Missouri 93 – Arkansas 63. Video Highlights

1. Senior Night at Missouri features some testy exchanges between coaches Frank Haith and Mike Anderson.  Laurence Bowers, recruited to Mizzou by Anderson, leads the Tigers with 24 points and 11 rebounds. Anderson: “Bowers was fantastic. I’m trying to beat him in the place I brought him to. … Something ain’t right about this.”

2. Joe Strauss: “Missouri-Arkansas isn’t Louisville-Kentucky. It isn’t blood sport. But Anderson received no quarter.”

3. Blowout loss drops Arkansas to 18-12 and 9-8 in conference play – “leaves little doubt the Razorbacks will have to win an SEC Tournament title next week to get into the NCAA Tourney field.”

Ole Miss 87 – Alabama 83. Video Highlights

4. With six three-pointers in the last two minutes, Alabama cuts into big Ole Miss lead, but it’s too little, too late.Ole Miss senior Murphy Holloway: “They were making crazy shots. Hat’s off to them, but we got the win.”

5. Kevin Scarbinsky: “That popping sound you heard late Tuesday night was Alabama’s NCAA Tournament bubble bursting in air.”

6. Rebels force 17 turnovers on Senior Night.  Ole Miss shoots more than 50 percent from the floor, led by Marshall Henderson’s game-high 24 points.

Whether or not it will make a difference on the field in some sort of “win one for the Joker” way is yet to be seen, but according to recently-fired Kentucky coach Joker Phillips it was his seniors who persuaded him to coach UK’s final two games of the season.  In fact, a number of players — like O-lineman Zach West — have said that the team is “upset” right now over their coach’s ouster.

Phillips admitted yesterday when meeting with the press that he still wants Senior Night against Samford on Saturday to be about his players, not him:

“I don’t want to be sent out.  I don’t want an open casket. I don’t want to be somebody’s centerpiece. … I want it to be about those seniors…

(Several players told him) ‘Hey, Coach, you said you want to help watch us grow up.’  And that’s the reason I’m doing this.  The only reason.”

The coach also had a few words for the UK fanbase.  Phillips suggested he knew he was finished when he saw a practically empty Commonwealth Stadium for last week’s loss to Vanderbilt.

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1.  No, no, no, no, no.  People need to stop pushing to expand the NCAA Tournament.

2.  Auburn, not Alabama, will be dealing with suspensions when the two teams get together in Tuscaloosa tonight.

3.  The Tigers’ Allen Payne is also done for the year after having surgery on his left knee.

4.  Tonight will be JaMychal Green’s final home game for the Crimson Tide (unless Bama gets bounced to the NIT).

5.  Arkansas’ BJ Young collapsed on the floor in disbelief as the Hogs lost to Ole Miss last night.

6.  LSU’s Storm Warren wants to go out with a Senior Night win as Tennessee drops by tonight.

7.  Ole Miss flat owns Arkansas in hoops.  Whodathunkit?

8.  Can Mississippi State finally snap a five-game losing streak when it visits SEC cellar dweller South Carolina tonight?

9.  Expect money to someday revive the Missouri-Kansas Border War.

10.  Texas A&M has hired Terry Price — formerly of Houston Nutt’s Ole Miss staff — to coach its D-line.

11.  After upsetting Florida at home on Saturday, Georgia now heads to Kentucky for Senior Night at Rupp… also known as Certain Doom.

12.  Then again, a poor UGA team was the last visitor to upset the Cats on Senior Night.

13.  SEC coaches have a lot of respect for UK senior Darius Miller.

14.  At 2-12 in the league, Darrin Horn is still urging his players to stick to his plan.

15.  Team chemistry has been key to Tennessee’s unexpected turnaround.

16.  This writer says the Vols could still earn an NCAA at-large bid.  (Actually UT’s RPI is far outside the zone of teams normally picked for at-large slots.)

17.  Vanderbilt’s win last night clinched a bye for the Dores in the SEC tourney.

For 25 minutes, Alabama looked like an NCAA Tournament team.  The Crimson Tide were trailing Florida by just one point… in Gainesville… on Senior Night with 15 minutes to play in last night’s game.  Too bad they had to play those last 15 minutes.

Florida outscored Bama 39-13 over those final 15 to salt away the overall SEC championship, 78-51.  Coupled with a disappointing loss against Ole Miss on Saturday, last night’s blowout defeat likely snuffed out any hopes for an at-large bid that UA might have had.

“I didn’t feel like we handled adversity when it hit very well as a team tonight,” Anthony Grant said.  “It’s a lesson for us to learn.  As we move forward, hopefully our guys will see in terms of competing for championships, Florida does a good job of doing that.  Obviously we aspire to build our program to where we can compete for championships.”

The Tide will still host Georgia on Saturday, but at this point, it looks like Grant’s team will need to topple the Dawgs and then do some serious damage in the SEC Tournament next week to earn a trip to the Big Dance.

1.  Florida will try to clinch the SEC title outright tonight against Alabama…

2.  On Senior Night in Gainesville.

3.  Chandler Parsons says the game “means everything.”

4.  Could Georgia have three players picked in the first round of the NFL draft?  From a 6-7 team?

5.  California, Missouri and Notre Dame could wind up on Georgia’s basketball schedule next year.

6.  Yesterday a Kentucky writer said UK will be better than Florida come tournament time.  Today a Florida writer says UF will be better than Kentucky come tournament time.

7.  Senior Josh Harrellson has gone from Billy Gillispie’s whipping boy to one of the SEC’s best rebounders.

8.  UK is undefeated at home under John Calipari and tonight is Senior Night in Lexington.  That’s not good news for visiting Vanderbilt.

9.  Face it, there’s no good defense for the practice of oversigning.

No. 14 Arkansas kicks off against UTEP on ESPNU at 6 p.m., Saturday.
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Be there to support the 2010 seniors on their final Fayetteville game
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