I wouldn't count on Kiffin turning things around at SC. Surprised Haden didn't fire him, I thought I read some Haden remarks about him that weren't too favorable, but I could be misremembering.
SEC Basketball
1. Auburn will try to end a two-game losing streak tonight at Vanderbilt.
2. Arkansas hopes to overwhelm shorthanded Mississippi State tonight.
3. Wanting to press, LSU’s Johnny Jones is having to use his timeouts wisely so his players won’t “rest on the floor” and take plays off.
4. The win-hungry, 0-4 Tigers host Texas A&M tonight.
5. MSU’s Rick Ray knows what his team has to do against Arkansas’ 40-minutes-of-Hell defense: “We’ve got to make sure that we’re not rushing to try and break the press.”
6. Now nationally ranked, can Ole Miss show consistency?
7. After two-straight losses, Texas A&M will try to get well against banged-up LSU.
8. Florida’s loss at Georgia last year should help the Gators avoid overconfidence in Athens tonight.
9. Senior UF forward Erik Murphy has been playing with a broken rib.
10. Mired in a disappointing year, Georgia’s Mark Fox says he’s always known it would take a long time to turn around the Bulldog hoops program. (As if that will calm unhappy UGA fans.)
11. Fox on his team’s opponent tonight: “Since I’ve been here at least, this has been the best Florida team and the most complete Florida team I’ve seen.”
12. We’re not the only ones who think Kentucky looks like an NIT team right now.
13. South Carolina’s basketball team needs to learn how to win.
14. Freshmen Derek Reese and Armani Moore “are growing on the fly” at Tennessee.
15. Vanderbilt freshman Sheldon Jeter is earning Kevin Stallings’ trust.
16. Missouri’s Frank Haith will face a big challenge in defending himself against the NCAA’s “amoeba attack.”
17. For now, uncertainty surrounds the MU program.
SEC Football
18. Alabama assistant Jeff Stoutland — formerly of Miami — could avoid major penalties in the NCAA’s case against The U and its coaches through his cooperation with investigators. (No word, however, on former Cane aide and current Tide director of football operations, Joe Pannunzio.)
19. Auburn has three early-enrollees already on campus.
20. Arkansas’ new batch of assistant coaches will make a hair less than Tennessee’s new staff, but more than Kentucky’s.
21. Bye-bye, baseball. Defensive back Senquez Golson will now focus on only football at Ole Miss.
22. The Rebels announced eight early-enrollees yesterday. (An ex-Southern Miss quarterback is part of the new crew on campus.)
23. Mississippi State has four early-enrollees already on campus.
24. Texas A&M will reportedly hire Mark Hagen from Indiana as its new linebackers coach.
25. Mark Richt isn’t currently one of the SEC’s five highest-paid coaches… but Georgia could change that soon.
26. The odds of next season’s Georgia-Clemson game moving to Labor Day are getting longer and longer.
27. University of Tennessee sports teams are worth about $150 million to the Volunteer State’s economy.
Bonus Stuff
28. Who benefits from the recent changes to the NCAA rule book? The biggest BCS programs. (Just another step toward a new “super-division” in college football.)
29. Andy Glockner of SI.com says Florida is the SEC’s only NCAA Tournament “lock.”
30. Manti Te’o tells Katie Couric he briefly lied to the media about his fake girlfriend after he discovered the hoax.
31. And the woman used as the face of the fake girlfriend has spoken to the “Today” show! (I know a lot of folks click on these Te’o links, but I just don’t care and I can’t believe this has become a national phenomenon.)
32. Southern Cal AD Pat Haden says it’s going to be really hard to “sanitize” Lane Kiffin’s reputation. “He’s anti-teflon. I mean, stuff sticks to him that doesn’t even belong on him.”
33. At 308 pounds, ex-LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell is reportedly planning an NFL comeback.
34. For now, Paul Finebaum is off the air… but he’ll be making a big comeback somewhere soon.
