Around The SEC East – 2/11/09

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Here are the headlines from across the SEC East this morning:

UF:  Nick Calathes was fantastic for the Gators in Lexington last night.  He scored 33 points, just one point shy of his career high.  But in the final .6 seconds of the game, Florida’s point guard missed three straight free throws allowing Kentucky to escape with a 68-65 win.

UF:  As a team, the Gators missed six of their final nine free throw attempts (one was intentional).  That’s hardly the way to win an SEC road game.

UF:  In fact, if Florida had hit their free throws at Kentucky and at South Carolina, they would currently be 8-1 in the league and sitting pretty for a decent NCAA Tournament seed.

UF:  New Florida quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler has good things to say about John Brantley, the dropback passer waiting in the wings behind Tim Tebow.

UF:  Pat Dooley of The Gainesville Sun writes that Gator fans who were sorry to see Phillip Fulmer fired (because he was easy to beat) can stop worrying.  Lane Kiffin is “considered a buffoon.”

UK:  Missed free throws are the theme in the Sunshine State, but in the Bluegrass State, everyone’s talking about Jodie Meeks’ three-pointer with 4.7 seconds left.  Calathes says he actually touched the ball as Meeks shot it.  Billy Gillispie admits it was a bit of a lucky shot.  Meeks just hopes it made “SportsCenter.”  (In case you haven’t seen the shot, here it is along with one young fan’s reaction to the game-winning bucket.)



UK:  John Clay of The Lexington Herald-Leader writes that toughness finally made the difference for Kentucky as they snapped their three-game losing streak.  Remember, Gillispie showed his team tapes of his tougher Texas A&M squad this week.  And Florida’s players bristled at the thought of being called a “finesse” team.  Well, the tougher team won in Lexington last night.

UK:  I missed Gillispie’s halftime interview with ESPN’s Jeannie Edwards, so I can’t comment, but Mr. Clay caught it and apparently UK’s head coach was once again “a jerk” to the ESPN reporter he put down a couple of weeks ago.

UK:  Patrick Patterson sprained his right ankle in the second half of last night’s game and will be evaluated day by day.

UK:  The win meant that UK history buffs won’t be losing sleep over a three-game SEC losing streak at Rupp Arena.

UGA:  How has Georgia fallen to the depths of a 10-game losing streak?  Try getting behind early in every game.  (Of course, sucking also might have something to do with it.)

UGA:  Jeremy Price and Travis Leslie should both play at Tennessee tonight, despite getting into a shoving match with each other prior to Georgia game with South Carolina on Saturday.  Poor Pete Herrmann.  It’s a long way from coaching David Robinson to having to lead this mess of a team on an interim basis.

UGA:  As bad as things are now, Georgia’s players are taking a wait-and-see approach with their futures.  In other words, Bulldog fans shouldn’t be sweating a mass exodus via transfer.

UGA:  Athletic director Damon Evans has hired an Atlanta-based search firm to help with the coach-finding process.  Though fans always seem to grumble (for some reason) about search firms being hired, these groups allow ADs to quietly talk to coaches’ representatives long before the season actually ends.

UGA:  So how did Georgia pull receiver Marlon Brown out of Memphis?  Tennessee’s Lane Kiffin blames Brown’s grandmother.  (The fact that Ed Orgeron, rumor has it, dropped an F-bomb in front of her probably didn’t help the Vols’ chances.)

USC:  So much for walking away from football and heading back to Alabama.  Tommy Beecher, who was an in-again, out-again quarterback for Steve Spurrier, is transferring to Liberty University to play for the Fighting Falwells.

USC:  Seth Emerson believes the Gamecocks now have about a 60% chance of making the NCAA Tournament field and he breaks down the reasons in his excellent blog.  (Even the name of the blog is good: “Stalking Darrin Horn.”)

UT:  The Vols begin their 8-game stretch run with an overall record of 14-8 and a conference mark of 5-3.  To make the NCAA Tournament, the Vols had better hold serve at home starting tonight against lowly Georgia.

UT:  Bruce Pearl believes his team had better be ready for the Dawgs.  “With three minutes left, they were beating us (in the first game), so they know they can play with us.”

UT:  Athletic director Mike Hamilton believes that Lane Kiffin is contrite regarding his Urban Meyer comments last week.  “It was obvious when he left the stage that he was regretful that he had said it.  Lane realizes fully the implications of last week.  I don’t think he was trying to call anybody out.”  Which is why he then joked about the matter later that same day at a stop in Memphis, I suppose.  Contrite.  Very contrite.

UT:  To heck with contrition, this columnist believes Kiffin “has to send the message — any way he can — that the Vols aren’t going to be doormats for Florida, Georgia and Alabama anymore.”

UT:  Meanwhile, Geoff Calkins of The Memphis Commercial-Appeal has been hearing it from Vol fans upset with his musings on Kiffin-gate.

Vandy:  Jamie Graham has decided to walk away from basketball and focus on his Commodore football career.  “We agree and totally support this decision,” said Kevin Stallings.  “We wish Jamie the best of luck and look forward to following his success on the football field.”