Georgia’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is the SEC Player of the Year. The league announced its postseason award winners today with Caldwell-Pope becoming the first Georgia player to receive the award.   The sophomore was asked today if he’s headed to the NBA: “We’ve got the SEC tournament to worry about. I’ve just got that on my mind right now.” He did indicate he’ll make a decision on possible early entry after the season is over.

Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel was voted the SEC Freshman of the Year, and along with Alabama’s Trevor Releford, one of only two players to be named First Team All-SEC and be named to the SEC all-defensive team.

Florida’s Billy Donovan was recognized as the SEC coach of the year, the second time he’s won the award. The conference-champion Gators placed four players on the first or second All-SEC squads, the most of any team in the conference.

Eight different schools are represented on the First Team All-SEC squad.

Florida’s Patric Young won the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year while Kentucky’s Kyle Wiltjer was voted the league’s Sixth Man of the Year, a move that didn’t sit well with everyone.

Here’s the complete list of postseason award winners. Twelve of the 14 teams were represented – only Auburn and Vanderbilt were completely shut out.

First Team All-SEC                                                                          
Trevor Releford, Alabama – G, 6-1, 195, Jr., Kansas City, Mo.
Erik Murphy, Florida – F/C, 6-10, 238, Sr., South Kingstown, R.I.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia – G, 6-5, 205, So., Greenville, Ga.
Nerlens Noel, Kentucky – F, 6-10, 228, Fr., Everett, Mass.
Johnny O’Bryant III, LSU – F, 6-9, 256, So., Cleveland, Miss.
Phil Pressey, Missouri – G, 5-11, 175, Jr., Dallas, Texas
Jordan McRae, Tennessee – G, 6-5, 178, Jr., Midway, Ga.
Elston Turner, Texas A&M – G, 6-5, 209, Sr., Sacramento, Calif

Second Team All-SEC                                                                  
Marshawn Powell, Arkansas – F, 6-7, 240, Jr., Newport News, Va.
BJ Young, Arkansas – G, 6-3, 180, So, St. Louis, Mo.
Kenny Boynton, Florida – G, 6-2, 190, Sr., Pompano Beach, Fla.
Mike Rosario, Florida – G, 6-3, 183, Sr., Jersey City, N.J.
Patric Young, Florida – C, 6-9, 249, Jr., Jacksonville, Fla.
Marshall Henderson, Ole Miss – G, 6-2, 175, Jr., Hurst, Texas
Murphy Holloway, Ole Miss – F, 6-7, 240, Sr., Irmo, S.C.
Laurence Bowers, Missouri – F, 6-8, 227, Sr., Memphis, Tenn.
Jarnell Stokes, Tennessee – F, 6-8, 270, So., Memphis, Tenn.

SEC All-Freshman Team                                                            
Michael Frazier II, Florida – G, 6-4, 200, Fr., Tampa, Fla.
Charles Mann, Georgia – G, 6-4, 205, Fr., Alpharetta, Ga.
Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky – F, 7-0, 244, Fr., Olathe, Kan.
Archie Goodwin, Kentucky – G, 6-4.5, 198, Fr., Little Rock, Ark.
Nerlens Noel, Kentucky – F, 6-10, 228, Fr., Everett, Mass.
Alex Poythress, Kentucky – F, 6-7, 239, Fr., Clarksville, Tenn.
Craig Sword, Mississippi State – G, 6-3, 189, Fr., Montgomery, Ala.
Gavin Ware, Mississippi State – F, 6-9, 270, Fr., Starkville, Miss.
Michael Carrera, South Carolina – F, 6-5, 212, Fr., Anzoátegui, Venezuela

SEC All-Defensive Team                                                               
Trevor Releford, Alabama – G, 6-1, 185, Jr., Kansas City, Mo.
Scottie Wilbekin, Florida – G, 6-2, 176, Jr., Gainesville, Fla.
Patric Young, Florida – C, 6-9, 249, Jr., Jacksonville, Fla.
Nerlens Noel, Kentucky – F, 6-10, 228, Fr., Everett, Mass.
Anthony Hickey, LSU – G, 5-11, 178, So., Hopkinsville, Ky.
Reginald Buckner, Ole Miss – F, 6-9, 235, Sr., Memphis, Tenn.

SEC Coach of the Year: Billy Donovan, Florida
SEC Player of the Year: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia
SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Patric Young, Florida
SEC Freshman of the Year: Nerlens Noel, Kentucky
SEC Sixth-Man of the Year: Kyle Wiltjer, Kentucky
SEC Defensive Player of the Year: Nerlens Noel, Kentucky

While the SEC Meetings are taking place in Destin, Florida today, the Big 12 meetings are underway in Kansas City.  Asked about the possibility of the new SEC-Big 12 “Champions” Bowl taking place in Texas because the SEC now has a presence there, University of Texas AD DeLoss Dodds responded:

“They have a sliver of the east side.”

Ouch.

One must wonder if/when his own league adds Florida State to its roster of schools whether or not Dodds will say the Big 12 has gained “a sliver” of real estate on the Florida panhandle.

1.  Big 12 fans won’t like it, but The Onion — “America’s Finest News Source” — has decided to have a little fun with the new Big 12-SEC bowl game.

2.  Seven cities — Atlanta, Kansas City, Memphis, New Orleans, Orlando, St. Louis and Tampa — have expressed interest in hosting the SEC basketball tournament in 2017.

3.  It’s behind a paywall, but Orangebloods.com reports that one Big 12 source told the site, “I don’t sense serious interest in expansion at this time.”  (Yes, but was that source anti-expansion man, Texas AD DeLoss Dodds and will that view change if a playoff comes to pass?)

4.  Now here’s one you don’t see everyday.  Alabama football graduate assistant Derrick Crudup was arrested on May 22n for misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

5.  Aside from a football national title in 2010, Auburn has seen a stretch of troubles that trace back to decisions made in 2004.

6.  Arkansas hoopster Marshawn Powell continues his rehab process.

7.  This writer wonders if Les Miles and LSU have lost their nerve following last year’s 21-0 loss in the BCS Championship Game.

8.  Miles says he still wouldn’t change any of the play calls from the Tigers’ loss to Bama.

9.  Texas A&M football coach and SEC newcomer Kevin Sumlin plans to do more listening than talking this week.

10.  Billy Donovan feels there’s still more for him to accomplish at Florida.

11.  Will Muschamp says defensive end and linebacker Ronald Powell is ahead of schedule in his comeback from ACL surgery.

12.  The Anthony Davis — I’m sorry — the NBA draft lottery will be held tonight.

13.  What kind of impact will John Calipari’s plan to play more big games at neutral sites have on Lexington’s economy? 

14.  Wildcat football coach Joker Phillips ruffled some Cardinal feathers when he said yesterday that UK would have to consider dropping the Louisville game if the SEC ever went to a nine-game conference schedule.  (Funny, I haven’t heard Clemson, Georgia Tech or Florida State folks talk about dropping South Carolina, Georgia or Florida when the ACC going to a nine-game slate.)

15.  At least four Tennessee athletes reported thefts of electronic equipment from their dorm rooms prior to tight end Cameron Clear’s dismissal last week for allegedly pilfering a Vol baseball player’s laptop.  (Derek Dooley — the old attorney — didn’t bother to use the word allegedly when discussing Clear’s case yesterday.)

16.  Gary Pinkel says Missouri quarterback James Franklin is ahead of schedule in his recovery from shoulder surgery this spring.

17.  Former Tiger basketball coach Mike Anderson was pleased to watch his old team’s success from Arkansas last year.

18.  Mizzou and A&M are learning about life in the Southeastern Conference.

Mike Slive’s SEC welcome wagon pulled into Kansas City yesterday to help make sure the Missouri Tigers don’t become an afterthought in the lefthand portion of their home state.  It’s clear that Mizzou is making a strong PR push to keep KC-area residents interested in Tiger athletics… even though the Tigers will no longer be playing nearby Kansas and Kansas State.

According to The Kansas City Star, Slive touched on the normal list of topics and we’ll give you a taste of each below:

* Scheduling — Slive said once again that the league’s ADs have shown no interest in moving to a nine-game schedule.  (We maintain that once everyone else starts playing nine BCS games per year, the SEC will be forced to follow suit or suffer in the national polls.)

“We have to decide how we’re going to schedule, and then if we’re going to have permanent (rivals), how permanent (rivals) are going to work,” Slive said.  “We’ve met a couple times, but not final decisions have been made.  I anticipate we’ll do that sometime between now and Destin” at the SEC Meetings at the end of May.

In other words, all the leaks and tweets between the presidents at South Carolina and Texas A&M don’t necessarily guarantee that Arkansas and Missouri will be paired as permanent football rivals.  (Though it sure looks like that will be the case.)

* Television — SEC schools can cut their own deals with networks for their local rights packages — like Florida and the Sunshine Network, for example — but the commish made it clear schools aren’t able to go the University of Texas route.  “Our institutions cannot go ahead and have their own networks.”

As for the current negotiations between the league and its current television partners ESPN and CBS, Slive said: “There’s not timetable, but you don’t want to be dragging it out forever.  We’ve had significant meetings with both of our partners.”

Slive would not say whether or not the league would start its own network like the Big Ten and Pac-12 have.

* Basketball Tournaments in Missouri — Missouri athletic director Mike Alden has already pushed both Kansas City and St. Louis to bid on future SEC Tournaments.  Earlier this month Slive stated that he “anticipated” a bid coming from St. Louis, but he said nothing of Kansas City.

So what did he say yesterday in Kansas City?  “If you’re asking if there’s a chance we bring the conference championship to Kansas City, the answer is… could we?  Yes.  Will we?  I don’t know.”  He did say that he thought KC officials might put in a bid.

St. Louis and Memphis, Slive said, have both expressed interest in grabbing the two currently open tourneys or 2016 and 2017.

Regarding St. Louis, Slive told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Frank Viverito — the president of the St. Louis Sports Commission — is “very serious” about landing an SEC tourney.  “He made it very clear that St. Louis has a strong interest in having every opportunity.”

* Moving the SEC Championship Game — I think we all know that this is a no-go.  The Georgia Dome has been home to the last 18 title games in a row and the commish said it’s staying put.

“It’s been very successful for us in Atlanta,” Slive said.  “Right now we’re under contract through ’17 with an option for ’21… we’re sold out every year, we have about a 99% renewal rate, we have a 20,000-person waiting list, and we draw somewhere between 35,000 and 40,000 people to our (SEC) Fanfare (event) adjacent to the game.  It’s a formula that one would be very careful about tinkering with.”

So, in all of that, did we really learn anything new from Slive’s stopover in the barbecue capital of the Midwest?  Only that St. Louis “very serious” about landing a hoops tournament — which was already anticipated — and that SEC schools could not form their own television networks.

It was believed that league schools could do so since they own their own local rights.  In fact, some sites reported that Texas could enter the SEC and keep its Longhorn Network.  Not so, according to the commissioner himself.

1.  Florida reported 12 secondary NCAA violations since last April and a few involved inadvertent — nudge, nudge, wink, wink — phone calls.

2.  For seeding purposes, the Gators had better not enter the NCAA tourney with a four-game losing streak.

3.  Georgia appears to be the frontrunner for Maryland offensive line transfer Max Garcia.

4.  “Pocket dialing” was also responsible for a few secondary violations at UGA the past couple of months.

5.  The Dawgs’ basketball team still needs a few more pieces.

6.  Kentucky’s Anthony Davis is a scene-stealer despite himself.

7.  Get ready for the emails, Jim.  For some reason CBS Final Four announcer Jim Nantz has announced who he thinks will reach New Orleans… and he doesn’t have the Cats making it.

8.  South Carolina is looking for a fresh start in the SEC tourney.

9.  Cock fans are still in a wait-and-see mode regarding Darrin Horn’s job status.

10.  Tennessee “can’t worry about the bubble” and needs to take care of its own business this week.

11.  The Vols’ Jeronne Maymon says he gets by on “quickness and smarts.”

12.  Vanderbilt’s Jeffery Taylor is focusing on “team,” not individual honors.

13.  This week’s Big 12 Tournament marks the end of an era for Missouri playing in Kansas City.

Last month, Missouri athletic director Mike Alden came out in favor of Kansas City bidding to land and host a future SEC basketball tournament.  At the time, we said KC was on the far side of the state and far from all SEC teams not named Arkansas or Mizzou.  We suggested St. Louis would be a better fit for a Show-Me State tourney.

Now Alden is backing one of those, too:


“The SEC Tournament is going to be up for bid in 2017 and 2018, which I made sure that Frank Viverito and Dave Peacock (St. Louis Sports Commission members) know.  No reason why St. Louis can’t bid on having the SEC tournament here as well as the Missouri Valley Tournament.”


As we wrote last month, the SEC would be wise to award its tourney to a select group of host cities.  As the league learned from its tourney in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2009, taking the highest bid doesn’t necessarily guarantee good ticket sales or filled seats during national TV broadcasts.

In our view, Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans are all either centrally-located, tourist destinations, or both.  Those four cities should be part of any SEC Tournament rotation. 

Then if the league wants to bid out a tourney every now and then to St. Louis, Houston or even Kansas City to appease the newest members of the league, fine.  (The chance to nosh on some toasted ravioli at Rigazzi’s on The Hill is A-OK with this writer.)  But the league had better not bid tourneys out to the Hinterlands with too much regularity lest it damage its hoops reputation further via empty courtside seats shown during game after game on national television.  Because regardless of what the folks in KC, STL or Houston say, there wouldn’t be 10 people attending a Thursday afternoon first-round game between South Carolina and Auburn in any of those joints.

Berry Trammel of The Oklahoman has looked across the changing landscape of college athletics — West Virginia is finally clear to enter the Big 12, by the way – and determined the winners and losers in the 2010-12 realignment cycle.  While Big 12 entrants WVU and TCU are projected to have no regrets regarding their moves, the schools they’re replacing are gonna be sorry.

At least that’s Trammel’s take:

“Missouri: Regrets.  The Tigers actually will be fine with SEC football.  I think they’ll win their share of games, make a bowl virtually every year, make a run at a division title or two.  Might even win the SEC East sometime.  In other words, do about what Mizzou has done in the Big 12 the last 6-8 years.  But Missouri is going to miss Big 12 basketball.  Its games with Kansas.  The conference tournament in Kansas City, which has served as a Mizzou reunion lo these many years.  Neither can be replicated in the SEC, and when the Tigers are playing South Carolina or somebody in an 11:30 a.m. Thursday game in the first round of the SEC Tournament, with maybe 300 Mizzou fans and 4,000 total in the Georgia Dome, Missouri people will look at each other and say, what have we done?

Texas A&M: Regrets.  The Aggies left the Big 12 for one reason.  To get away from Texas.  Except the Ags are going to realize, they didn’t get away from the Longhorns.  In the boardrooms and courtrooms and teacher lounges all across Texas, there will be Texas Exes, grinning at A&M’s struggles to overcome Alabama or LSU or Auburn.  And the only satisfaction A&M ever got in this bad-blood rivalry — beating Texas — now is gone.”

Trammel, of course, is looking at things from purely a sports-related viewpoint.  In reality, Missouri and Texas A&M have further enhanced their financial futures by joining the SEC.  They’ve also taken themselves off what are often regional television broadcasts and put themselves in front of a full nation’s worth of viewers 90% of the time.  That equals more eyes on the schools, more donations, more student applications, more students, more graduates and more donors down the road.  Money is money.

But while MU will miss Kansas and A&M will miss Texas — they will — it’s not like Kansas and Texas aren’t losing their oldest, most-heated rivals, too.  And those are the schools who are refusing to play ball.  They’re the ones acting as though they’ve been wronged (even though Texas has flirted with every league but the NHL in the past three years).  It’s possible that cooler heads might prevail at some point and do what’s right by all four sets of fans… and that means reigniting these fiery series.

Until then, Mizzou and A&M alums might want to ask Arkansas and South Carolina grads about moving to the SEC.  Would the Hogs have preferred to remain in the now defunct SWC?  Would Carolina have rather stayed an independent?  Or tried to re-enter the ACC, a league it left in 1971 because the four North Carolina schools dominated that conference’s decision-making?

Arkansas and South Carolina have both had seasons of hoops success since joining the SEC.  Both are now enjoying tremendous football success.  And a strong argument can be made that Texas A&M and Missouri are on better footing entering the SEC than either the Razorbacks or Gamecocks were back in 1992.

Missouri and Texas A&M may have some regrets.  No move is made without some amount of pain.  But if losing Kansas and Texas, respectively, are the schools’ greatest hardships, well, that’s a small price to pay for progress.  After all, just look again to Arkansas.  You can be sure Hog fans missed playing the Longhorns on a yearly basis when they first jumped to the SEC.  Now?  They just enjoy finishing ahead of them in the national football polls each year.

Many Tennessee fans are hoping to see brothers Elliott and Evan Berry sign with the Vols in 2014.

That’s because their older brother, Kansas City safety Eric Berry, was a star player at Tennessee from 2007-09.

There’s a long way to go until the Berry twins will be able to sign with a school, which might be a good thing for Tennessee. That’s because the Berry twins haven’t heard recently from anyone at the school.

“Nothing,” Elliott Berry told MaxPreps.com. “They fired the coach (Charlie Baggett) that has our area.”

Baggett’s departure from Tennessee was described by some as a “retirement,” although some close to the program believe the move was forced by the school.

Tennessee is expected to recruit Elliott and Evan Berry, who project to be two of the top athletes in the 2014 class, but the Vols will have plenty of competition. Elliott told MaxPreps he’s been offered by and has been hearing from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia and LSU.

To your immediate left is a map of the Southeastern Conference region.  That red dot at the extreme Northwest of the map?  That’s Kansas City, Missouri.  (You can click the headline above for a bigger look at the image.)

Kansas City wants to continue to make money off of Missouri athletics after the Tigers move to the SEC.  Missouri wants to maintain a presence in the city for its KC fanbase (though the area is a lot closer to the University of Kansas than the University of Missouri).

With the Jayhawks balking at the idea of continuing their football series with the Tigers in Kansas City, the city is looking for new ways to stay connected with MU.  City leaders met with Mizzou officials and state lawmakers yesterday to see if the Tigers were serious about playing games there in the future.

“It was real clear to me that Missouri was absolutely sincere in wanting to keep a major presence here in Kansas City,” said Jim Heeter, the head of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.  And that was enough to lead Heeter to say this:

“I suggest it’s a great opportunity for Kansas City.  We keep our Big 12 base and then expand our base to the SEC.  We can make what’s already one of the great sports towns in America an even greater sports town.”

Sounds good.  But the idea of the Kansas City community embracing the SEC is a bit of a longshot.  Columbia definitely will.  St. Louis — which is on the other side of the state from Kansas City — probably will as well, eventually.  But KC?  Take another look at that map above.

That said, there are a couple of options Kansas City and Missouri are already discussing:

1.  Have the Tigers play an annual football game in KC… even if it’s not against Kansas.

2.  Let the Tigers host a holiday basketball tournament in Kansas City.

3.  Bring the SEC basketball tournament to Kansas City.

Mizzou AD Mike Alden says he’s in favor of bringing the tourney to KC by as early as 2017-18.  “(The SEC is) gonna take a look at bids throughout their entire footprint, which includes KC.  I know they’re hoping they would receive a bid and proposal from Kansas City to be able to host their tournament here.”

Are 20,000 or so of you interested in heading to Kansas City in March to watch the SEC Tournament?  Didn’t think so.  Heck, even Kentucky fans might view that as being a bit of a haul.

It’s good business for the Southeastern Conference to award its tourney to the highest bidder.  The league should just know that the attendance will likely be rather low for such an event held in a place far from the South.  Like it or not, Kansas City is still Big 12 territory.  There won’t be much walk-up traffic from folks wanting to buy a seat to an afternoon session between South Carolina and Auburn.

For that matter, very few SEC fans chose to travel to St. Petersburg for the 2009 tourney and St. Pete’s in long-time league territory.

Since being revived in 1979, here’s a breakdown of the cities that have hosted (and are scheduled to host) the league’s annual basketball championship:

Obviously, the SEC has outgrown the days of playing the tourney at on-campus sites.  Good.  It shouldn’t go back to that.  Ever.

The SEC wants prime bids and it wants great exposure and it wants to expand into new territories and convert new fans.  Fine, fine, fine and fine.  But there’s a price for going too far outside its region.  Namely: Perception.

If the SEC hosts its tourney in Kansas City, Mike Slive had better be prepared for a national TV audience to see scores of empty seats surrounding his teams.  If that issue and overall gate revenue are not concerns, then to KC the tourney should go.

But if we at MrSEC.com were handling things — and obviously we’re not — the league would create a regular rotation of host cities based upon top-notch facilities, good infrastructure, tourist opportunities, and a location close to multiple schools in the SEC.

Here are the cities that would fit the bill:

* Atlanta, obviously.

* Nashville is another fine tourist destination with good facilities and a great downtown.

* New Orleans is a vacation destination and it should be in the mix regularly.  Though we’d keep an eye on this year’s tourney to make sure.

* With Beale Street and barbecue, Memphis would make sense as well — especially with the addition of two Central Time Zone schools to the league — but we notice that the league hasn’t been there in a while.  So Memphis would be a big maybe.

That’s it.  That’s three cities (and possibly a fourth) in the rotation.  If the SEC wants to reward Missouri and Texas A&M with tourneys in their backyards, then the league should focus on St. Louis and Houston which are closer to the SEC’s natural footprint than Kansas City, Dallas or San Antonio.

And St. Louis and Houston would still take the league into new, unconquered territories.

Kansas City?  That seems a bit too far way for the average SEC fan.

The University of Missouri board of curators is scheduled to begin a press conference with reporters as soon as their final closed session meeting wraps up.  That meeting has already run longer than expected.

As any SEC-related announcement is made, we’ll let you know right here.

* The presser was tentatively scheduled for 12:30pm ET.  It’s now 1:15pm.  Still we wait.

* And still waiting.  An MU backdrop is not being put up in the media room.

* AD Mike Alden is scheduled to be on hand for the presser.

* Unanimous resolution: Chancellor Brady Deaton has authority to engage in contract talks with other conferences.  

* Missouri also wants to look at continuing to play football and basketball games in Kansas City.  (Why offer to play games in KC if you aren’t leaving that area and those area rivals?)

* 2 + 2 = SEC

* Deaton wouldn’t speak specifically about leaving Big 12 or joining SEC, but things wouldn’t have gotten this far if the SEC and Missouri hadn’t already nailed things down.

* This is almost the exact timeline that Texas A&M followed when entering the SEC.

* MU reps are working hard to not say too much — due to legal concerns — but it certainly looks as though Mizzou and the SEC are going to start speeding up the process.

* “No timeline” set but MU expects things to move “expeditiously.”

* “This is a very complex transaction to consider.”  “We have to exercise our fiduciary duty.”  By giving Deaton the the right to cut a new contract, MU is all but announcing they’re leaving the Big 12.

* Missouri anticipates any move it makes taking place before next season.


1:54 — That’s it for now.  Mizzou is heading toward the SEC and the chancellor now has the ability to act on his own without having to run back and forth for board approval.  The next stop — from what was suggested today — will be an announcement that Missouri has reached an agreement with the SEC or it has decided to stay.  There will be no “What do we need to do to leave the Big 12?” step as there was in Texas A&M’s case.

We continue to believe that Missouri’s move to the SEC will be completed by mid- to late-next week.

We’ll have reaction on the site later this afternoon.