wilt Chamberlains and Shaquille O'Neals, all the great shot blockers that have played this game, and he has the potential to be the best ever," Stansbury said. "He deserves all the credit he gets."