The NCAA has decided not to implement controversial changes to its recruiting rulebook
The changes would have allowed schools to hire extra recruiters and to mail an unlimited amount of correspondence to prospects
Florida’s Billy Donovan has been named the AP’s SEC Basketball Coach of the Year
Georgia F Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been named the SEC Basketball Player of the Year
Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy on his brash star guard: “The Marshall Henderson Show is like the traveling circus”
Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin says the NCAA’s decision to invite just three SEC teams to this year’s tournament shows a “lack of respect”
Follow the Southeastern Conference each day at MrSEC.com and twitter.com/mrsec

Congrats on reaching the middle of the workweek, America.  Congrats to Andy Kennedy for getting a much-needed win at Ole Miss.  Congrats to Missouri fans for vanquishing ex-coach Mike Anderson in loud and rowdy fashion.

And there’s plenty more SEC news on the way today.

As for the thought/lyric of the day, it came to my attention when this song popped up on the MrSEC.com iPod today that we push a lot of blues around here… but not a lot of blues by women.  Time to change that.  So please enjoy the supercharged sound of Ms. Koko Taylor.

“…When the reflection in the glass that I held to my lips revealed the tears that were on my face.”

Good Lord, that woman could sing.

1. Alabama coach Anthony Grant

2. Arkansas coach Mike Anderson

3. Auburn coach Tony Barbee

4. Florida coach Billy Donovan

5. Georgia coach Mark Fox

6. Kentucky coach John Calipari

7. LSU coach Johnny Jones

8. Mississippi State coach Rick Ray

9. Missouri coach Frank Haith

10. Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy

11. South Carolina coach Frank Martin

12. Tennessee coach Cuonzo Martin

13. Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy

14. Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings

1. Texas A&M is on the verge of making the biggest SEC debut splash since Arkansas basketball in the early 1990′s.

2. Football Johnny Manziel’s third-best sport?

3. The LSU locker room in College Station.

4. What’s at stake for Auburn today? “Never has a game against Vanderbilt meant so much for the Tigers.”

5. NFL analyst to Tennessee trio contemplating the next level – stay in school.

6. Andy Staples: “Even though Urban Meyer coached Florida to twice as many national titles, they will never love Meyer the way they love Spurrier,”

7. Pat Dooley: “When Spurrier came into the league in 1990, he changed the way football was played in the South. And now, it has changed back.”

8. Four Arkansas players have experienced season-ending injuries in a frustrating filled season.

9. What to watch in week 8 of college football.

10. Ole Miss basketball coach Andy Kennedy on his seniors: “There is a true sense of urgency.”

1.  Here are some first impressions from Day One of Auburn’s spring drills.

2.  Two new coordinators are giving the Tigers a different look.

3.  Mike Anderson wants his Arkansas basketball team to be tougher next year (and he hopes a trip to Italy will help).

4.  The UAB football program hired an Arkansas assistant for its head coach this offseason… and now Arkansas hoops assistant TJ Cleveland is in the mix for UAB’s open basketball job.

5.  A lighter Spencer Ware is part of a crowded backfield at LSU.

6.  This writer believes Andy Kennedy would be a smart choice for UAB.

7.  Kennedy’s new boss — at least for now — is Ole Miss AD Ross Bjork who was introduced yesterday in Oxford…

8.  And none other than Archie Manning called for the Rebel fanbase to unite behind him.

9.  UM also has quite a few questions to answer on the football front as spring practice opens today.

10.  Mississippi State’s Arnett Moultrie will announce his NBA decision on Monday.

11.  Florida wants to create more turnovers on defense in Will Muschamp’s second year.

12.  New offensive coordinator Brent Pease likes what he’s seen from wideout Quinton Dunbar.

13.  Backup quarterback Hutson Mason is happy he didn’t transfer from Georgia.

14.  Mark Richt thinks O-lineman Kolton Houston — sidelined all last year with an “NCAA issue — will be eligible to play this fall.

15.  John Calipari and Tom Crean — buddies off the court — will battle for a spot in the Elite Eight tonight when Kentucky and Indiana meet.

16.  Forbes Magazine says John Calipari is the most overpaid college basketball coach in America.

17.  So is Michael Kidd-Gilchrist going pro or not?

18.  Tailback Kenny Miles is looking good this spring, but he’s still not told South Carolina coaches if he’ll definitely play ball this fall.

19.  Ohio’s DJ Cooper — who along with his parents claimed last week that ex-Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl was one of several coaches who tried to lure him into a transfer — has now backtracked completely.

20.  There’s now optimism in the UT basketball program under Cuonzo Martin.

GamecockCentral.com — the Rivals site covering South Carolina — is reporting that Kansas State head coach Frank Martin “has been confirmed as a candidate with ‘heavy’ interest in USC, according to a source close to the situation.”  (That’s paywall stuff, folks, so you’ll need to buy a subscription for more.)

If true, it seems that Carolina AD Eric Hyman could book one flight to Kansas City and knock out a pair of interviews — one with Martin and one with believed-to-be-top-candidate Gregg Marshall of Wichita State.

Martin — a Miami native — is known for his drill-sergeant style (hell, in a movie R. Lee Ermey would play him… NSFW, by the way.).  He is also known for taking Kansas State to four NCAA tournaments in his five years in Manhattan.  The 45-year-old has never won fewer than 21 games in a season and has a .684 winning percentage. 

But he currently makes $1.5 million in a basketball-loving state.  Would he really have “heavy” interest in moving to a football-first league and a program that’s seen the downfalls of George Felton, Eddie Fogler, Dave Odom and Darrin Horn in the past 20 years?

If so — and if Carolina could offer him enough cash to make the move — he’d be the second ex-Bob Huggins assistant to coach in the league along with old colleague Andy Kennedy.  Hmmm.  Seems all those Huggins guys have tempers when you think about it.

1.  With a BCS title under his belt, Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron enters his second season as a starter with confidence.

2.  Ivory Coast natives and Auburn forwards Willy Kouassi and Bernard Morena have been cleared by Tony Barbee to transfer.  (“… sometimes things don’t fit, and I am disappointed they they felt that this wasn’t the right fit for them.”)

3.  Defensive back Craig Loston is ready to prove his worth at LSU.

4.  Mississippi State AD Scott Stricklin — now searching for a head basketball coach — was very much involved in the search that landed Dan Mullen.  (That’s the word of Stricklin’s former boss, Arizona AD Greg Byrne.)

5.  The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Oral Roberts coach Scott Sutton is on the list for MSU and for Nebraska.

6.  Wisely, Ole Miss continues its contract extension talks with Andy Kennedy.  (The coach hasn’t made an NCAA tourney yet, but he’s won 20 games five or more times with the worst facilities and hoops budget in the SEC.  Gotta wonder how much the departures of Houston Nutt and Pete Boone have aided his status, though.  He was not extended after last season.)

7.  Florida’s cornerback Marcus Roberson is back at practice after what was nearly a career-ending neck injury last fall.

8.  The Gators’ defense has been a key to the team’s Sweet Sixteen run.

9.  Georgia QB Aaron Murray is glad the hot-seat talk that fueled a “stressful” season last year is history.

10.  There are plenty of question marks as the Dawgs open spring practice today.

11.  Another day, another National Player of the Year trophy for Kentucky’s Anthony Davis.

12.  The Cats should have a slick, new locker room at Rupp Arena next year thanks to a $2.9 million renovation project kickstarted by John Calipari.

13.  Connor Shaw is settling in as South Carolina’s quarterback this spring.

14.  Steve Spurrier — who’s appeared topless on camera more times than Heather Graham — believes Bruce Ellington will decide his football future by the end of the week.

15.  Vandy is looking for more forward progress this spring.

16.  This writer thinks the SEC could be headed to a $5 billion payday with renegotiated ESPN and CBS deals. 

17.  It’s rather silly that more college football programs don’t open their practices to fans.

There are two SEC programs searching for a new head coach.  A third school might be looking for one if they can’t hold onto theirs.

We’ll start with South Carolina where native son Gregg Marshall is still expected to be high on the list.  Trouble is, there are plenty of people in Kansas who are saying it’ll take a lot of cash to lure Marshall away from Wichita State.  From columnists in Wichita to ESPN’s Andy Katz, it’s clear that someone is driving up Marshall’s price tag on the coach’s behalf.  Word is that the Shockers’ coach wants at least $2 million to takeover a Gamecock program that ends coaching careers with great regularity.

If Marshall can’t be had, don’t be surprised if AD Eric Hyman makes a run at Duke assistant Jeff Capel.  Hyman tried to hire him when he inked Darrin Horn.  Capel has washed out once at Oklahoma and the program was put on probation under his watch.  (Though like John Calipari, Capel was not accused of any wrongdoing.)

Meanwhile, president Mark Keenum of Mississippi State says AD Scott Stricklin is just getting started in his search for a Rick Stansbury replacement.  Promoting an assistant — that’s how MSU has landed its last two coaches — is not out of the question and outgoing point guard Dee Bost has already tweeted his support for ex-Stansbury aide Phil Cunningham.

Katz also tosses out the name of Kentucky assistant Kenny Payne — a man with ties to the Magnolia State — as a potential candidate in Starkville.

Whoever State hires will inherit a program in flux.  And MSU recruits are now mulling their options.

Finally, there may or may not be an opening at Ole Miss.  There’s been speculation from multiple sources all weekend (and today with the aforementioned Katz) that Andy Kennedy might be a target for his alma mater, UAB.

Kennedy is expected to meet with UM chancellor Dan Jones regarding his contract over the next “several weeks.”  The school is also looking for a replacement for AD Pete Boone, which further complicates Kennedy’s contract negotiations.

If UAB does make a run at Kennedy, he’ll likely have to take a pay cut to return to his old stomping grounds.  As we pointed out last week, previous Blazer coach Mike Davis made about half as much as Kennedy currently pulls down in Oxford.

1.  Andrew Steele says Alabama’s return to the NCAA tourney has elicited “one of those indescribable feelings.”

2.  Of course, with higher-seeded Creighton first and then a potential matchup with top-seeded UNC in Greensboro… the experts aren’t giving Bama much of a chance.

3.  As we told you earlier this morning, Arkansas’ season has come to an end with nary an invite to ary tournament.

4.  Meanwhile, Trent Johnson’s young LSU team will get to keep playing.

5.  After a solid three-day run in the SEC Tournament, Ole Miss will return to the NIT.

6.  Andy Kennedy says he was “not overly optimistic” about landing an NCAA bid.

The Ole Miss basketball team hosts Florida tonight in the first of three Thursday-Saturday turnarounds in the next month.  But if you want Andy Kennedy to get onboard the Complain Train, you’re out of luck:


“I don’t put a lot of thoguht in that because I don’t really have anything to do with.  We all realize that we’re in a big business.  SEC men’s basketball is a high-dollar business.  And the reason that it is on a lot of fronts, is because of television revenue.

So television affords you the opportunity to get in those windows and those windows are Thursday and Saturday.  If they choose you to fit those windows, then we’ll do the best we can to do just that.”


Kudos to Kennedy.  Unlike other coaches who’ve chosen to gripe about the league’s schedule right in the middle of the season — when nothing can be done about it — the Rebels’ coach is biting his tongue.

You can be sure that Kennedy isn’t pleased that his team got the worst of the Thursday-Saturday turnarounds.  And if he’s still around for this year’s SEC Meetings in Destin, we hope he voices any complaints he might have before the next batch of schedules is put together.

But for now, Mississippi’s coach is refusing to create negative press for the league office and he’s not teaching his players that it’s not okay to make excuses.  Good for him.