Around The SEC East – 2/16/09

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Here are the day’s top headlines, summaries and links from the SEC East:

Vandy:  AJ Ogilvy just doesn’t play well against Tennessee.  One of the league’s best big men, Ogilvy can’t even manage to get shots against Bruce Pearl defenses.

UT:  Matt Hayes of The Sporting News believes Lane Kiffin is “bascially learning on the job” and that’s why he’s making some early mistakes.  Tony Barnhart and Ivan Maisel also chime in on the Vols’ young coach in this piece.  (By the way, we extend kudos to Dan Mullen for quietly learning on the job in Starkville.)

UT:  This columist believes Tennessee needs to hire a “Senior Executive Associate Athletics Director For Kiffin Clean-Up.”

UT:  Tennessee’s former coach, Phillip Fulmer, believes his firing was out of the blue.

UT:  On the basketball front, Tennessee will bring a 3-1 SEC road record with them as they head to Ole Miss and Kentucky for a pair of huge games this week.

USC:  According to Devan Downey, the Gamecocks were so confident in the final seconds of their buzzer-beating win at Tuscaloosa that “everybody was smiling, just like we had already won the game.”

USC:  With Kentucky and Tennessee both coming to Columbia in coming weeks, Carolina controls its own destiny in the SEC East race.

USC:  This bubble-watch blog has upped the Cocks’ chances of making the NCAA Tournament from 60% to about 75%.

UK:  Wildcat fans are apparently just as concerned about who’s not playing in a given game as they are how well the guys on the court are actually playing.

UK:  Jodie Meeks tossed in 45 points for the Cats, who played without Patrick Patterson (ankle) at Arkansas on Saturday.

UK:  Though Kentucky doesn’t have a strong track record with juco football players, Rich Brooks decided to go in that direction for three members of his 2009 signing class.

UGA:  Terrance Woodbury lit Florida up for 32 points and killed off any chance that Georgia would finish the SEC season winless.  And I didn’t think Georgia stood a chance against Florida.

UGA:  The Vegas odds of Georgia winning the BCS title are considerably lower this year than they were last year.

UGA:  For fans wanting an inside view of Georgia football, defensive tackle Jeff Owens’ blog should do the trick.  You have to wonder if the Georgia athletic department or someone in the football offices studies the posts before they’re posted.

UF:  Billy Donovan might not be panicking, but you can bet some Florida fans are.  Things are starting to look a whole lot like they did at this time last year.

UF:  Saturday’s shocking loss to Georgia was a real broadside into the Gators’ NCAA Tournament hopes.  RPI expert Jerry Palm feels that Florida needs to go 4-2 down the stretch to earn an invite.

UF:  In one bright spot from Saturday, senior guard Walter Hodge had a career-best 22 points.

UF:  Tim Tebow was at the Daytona 500!  Tim Tebow was at the Daytona 500!  (Sidenote — the Daytona 500 should start at noon, not after three and it should never finish under darkness regardless of primetime tv money.  The race doesn’t feel special to me anymore.)