SEC Basketball

1. Florida will play Northwestern State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

2. Ole Miss guard Marshall Henderson on other SEC coaches: “They’re losers.”

3. The Rebels will have a tough challenge when they play No. 5 seed Wisconsin.

4. Missouri coach Frank Haith on returning to the NCAA tournament: “I never take it for granted.”

5. SEC basketball this season was worse than previous thought, writes David Climer.

6. Kentucky went from being the 2012 story of the NCAA tournament to an NIT No. 1 seed.

7. The Wildcats lost too many road games to get into the NCAA tournament.

8. Tennessee is a No. 2 seed in the NIT after missing out on the NCAA tournament.

9. Alabama received a No. 1 seed in the NIT. The Crimson Tide will open against Northeastern.

10. There will be “increased pressure” for the Vols to reach the NCAA tournament next year, writes Mike Strange.

11. Maybe the SEC can “exact payback” during the football season, writes Mark Wiedmer.

12. Arkansas didn’t receive an invitation to the NIT. Its season ends with a 19-13 record.

13. LSU was left out of the NIT, too. Tigers coach Johnny Jones: “It’s just disappointing.”

SEC Football

14. Alabama is ready to move past its offseason troubles that included four players being kicked off the team.

15. Here’s a look at Auburn’s H-backs and tight ends as the Tigers prepare for spring practice.

Extras

16. The SEC was represented on the NCAA tournament snub list.

17. Here is the full NCAA tournament schedule with TV listings.

18. The NCAA released the official 1-68 seed list for the tournament.

19. Eamonn Brennan of ESPN.com has his own rankings for all 68 teams.

20. Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com believes Florida will reach the Final Four.

21. Always an entertaining read: “Forde Minutes” to get you ready for the Big Dance.

Andy Kennedy’s Ole Miss Rebels just can’t seem to get over the hump (or “The Hump,” considering the Rebs’ loss at Mississippi State’s Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday.)  Year after year Kennedy’s squads manage to win 20 games… and still miss out on the NCAA Tournament.  With a terrible strength of schedule number and some gut-punch losses this season (like the one to MSU), it looks like history will repeat itself once more.

But for those UM fans who feel Andy is the worst Kennedy to impact Ole Miss since Jack, a quick look across state should work as a calming tonic, as a soothing balm, and as a warning.

Rick Stansbury had led Mississippi State to 293 wins in 14 seasons as the Bulldogs’ head coach.  He’d won 20 games 10 times, including in 2011-12.  A perfect coach?  No.  His last three teams failed to reach the NCAA Tournament.  Also, the turbulence in and around his program during his final two seasons was self-created as the coach chose to sign and coddle controversial team-killer Renardo Sidney.

State fans had had enough.  Stansbury saw the writing on the wall and resigned last spring as MSU’s all-time winningest coach and the SEC’s ninth-winningest coach all-time.

Despite dreams of landing a big-name coach, the best MSU could do was hire Clemson assistant Rick Ray as Stansbury’s replacement.  Ray inherited a mess as most of the Bulldog team pulled up stakes and left as soon as their old coach stepped down.  This season has been one of misery in Starkville — an 8-20 record, a 3-13 mark in the SEC, and a 13-game losing streak that was finally snapped on Saturday.

Ray might turn out to be the best coach in history of college basketball, but it appears the rebuilding job before him will be a difficult one.  Certainly more difficult than what Stansbury would have faced had he not been pressured to resign.

If Ole Miss fans are upset that Ray finally ended his team’s long losing streak against their Rebels, that’s perfectly fair.  But they should compare the two squads’ overall records — 8-20 versus 21-8 — before dialing up a call-in show to demand Kennedy’s scalp.

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For those in the LSU family who want ex-Tiger player and assistant Johnny Jones — currently the head coach at North Texas — to be hired in Baton Rouge, the latest news on Joe Alleva’s search probably won’t please them.  According to Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com, the school has been in contact with Minnesota’s Tubby Smith.

Well, of course, it has. 

We’ve long joked that if the job of dog-catcher in Muskogee, Oklahoma came open, Smith and Jon Gruden would be mentioned as candidates to fill the vacancy.  They’re mentioned whenever a basketball or football gig, respectively, opens.  VCU’s Shaka Smart has recently joined those two as a member of The Always Mentioned Club.  And, he too appears to be on LSU’s radar.  Naturally.

Alleva seems to be channeling Captain Renault from “Casablanca.”





As for Smith, he just completed his fifth season with the Golden Gophers and his track record in Minneapolis looks like this:


2007-2008:  20-14, NIT bid
2008-2009:  22-11, NCAA bid (first-round loss)
2009-2010:  21-14, NCAA bid (first-round loss)
2010-2011:  17-14, No postseason bid
2011-2012:  23-15, NIT bid (runner-up)


His teams have gone 38-49 in the Big Ten during that span including back to back 6-12 league marks the last two years.  Going back further, his last two Kentucky teams went 22-13 (9-7 in the SEC) and 22-12 (9-7 in the SEC).

In addition, Smith will turn 61 in June which means he’d likely be a short-term solution on the Bayou.  Do those facts wow Tiger fans?

Glenn Guilbeau of The Shreveport Times reported late last night that an LSU plane was also tracked to Virginia where it’s believed Alleva is interested in Smart or Virginia’s Tony Bennett or both.

WFAB-TV  in Baton Rouge reported last night that LSU has already spoken with Murray State’s Steve Prohm, too.  Prohm just finished a 31-2 season with the Racers in his first year at the helm of the program.

Alleva made it clear upon Trent Johnson’s departure for TCU that he would rely on his own coaching contacts to find the best possible fit for the Tigers.  It appears he’s truly scouring the country for that person.  Heck, he’s already admitted to talking to Harvard’s Tommy Amaker, too, though, the ex-Duke player turned out to have no interest in the LSU gig.

On Tuesday we wrote that Alleva would likely reach out to a big name or two to satisfy his fanbase before finally turning to Jones.  We continue to believe that’s what will happen.  But the more candidates Alleva meets with, the more doubts about Jones’ eventual hiring creep into our cabezas.

And then there were two.  Only Florida and Kentucky of the SEC remain alive in postseason play.  Alabama and Vanderbilt have already exited the NCAAs.  Ole Miss, Mississippi State and LSU were vanquished from the NIT last week.  And last night, Tennessee got the heave-ho, too.

Making matters worse, said heaving and hoing came on their homecourt to in-state rival Middle Tennessee State.  The Blue Raiders scored the game’s final 15 points to pull out a 71-64 win in Knoxville.  MTSU’s Kermit Davis — a Mississippi State grad — has boosted his resume with wins over Ole Miss and Tennessee and a close loss to Vandy this year.  Scott Stricklin, are you paying attention?

For the Vols, they once again showed why Cuonzo Martin dedicated so much of his energy to improving their defense this year — he inherited no shooters when he arrived in Knoxville.  Tennessee shot 37% from the floor and hit just 1-of-13 treys on the night.

Martin said his 19-15 Vols made progress from the start of the season to the end.  A 10-6 record in SEC play and a #2 seed in the conference tournament are testament to that fact.

But missing the NCAAs and losing — in one season, mind you — to in-state rivals Memphis (twice), Vanderbilt, Austin-Peay, and MTSU will be hard for the Vol fanbase to stomach.  Whether fans realize the hand Martin was dealt or not.  (And please spare us the “he had four 4-star players” routine because one was suspended and the other three didn’t play any better for the last coach than they did for Tennessee’s new one.)

When the season started, UT was picked for 11th in the SEC.  On the whole, they far exceeded expectations.

Unfortunately, their second-round exit from the NIT only further shows that the SEC as a league has underachieved this season.  God speed, Kentucky and Florida.  Mike Slive’s league needs ya to keep winning.

Why do we say that questions swirl?  We don’t say they’re spinning or floating or buzzing.  Questions always seem to swirl. 

Just wondering.

‘Cause questions continue to swirl in Starkville today.  Mississippi State AD Scott Stricklin wouldn’t return messages from the Magnolia State media yesterday as most of the state’s talk show callers dialed up their favorite programs and called for Rick Stansbury’s ouster.

The coach — who as we told you yesterday is the most successful coach in MSU history — has two year’s remaining on a deal that stands to pay him at least $1.3 million per season.

Yet Brad Locke of The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal writes that “fan outcry against Stansbury is the loudest I’ve ever heard it, and fans made a statement Tuesday by not showing up — a season-low 2,507, turned out” for the NIT opener (and closer, as it turned out) with UMass.

For all the talk of power brokers and big money boosters and good ol’ boy networks, in the end, it’s the fans that ultimately decide coaches’ fates.  If enough fans stop buying tickets, stop paying for parking spots, stop buying popcorn and Cokes, and stop making donations, a program’s revenue stream eventually runs dry enough that the administration must take action.  Whether it really wants to or not.

So one of those questions swirling around Starkville today — Is the revenue stream drying up so quickly at State that Stricklin will be motivated to blow up the best basketball coach his school has ever had?

Let there be no questions at this point — the SEC just wasn’t very good this season.  Blame motivation or bad matchups in the NIT, but a lackluster regular season that saw just four league teams make the NCAA field has given way to a poor postseason start for Mike Slive’s league.

Joining Mississippi State and LSU as first-round NIT losers was Ole Miss last night.  At home.  To Illinois State.

Like MSU and LSU, the Rebels came out flat as the proverbial pancake, fought back furiously, and finally fell.  In UM’s case, they got the game to overtime before being ousted 96-93 by a Redbird team that nailed 17 3-pointers on the night.

Now questions can begin to swirl about Andy Kennedy’s future.  Things in Starkville and Oxford are mighty similar these days, it seems.

Terrance Henry scored 21 points to lead the Rebels, but he admitted after the game that all wasn’t right.  “People were kinda down but I was trying to let everybody know we still had ball to play.”

LaDarius White’s summary was even more to the point: “Tonight we wasn’t focused at first.  We turned it on at the last minute.  Too late.”

Too late for Kennedy?  Well, the coach was a little more eager to talk up his foe than talk down his own squad’s effort after the game:


“C’mon, 74% from 3?  That’s crazy, and tip your cap to them.  I give them all the credit.  They made all the plays.  It’s amazing to me that we got it to (overtime).”


That’s probably not the kind of statement Rebel fans were looking for from their coach. 

In six seasons at Ole Miss, Kennedy has led the Rebels to five 20-win seasons and five NIT berths.  Twice they’ve reached Madison Square Garden as semifinalists.  The last two years, they’ve gone one-and-done.

Before Houston Nutt was canned and Pete Boone’s resignation was accepted, it was assumed that Kennedy would have one last shot to reach an NCAA Tournament or else.  Obviously, he didn’t reach the NCAAs, though his team made a nice little push to get on the bubble at year’s end.

But the buyout for Nutt, the cost of an all-new football staff, and the ongoing search for a replacement for Boone — who’s still the acting AD in Oxford — might just save Kennedy’s neck.  He’s also having to recruit to the worst arena in the SEC, let’s not forget that nugget.

Let’s face it, the guy is close.  Five NIT bids and five 20-win seasons (although each also featured 11 or more losses) shouldn’t be ignored.  Adolph Rupp?  No.  But that’s not a Darrin Horn train wreck, either.  And if the Rebels roll the dice on a new hoops coach they’re more likely to land a Horn than a Rupp.

At this point — without speaking to anyone on the ground in Oxford this morning — we think Kennedy might be passed along to Boone’s replacement as the ultimate “next guy’s problem.”  After all, most of the Rebs — aside from the senior Henry — should be back next season. 

But stay tuned…

It must not be easy running the NIT.

Since the NCAA took the 75-year-old tournament over just a few short seasons ago, the tourney has improved.  A great deal, in fact. 

In came a true bracket with actual seedings.  Out went the ol’ wait-til-the-first-round-is-over-and-then-match-two-teams-together-that-will-boost-attendance nonsense.

In came actual home court advantage for the higher-seeded teams (when possible).  All regular-season conference champs who lost their league tourneys would get automatic bids, too, cutting down on the number of .500 power-conference teams and ensuring some better basketball (though with slightly smaller schools).

But the NIT also inked a deal with the devil, er, I mean ESPN.  If you’ve read this site for long you know that we believe — like, oh, so many others — that ESPN embodies the greatest conflict of interest imaginable.  They own sports and yet they’re supposed to honestly cover sports at the same time.  And in owning the TV rights to the NIT’s games, they’re able to hold final sway over the how the tournament actually operates.  Might as well call it the ESPN Tournament (and don’t think that’s not coming).

Case in point: Tennessee and Middle Tennessee State won their first-round NIT games on Tuesday night.  All day Wednesday, they wondered if they would play on Thursday or Sunday… with one possibility being an 11am ET tip time.  Boy howdy, that would have done wonders for ticket sales in the Bible Belt.

By Wednesday afternoon, the NCAA had listed the game as a Friday matchup on its official website.  But behind the scenes, UT officials knew they didn’t have access to their own arena for Thursday or Friday.  (Another problem with the NIT, schools start scheduling events for their gyms as soon as the regular-season ends.)  So not until midnight this morning did Vol fans learn that their squad would host MTSU on Monday — which was never really discussed as a possibility — at 7pm.

ESPN wanted to wait until all of the first-round games were complete before slotting all of its second-round matchups.  OK.  But seeing as how the times were announced immediately at midnight, it sure looks like some game times could have been announced much sooner.  That would have at least allowed some schools schools and their fans to better plan for those second-round games.

As it turns out, the SEC got lucky because its game will air on ESPN (not 2 or the U) at 7pm.  That’s good exposure for the last remaining league team in the NIT field.  But it was a ridiculous wait to learn of that fact.

Oh, and that 11am Sunday slot?  Congrats to Drexel and Northern Iowa.

Last night, it was reported that Tennessee’s second-round NIT matchup with Middle Tennessee State would be played either tomorrow night or — get this — Sunday morning at 11am ET.

Would not the buckle of the Bible Belt would blow completely off with such a start time?

For much of the day, the NCAA’s official website had listed the UT-MTSU game on its Thursday rundown of games with a time to be determined.  Now it’s listing the game as a Friday affair, but the tip time is still a mystery.

Whether the game remains a Friday game, moves back to Thursday — a little late for that it would seem — or is pushed to the weekend remains to be seen.  But a basketball game played at 11am on a Sunday morning?  Talk about March Madness.

Last fall, LSU best Oregon in the two teams’ football opener in Arlington, Texas.  Last night, the Ducks got revenge.

Playing on the most obnoxious playing surface west of Boise’s blue football field, LSU fell 96-76 to a hot-shooting Oregon club.  The Tigers rallied to cut the lead to 10 with less than four minutes to play, but the-team-that-Nike-built pulled away from there.

“They came out with a lot more energy,” Ralston Turner said.  “I think that was the difference in the game.  They just hit us in the mouth, and we didn’t respond well.”

Or as Trent Johnson put it: “For whatever reason, we couldn’t guard them.”

Justin Hamilton led LSU with 21 points and nine boards.  Johnson’s team ends the season at 18-15.  But more encouraging is this fact — all five Tiger starters should return to Baton Rouge next season.

No fans dream of reaching the NIT, but this year’s bid for LSU was a sign that the program once again appears headed in the right direction.

The Tennessee basketball team entered last night’s first-round NIT game with a four-game losing streak in that postseason event.  Not anymore.

Cuonzo Martin’s top-seeded Vols dispatched tiny Savannah State 65-51 last night without the aid of their top player, forward Jeronne Maymon.  Maymon — a second-team All-SEC selection — suffered a bruised knee in the SEC Tournament and will be evaluated day-to-day moving forward.

The question for any team entering the NIT is whether or not they even want to be there.  Judging from UT’s defensive effort and their fights for loose balls, the Volunteers definitely want to keep playing.  Junior Skylar McBee admitted as much after the contest:


“Anytime you’re playing in March, I think it’s special.  We’re in this to win, no matter what tournament it is and no matter what game it is.”


The next game for Tennessee should be considerably tougher.  Middle Tennessee State — winners over Marshall last night and Sun Belt Conference regular season champs — will be the next squad to visit Knoxville.  MTSU has an RPI nearly 30 slots higher than UT’s and they beat UCLA and Ole Miss during the regular season.  They also put a scare into Vanderbilt before losing by seven. 

The Blue Raiders are the #4 seed in UT’s region and losing to an in-state foe at home — even a pretty good one — would be a bad way to end a season that turned out a lot better than the preseason experts had projected.  Vol fans need to hope Maymon’s knee will be ready to go when the NIT decides to send MTSU their way.  (NIT second-round dates are yet to be determined.)