In a surprise move — one that really hurts his school — Maryland coach Gary Williams will announce today his retirement from coaching basketball.  The 66-year-old Williams says he’s ready to move on with his life.  Too bad he didn’t come to that decision a month or two ago when it would’ve been easier for the Terps to find a replacement.

With Williams on the way out, CBSSports.com’s Gary Parrish says Maryland’s search will “center on some of the men connected to most high-profile openings over the past few years — specifically Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon, Arizona’s Sean Miller and Villanova’s Jay Wright, multiple sources have told CBSSports.com.”  Notre Dame’s Mike Brey is also expected to be on the list.

Why mention this on an SEC website?  Because a few names from this league could wind up on the Terrapins list depending on how their search goes: Billy Donovan, Mark Fox, Anthony Grant, etc.  And depending on who Maryland finally hires, that coach’s ex-school will come open, too.  If it’s one of the men listed by Parrish, would Pitt, Arizona, Villanova or Notre Dame take an interest in a current SEC coach?

This isn’t an attempt to start a rumor.  We’ve heard nothing linking Donovan, Fox or Grant to the Maryland job.  But with the coaching carousel spinning again, we won’t be surprised if we do.

The Georgia basketball team has signed center John Cannon from Burnsville, N.C.

Cannon averaged 21.9 points, 12.3 rebounds and 6.5 blocks per game at Mountain Heritage High School during his senior season, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.

“We’ve very excited to have John Cannon joining the Bulldog family,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said in a released statement. “John has good size and good skills for a young big man. He understands the game extremely well and is an outstanding student. We believe that he has a very bright future ahead of him.”

Cannon is the fifth signee for Georgia’s class of 2011.

Georgia basketball coach Mark Fox did good enough work in his second year to earn a $400,000 raise and a one-year contract extension.  The extension takes Fox’s pact through 2015-16 and the raise boosts his pay to $1.7 million per season.  Both items were approved by the school this morning.

“At one point in time he was basically too low on the SEC ladder,” Georgia AD Greg McGarity said.  “Mark would probably be the first person to tell you he doesn’t think he needs to be the highest paid coach in this conference. … It’s where we need to be.  I think Mark knows this is a long journey and we hope he’s our coach for a long, long time.  It’s probably where we need to be right now.”

The next step in the journey for Fox is to prove that he’s not going to suffer the same fate that befell John Pelphrey and Trent Johnson.  Both coaches had early success with veteran players left behind by their predecessors, only to experience precipitous drop-offs when those veterans departed.

UGA will lose four starters from this past year’s NCAA Tournament team, including two possible NBA first-round draft picks.

Fox has his cash.  Now he needs to show that he’s really building a winner in Athens… and not just winning with Dennis Felton’s players.

Maybe James Franklin is going to be the next Mark Fox.  When Fox was hired from Nevada, most folks around the SEC — including some basketball vets — shrugged their shoulders and said, “Who?”  Two years later and Fox is currently one of the first names you hear when “up and coming” coaches are mentioned.

Granted, taking over a roster with two potential NBA first-rounders and landing in a fertile recruiting zone like Georgia gives Fox a leg up on Franklin, but the early returns are positive for Vanderbilt’s unheralded new football coach.

If nothing else, Franklin has brought a new energy to the Commodore program and that’s a positive.  A better Vandy is good for the SEC.

And according to Franklin, his players believe they are better: “Talking to our kids, I say where are we at right now?  They say that we’re a better football team right now than we were at any point last year.”

(That doesn’t say much for the work of interim Robbie Caldwell, of course.)

“Whether that’s true or not, they believe that and that’s important,” Franklin added.  “Were we perfect out there (during yesterday’s spring game)?  No.  We’ve got a long ways to go.  But they believe, and from talking to people, we’re much further ahead at this point than we were last year.  I just want to build on that.”

As Jeff Lockridge of The Tennessean points out, however, “better” is a relative term.  The Commodores have finished 2-10 in each of the past two seasons.

Former Tennessee basketball commit Kevin Ware is drawing all kinds of interest from schools inside the SEC and out.  Ware changed his mind about the Vols when Bruce Pearl was fired.  He said he would still consider UT, but new coach Cuonzo Martin can’t actually visit him in person because Pearl’s staff already used up all of the Vols’ visits with Ware.

“It’s unfortunate,” said Ware’s stepfather Wesley Junior.  “We may have to go up there on an unofficial visit.  We’re waiting to see how it plays out.  If meeting Coach Martin in Tennessee is something that Kevin wants to do, then we’ll make the ride there so he can get a good feel for everything.”

When the next contact period begins tomorrow, the shooting guard from Conyers, Georgia is expected to receive visits from South Carolina, Louisville and Central Florida.  And The AJC reports that Georgia, Alabama, Georgetown and UCLA might drop by as well.

The Ware family contacted Mark Fox about the Bulldog program.  “They said they would love to have Kevin there,” Junior said.  “They think they could have one of the best backcourts in the country with Kevin and (Kentavious Caldwell-Pope).  Georgia really has an interest in getting Kevin there and seeing how they can develop him as a point guard.”

1.  LSU holds its spring game tomorrow, but Les Miles wishes he could put his team through a few more practices.

2.  The Tigers’ spring game isn’t expected to draw as big a crowd as some other schools’ spring scrimmages.  Miles: “I don’t know, mayber there’s more to do in Louisiana than some of these other places.”

3.  25-year-old MSU assistant Angelo Mirando opens up about his receiving corps.

4.  Dan Mullen wants to see how his young guys react in front of a 40,000-person crowd at tomorrow’s spring game.

5.  Houston Nutt says “sometimes, looks like, boy we’re just running in mud… but we’re thinking a lot.”  Okay.

6.  Running in mud or not, the Rebels are ready for tomorrow’s scrimmage.

7.  Nutt says he’s seen improvement from his quarterbacks.

8.  Florida’s five-star players are starting to shine.

9. Much like Gainesville’s Tom Petty, Will Muschamp is where he is because he decided to run down a dream.

10.  UF is the latest school to use media members as coaches at its spring game.

11.  Georgia’s Aaron Murray is looking to build off of an outstanding freshman season.

12.  A wave of injuries has forced UGA coaches to do some shifting on the defensive side of the ball. 

13.  Mark Richt and Mark Fox will take their spring speaking tour into four different states this year.

Georgia’s 14-point blown lead and loss against Vanderbilt can be explained rather easily: The refs did it.

The officials working last night’s game had to be escorted from the court by police as fans tossed debris onto the court and “taunted the officials” after the final buzzer sounded.  Taunting the officials is standard operating procedure in college basketball.  Tossing objects onto the court?  That’s just low class.  (Al from Dadetown would approve.)

UGA coach Mark Fox drew a technical in the game’s final moments which seemed to ignite the crowd.  “I just voiced some frustration,” Fox said afterward.

Well, at least he didn’t throw anything at the refs.

For the record, Vanderbilt shot 14 free throws on the night.  Georgia shot 10.  Gadzooks, the disrepancy!

Actually, there’s nothing out of the ordinary about Vandy getting more free throw attempts than its opponent.  As we showed last Friday, VU had attempted (through last week’s action) more free throws than any other team in the league both at home and on the road.  So maybe last night’s calls were the result of the Commodores’ style of play and not, you know, cheatin’ refs.

1.  Erving Walker’s “miracle” 30-foot three-pointer made up for two key missed free throws in Florida’s 104-91 double-overtime win at Georgia last night.

2.  Chandler Parsons took over in the second overtime.

3.  The loss was Georgia’s second in a row to an East foe at home.

4.  Mark Fox said he was proud of his team’s effort last night, “but we’ve got to win the heartbreaker.” 

5.  This writer believes “the sting from this one will linger for a while” for the Dawgs.

6.  A healthy Trinton Sturdivant is looking forward to spring practice in Athens.

7.  The mayor of Lexington has called for a study to determine the feasibility of redesigning and renovating Rupp Arena.  (In other words, he’s not onboard with the idea of a new downtown arena just yet.)

8.  Here’s a by-the-numbers look at UK’s basketball players this season.

9.  Bruce Pearl says “Tennessee is going to regain its identity for its toughness and physicality.”

10.  Festus Ezeli is the SEC’s most improved player this season.  By far.

A few things were learned during last night’s SEC hoops contests.  Here’s your recap:


* It’s a lot more fun to watch games from the SEC East than the SEC West.  By now you’ve seen/read/heard just how terrible the West is.  Last night’s action provided more proof as Arkansas built up a huge lead on a very bad Auburn team — NCAA numbers guru Jerry Palm says the Tigers might be the worst major conference team in a generation — before letting AU climb back into things late.  John Pelphrey’s team went on a 21-1 run at one point to open up a 55-31 lead.  Yawn.  But Florida’s 104-91 double-overtime win at Georgia provided a stark contrast to Arkansas’ 73-64 victory.  The Gators and Dawgs were nip and tuck the entire way.  The math is pretty simple when it comes to East versus West this season: better teams = better games. 

* Florida appears to be coming into its own.  The Gators have now won three in a row and eight of their last nine.  Their only loss in that stretch was a three-point defeat at the hands of South Carolina.  More importantly, Billy Donovan’s team now owns road wins over East rivals Georgia and Tennessee.  Last night, Erving Walker and Chandler Parsons came through with 24 points and 12 boards, respectively.  Kenny Boynton also poured in 24.  But it was Walker who nailed a 30-footer to send the game into its second overtime.  The Gators are firing on all cylinders right now.  Next stop: Starkville on Saturday.

* Georgia just might not be ready for primetime.  We said that last Tuesday when Mark Fox’s team dropped a home game to Tennessee.  Now they’ve dropped another one at Stegeman Coliseum.  That’s not the way you win your division.  In fact, toss in a loss at Vandy and the Dawgs are just 1-3 versus their East rivals (with the lone win coming at home over Kentucky in their SEC opener).  UGA has lost three of its last five games.  “It was a devastating loss,” Travis Leslie said after last night’s overtime defeat.  “We just have to keep our heads up and keep fighting for it.”  Georgia kept fighting last night.  They erased an eight-point deficit in the final three minutes of regulation to force overtime and then built a lead in the extra period… only to see Walker drop his 30-foot three-pointer to extend the game (and ultimately doom the Dawgs) once more.

* For as many struggles as Arkansas has had this year, the Razorbacks are still 13-6 overall and 3-3 in the league.  In other words — they’re actually in decent shape in the West.  More remarkably, they’re now 12-0 in Fayetteville on the season.  Too bad there are so many empty seats around Bud Walton Arena these days ’cause the Hogs are playing pretty good basketball on their home court.

* Auburn may be AU-ful, but at least they’re not quitting.  Tony Barbee’s undermanned squad just doesn’t boast much firepower.  Against LSU, they had a six-point half.  Really.  Against Florida, the Tigers scored 40 for the game.  Last night they went more than 11 minutes without a bucket to open the second half.  That’s plain dreadful.  But still, down 55-31, Auburn went on a 33-15 run to climb to within six points in the final minute.  They’ve lost six games in a row and are winless in SEC play, but they still show signs of fight.  Credit them and their new coach for that much, at least.  Now, how long they’ll continue to fight?  That’s anyone’s guess.

1.  Arkansas’ $35 million football operations center is about to be put into the hands of the school’s trustees.

2.  So why is Ole Miss a better basketball team when it turns the ball over?  Andy Kennedy has an idea.

3.  Jeremiah Masoli has put his graduate school work on hold to prepare for the NFL draft.  Wow, it’s almost like he was just a rent-a-player for the season.  Whodathunkit?

4.  Mississippi State’s Dee Bost the Bulldogs are “not worried right now.”  Has he checked his team’s RPI ranking?

5.  Jacksonville Jaguar Maurice Jones-Drew took a shot at Jay Cutler and Urban Meyer during yesterday’s NFC Championship Game.

6.  Mark Fox has made Georgia basketball fun again.

7.  If Kentucky wants a high NCAA Tournament seed the Cats will need to win the SEC title.

8.  Bruce Pearl — who’ll be finishing off his SEC suspension over the next couple of weeks — says he might tweak Tennessee’s rotation.