SEC Sports Fans

NIT Quarterfinals

(2) Maryland 58 (1) Alabama 57

The Alabama Crimson Tide were outplayed by the Maryland Terrapins on Tuesday night in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Coach Anthony Grant’s team just didn’t have its best stuff in the final game of the season at Coleman Coliseum. Win or lose, Alabama knew that this was going to be its last game at Coleman until November of 2013, but the Crimson Tide had hoped that this match with Maryland would lead to a spot in the NIT’s  final four next Tuesday in New York. However, it’s Maryland which will make the trip to the Big Apple. Alabama’s season is over.

With the Tide trailing by one point, Alabama executed an effective inbounds play that began with 3.1 seconds left. The Tide’s Trevor Lacey was able to make a catch on the left wing. He faked out his Maryland defender and created a clean look from 17 feet with an unbothered shooting hand. However, the shot didn’t drop, and visions of another trip to New York – following a run to the 2011 NIT championship game against Wichita State – died on the Tide’s home floor. Yet, in many ways, it was impressive that Alabama even had a chance to win the game in the first place. The top seed in this NIT subregional was constantly fighting an uphill battle against its second-seeded opponent from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Maryland grabbed a 38-28 lead with 16:20 left in regulation. Alabama chipped away and reduced its deficit to 40-36 at the 12:36 mark of the second half. Maryland built its lead back to 57-49 with under four minutes left in regulation, but Alabama made another charge up the mountain, taking advantage of careless Maryland ballhandling, a problem that has dogged the Terps and head coach Mark Turgeon all season long.

Alabama mounted an 8-1 run in the fires of crunch time, as both Rodney Cooper and Nick Jacobs scored old-fashioned “hoop and harm” three-point plays to slice into Maryland’s scoreboard cushion. When Trevor Releford made a layup with 47 seconds left on the clock, just eight seconds after Maryland’s Dez Wells turned the ball over, Alabama had pulled within one, at 58-57. When Maryland’s Alex Len – the best player on the floor in this game (15 points, 13 rebounds) – missed two foul shots with 27 seconds left and Bama’s Levi Randolph (15 points) got the rebound, the Tide – seemingly dead a few minutes earlier – found a chance to win. Cooper found a driving lane on the left side of the paint, and he got within three feet of the rim, but Len was there to block his layup attempt. Alabama ran a really good set to put Cooper in open space, but the problem with the Tide’s offense in that sequence was that the team waited too long to initiate action. Had Alabama attempted that layup with nine seconds left instead of four, Grant’s guys would have had more than 3.1 seconds left on the subsequent inbounds play. Lacey – who did get a clean look from 17 feet – might have had a chance to drive into the lane for a layup or an eight-foot floater. This is admittedly a bit of nit-picking in the NIT, but small details – which kept Alabama from beating Florida late in the season and punching a ticket to the NCAA tournament – are precisely what this team must master in the 2013-2014 campaign.

Alabama should be an NCAA tournament team next season. The lessons learned in this game could give the Tide the motivation and hunger they will need for a very crucial campaign… for the program, yes, and also for Grant’s coaching career.

Matt Zemek

NIT – Second Round

(1) Alabama 66 (4) Stanford 54

Alabama advances to play (2) Maryland in the quarterfinals on March 26

Two years ago, the Alabama Crimson Tide made the championship game of the National Invitation Tournament. Now, they’re halfway to a repeat performance.

Alabama, locked in at the defensive end of the floor, locked down the Stanford Cardinal early Saturday afternoon at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Crimson Tide earned one more home game this season for their fans and moved within two games of an NIT title game reunion. Of more immediate significance is that the Tide are now one win from a trip to New York for the NIT semifinals on Apr. 2.

Alabama was not particularly threatened by Stanford, the defending NIT champion, on a day when the Cardinal saw their San Francisco Bay Area archrival, the California Golden Bears, tumble out of the NCAA tournament with a decidedly impotent offensive effort. The same lack of scoring punch was not limited to Cal; Stanford absorbed the Bay Area blues by hitting only 31 percent of its field goal attempts and earning only nine free throws all game long.

Alabama didn’t exactly scorch the nets, hitting just under 39 percent of its field goal tries, but the Tide got to the free throw line a lot more than Stanford did. Alabama earned 26 trips to the charity stripe, making 22 free throws to outscore Stanford by 14 (22-8) at that spot on the floor. The teams that get 17 more foul shots in a game (and make 14 more) are generally the teams that work a lot harder at both ends of the court and carry the flow of play, especially near the rim. Alabama outmuscled and outmaneuvered Stanford, and that’s why there will be a new NIT champion this year. Retin Obasohan was an unlikely star for Alabama. The freshman guard from Belgium hit all eight of his foul shots and scored 14 points off the bench to boost Bama on Saturday.

Stanford rolled to the NIT title last year, stopping Massachusetts in the semifinals before crushing Minnesota in the title game. Minnesota was able to parlay a deep NIT run into an NCAA tournament appearance and win this year; that’s always the hope of NIT teams that just miss out on the Big Dance. Stanford, though, could not make forward strides, and so this failure to defend an NIT championship means that if the NCAAs aren’t reached in 2014, head coach Johnny Dawkins won’t stick around for 2015. He’ll be fired.

Anthony Grant, the Tide’s head coach, is not on thin ice the way Johnson is at Stanford, but he knows that he needs to make a run in the NIT to set the stage for next season. Alabama hasn’t been playing that poorly in recent weeks; in many ways, its only sin is that it has failed to beat league champion Florida in two competitive contests. If the Tide can go the distance in the coming weeks, a sense of optimism might finally filter into a program that needs a boost in a big way, en route to an NCAA tournament appearance 12 months from now.

Matt Zemek

NIT Recap

(8) Robert Morris 59 (1) Kentucky 57

It was improbable enough that the defending national champions in college basketball fell to the NIT. It was improbable enough that, upon falling to the NIT, the Kentucky Wildcats had to play their opening-round postseason game in a gym that held under 3,100 people because of a scheduling conflict that involved Rupp Arena, an NCAA tournament site that needs to be prepped for the eight teams that will play there on Thursday, March 21.

Yet, if college basketball fans thought that the story of the 2013 Kentucky Wildcats could not get more bizarre or ugly, it managed to access a new low on Tuesday night in Moon Township, Pa.

Yes, in a tiny gym located in a small town, Kentucky – one of the biggest brand names in college basketball – lost to the Robert Morris Colonials, the regular season champions of the Northeast Conference. Kentucky played 33 and a half minutes of utterly indifferent and soulless basketball; rallied with pride in the next six minutes; and ultimately got nipped at the wire, enduring one of the most embarrassing defeats in the storied history of the program. Kentucky’s loss will open the door for Providence or Charlotte to host a second-round NIT game, and it makes Baylor the highest remaining seed in that particular NIT subregional. More than that, however, this Kentucky loss brought an end to a season that became much more of a train wreck than most college basketball pundits ever could have imagined.

Kentucky began the season ranked third in the nation. A new crop of freshman recruits was expected to pick up where the 2012 national champions left off. No, Kentucky was not supposed to dominate the sport the way it did a season ago, but the Wildcats were supposed to remain a top-tier team. Yet, this bunch of incoming players simply never meshed on the court or bought what coach John Calipari was selling. After this loss, Calipari set the tone for the 2013-2014 season, saying that the program had almost been “hijacked” and that he put up with substandard behavior from players “to try to save some guys,” which Calipari said he would never do again. A new and more ballyhooed class of recruits is on its way to Lexington, making Kentucky a top-five preseason pick in the 2013-2014 season, but one wonders if this loss – while possibly motivating the Wildcats for the coming autumn – might also make it harder for Kentucky to immediately regain national championship form next season.

The long and short of this game is that Kentucky took way too long to compete with vigor and intensity. For the first 33 minutes of this game, the Wildcats were casual on the court inside the Charles L. Sewall Center. Halfhearted challenges on defense, spotty defensive rebounding, and generally deficient effort marked those 33 minutes for Big Blue. As a result, an inspired Robert Morris team – playing at home even though it was the designated road team due to being a lower seed – attained a 53-42 lead with 6:32 on the clock.

Only then did Kentucky give a darn about its circumstances. The Wildcats dug in their heels on defense and uncorked an 11-0 run to tie the game at 53-all with 3:18 left. The game remained even-steven into the final minute, setting up a dramatic conclusion.

With the score knotted at 57 with 12 seconds to go, Robert Morris coach Andrew Toole called timeout. He wanted to set up an inbounds play from the baseline, and it worked to perfection, outflanking Kentucky’s defense. Robert Morris’s Mike McFadden earned two foul shots, which he made to give the Colonials a 59-57 lead with 8.7 seconds left. Kentucky came downcourt and got a good look from three-point shooting specialist Kyle Wiltjer just before the final horn. Wiltjer’s shot banged off the rim and bounced away, creating an instant court-storm by the Robert Morris student body. A small school created a magic March moment in an event other than the NCAA tournament.

Kentucky’s humiliating season, to the relief of many Big Blue fans, was finally and mercifully over. The process of restoring discipline and commitment can now begin for Calipari after a season that reminded the Wildcats to never take anything for granted.

Matt Zemek

NIT Recap

(1) Alabama 62 (8) Northeastern 43

Alabama advances to play (4) Stanford in the NIT round of 16 (date TBA)

On a night when its SEC counterpart, the Kentucky Wildcats, crashed out of the NIT, the Alabama Crimson Tide displayed the poise and maturity of a team that actually cares about its postseason situation. Alabama, acting like a team that wants to play more games and embrace the joy of winning, pasted the Northeastern Huskies in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The emphatic win in Coleman Coliseum will give the Crimson Tide another home game in the month of March. Alabama will face the defending NIT champion, the Stanford Cardinal, in the round of 16.

Yes, on Tuesday night, the biggest story in college basketball – bigger than the two First Four games in the NCAA tournament – was Kentucky’s loss to Robert Morris. Kentucky, like Alabama, was a No. 1 seed in an NIT subregional. That loss by Kentucky diminished the SEC’s basketball brand, but Alabama did its level best to build that brand back. Alabama made the championship game of the NIT in 2011, losing to the Wichita State Shockers in New York’s Madison Square Garden. The Tide know that if they can win two more home games in their own building, they’ll be able to make another visit to New York for the NIT semifinals on Tuesday, April 2.

If Alabama can defend the way it did on Tuesday against Northeastern, a trip to the Big Apple is a very likely prospect.

Northeastern, the regular season champion of the Colonial Athletic Association, scored only 23 points in the first half. The Huskies struggled in the first half in each of their two games in the CAA Tournament in Richmond a week and a half ago. Northeastern scored just 19 points in a semifinal win over George Mason, and it tallied just 18 in a loss to James Madison in the championship game one day later. Yet, for all of the Huskies’ deficiencies at the offensive end of the floor, they trailed by only one point, at 28-27, with 18:39 left in the second half. Northeastern had to feel very optimistic about its chances against an Alabama side that had lost so many important SEC games in 2013 (especially against league champion Florida) because of its own inability to score in crunch time.

However, on this night, Alabama became the team that forced a drought, not the team that suffered because of one. Over the next nine minutes, Northeastern did not score a single point. The Huskies simply could not find the basket on a night when they shot only 33 percent from the floor and equaled their number of made baskets (15) with their number of turnovers. Alabama’s defense hounded the Huskies in that nine-minute stretch, turning that tenuous 28-27 lead into a 50-27 bulge with 9:39 to go. The Crimson Tide cruised home to victory, and now they’ll get a chance to dethrone Stanford in the second round of the NIT.

Whenever teams struggle from the field, they need to get to the free throw line, but Northeastern was able to generate only 10 foul shots on Tuesday. The Huskies simply could not outwork or rattle Alabama’s defense, as UA head coach Anthony Grant had his team mentally ready to play. So much of the battle in the NIT is rooted in motivation. Some teams, such as Kentucky, don’t care about being there, but Alabama accepted this game as a chance to get better and extend its season. If the Crimson Tide remain locked in on defense, they’re going to be a very tough out for anyone in their NIT subregional, which includes second-seeded Maryland in addition to fourth-seeded Stanford.

Retin Obasohan scored 9 points off the bench for Alabama, whose reserves outscored Northeastern’s reserves by a 19-6 margin. Levi Randolph was Alabama’s best offensive player, throwing down 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Randolph’s efficiency stood in marked contrast to almost every other shooter on the floor, with teammate Nick Jacobs (3-for-3 from the field, 6 points) serving as a notable exception. Jonathan Lee was the one player who showed well for Northeastern, scoring 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the floor, 3 of 6 from three-point range.

Matt Zemek

NIT Preview

(1) Kentucky Wildcats at (8) Robert Morris Colonials

Go back 12 months. Go back to the middle of March in 2012. Go back to the time that the Kentucky Wildcats entered last year’s NCAA tournament as the unquestioned favorite to cut down the nets in New Orleans.

Three weeks after Selection Sunday, Big Blue was preparing to face Kansas in the national championship game of college basketball. Coach John Calipari’s team did indeed subdue the Jayhawks to win the eighth national championship in the history of one of college basketball’s most storied programs.

One has to confront the enormity of what Kentucky means and has meant to this sport. Only UCLA has more national titles than Kentucky, a testament to the Wildcats’ sustained excellence over many decades. Kentucky has won national championships in the 1940s, the ’50s, the ’70s, the ’90s, and in the present decade. Big Blue and UCLA are the only schools with more than five national titles since the NCAA tournament began in 1939. When Kentucky beat Kansas in the Superdome, a powerful brand name in college basketball affirmed its greatness under a coach who had been performing at the top tier of his profession for several years. Calipari, the sport’s best recruiter, won his first national title because he recruited what were far and away the best freshmen in the country. His starting five on the 2012 national champion Kentucky team, largely comprised of freshmen, moved on to the professional ranks, as was the case for Kentucky’s starting five in 2010. Calipari was ready to bring in another loaded freshman class after ushering the previous one to the NBA. The Kentucky-Calipari machine was supposed to keep on rolling. The Wildcats entered the 2012-2013 season as the No. 3 team in the United States.

Now? You never would have believed, back in March of 2012, where Kentucky would be right now.

Go back 12 months, and think of the most unlikely scenario surrounding Kentucky basketball that you could possibly imagine. Did you ever conceive of the notion that Kentucky would not only play in the NIT, but on the road, against a tiny school in Moon Township, Pa., with an enrollment of under 4,000 students and a gymnasium that holds just under 3,100 people?

That’s not fiction on March 19, 2013. That’s reality for Kentucky. Yes, the Wildcats will visit the Robert Morris Colonials inside the tiny Charles L. Sewall Center, creating an event that will become a lasting memory for the Robert Morris community… and a humbling experience for a team and coach that were supposed to be preparing for the NCAA tournament.

Why is Kentucky in a small Pennsylvania town and not an NCAA tournament city, preparing to defend its national championship? Quite simply, the loss of Nerlens Noel to a season-ending injury in the middle of February took away the one truly indispensable piece the Wildcats could count on. Noel covered up the weaknesses of his teammates, especially on defense, enabling Kentucky to become a credible team at that end of the floor. Noel was also able to finish plays near the rim and reduce the need for his unsteady backcourt mates to hit long-distance shots. Kentucky lacked toughness without Noel, and while Willie Cauley-Stein performed quite admirably in the low post and Julius Mays hit a lot of big shots in the latter weeks of the season, the other youngsters in the Kentucky lineup, specifically Alex Poythress, Ryan Harrow, and Archie Goodwin, have all disappointed on a grand scale. The 2012 team meshed. This team has been mashed, and as a result, the unfathomable has happened: A Kentucky team defending a national title has failed to get to the NCAA tournament, putting Calipari in the NIT.

The NIT is a tournament in which motivation is so much of the battle. Robert Morris is going to treat this game as a very big deal, but will Kentucky care on the same level? The Wildcats are enormously disappointed right now; such is the case for other teams that expect to make the NCAAs but fail to get there. However, getting upset in the first round of the NIT would only make a bad situation worse. The only question worth asking is this: Will Kentucky show enough pride and commitment to make a run in the NIT and build for next season?

If the Wildcats don’t answer that question correctly against Robert Morris, one wonders how this team will ever be able to develop confidence – and better basketball habits – when the 2013-2014 season begins in November.

 
Matt Zemek

NIT Preview

(8) Northeastern Huskies at (1) Alabama Crimson Tide

The Alabama Crimson Tide encountered too many scoring droughts in the regular season, especially against the Florida Gators. A team that stood on the cusp of winning the kinds of games that would have produced an NCAA tournament bid was simply unable to close games with conviction and clarity. That’s why Alabama is hosting an NIT game instead of prepping for the Big Dance this week. When the Tide host the Northeastern Huskies in the first round of the NIT at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, they’ll need to find a finishing kick that eluded them in previous weeks.

Yes, it’s true that Alabama did not get a particularly favorable whistle in either one of its recent losses to Florida in the month of March. On March 2 in Gainesville, Fla., and on March 16 in Nashville at the SEC Tournament, Alabama witnessed a marked disparity in foul calls, something that gave the Gators leverage in crucial stretches of time. Florida – not always a good foul-shooting team – used whistles to its advantage and overpowered the Tide at crunch time in both games. Alabama fans had reason to complain; getting the short end of the stick from the arbiters is something that has occurred a lot in the SEC – and college basketball – this season.

Yet, for all the ways in which the Tide were not helped by forces outside their influence, coach Anthony Grant’s team also failed to hit shots in meaningful moments. There’s simply no hiding from the fact that on March 2, Alabama – leading 47-41 with 9:54 left in the game – scored just five points the rest of the way. There’s no hiding from the fact that on March 16 in the SEC semifinals against the Gators, Alabama – leading 37-27 with 16:04 remaining – surrendered a 20-3 run to fall behind by a 47-40 score. The Tide did not exceed 52 points in either contest, and that’s just not good enough to win major college basketball games against good teams. Alabama, no matter how wronged it might have been by officiating, did not play through bad patches. The Tide allowed negative shifts in momentum to overwhelm them. They were not able to shoot well enough to get big baskets in moments of crisis.

Basketball is not just a game of runs; the nuance within this sport that often gets overlooked is that it is a game of minimizing droughts. When a team goes three or four minutes without scoring, the importance of getting any points at all becomes magnified… not just because of the need for points in and of itself, but because the psychology of a collegiate athlete is delicate. Long scoring droughts can create a loss of belief on a roster and a sideline. Being able to break the ice before a drought becomes too pronounced is precisely what can restore a sense of calm to a team in need of positive reinforcement. Alabama, in so many ways, needs to access a positive mindset heading into the NIT.

The Crimson Tide, 12-4 in the SEC in 2011, did not get into the NCAAs. The team could have sulked, but it instead went to the NIT championship game, losing to Wichita State. This team, which has to be almost as disappointed as that 2011 squad, must find a way to turn a disappointing NIT trip into a chance to win games, build cohesion on the court, and – this time – win that final NIT game in New York on the Thursday before the Final Four (April 4 this year). Will Alabama play with passion against Northeastern, the Colonial Athletic Association’s regular season champion? We’ll see if this team cares about addressing the deficiencies that emerged in a regular season that did not meet Alabama’s expectations.

 
Matt Zemek

SEC Tournament Championship Game

(3) Ole Miss 66 (1) Florida 63

It’s amazing to contemplate how quickly careers and reputations change in college sports, especially in college basketball. In a business governed by not just recruiting, but by the actions of 19- and 20-year-old players in fragile, emotion-drenched situations, the unpredictable can and will happen. Just ask the Ole Miss Rebels after a weekend in Nashville that they will never, ever forget.

Ole Miss alleviated any worries about making the NCAA tournament as an at-large team on Sunday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena. The Rebels made their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2002 by locking down the Southeastern Conference’s automatic bid. The Rebels, down by 12 at halftime to the  regular season champion Florida Gators, roared to life in the second half, stunning the top seed and saving head coach Andy Kennedy’s job in the process.

You might know the story about Kennedy. The former Bob Huggins assistant took the Ole Miss job in 2006 and failed to make the NCAA tournament in his first six seasons in Oxford. In season seven, the outlook appeared to be brighter and more promising, especially in the middle of January, when the Rebels won their first several SEC games and had a resume that was far better than most of the other teams in the conference. However, the month of February was disastrous for the Rebels, who fell to South Carolina and watched the quality of their profile plummet. A loss on March 2 to Mississippi State dropped Ole Miss well below the other bubble teams in the SEC. Heading into this SEC Tournament, Ole Miss was not the first team in line to make the NCAAs as an at-large candidate.

Then, on Friday in the quarterfinal round, everything changed.

Tennessee lost to Alabama. Ole Miss needed that to happen.

Kentucky, which probably needed only one win to make the NCAAs, was ambushed by Vanderbilt. Ole Miss needed that to happen.

Then, late Friday night, came Ole Miss’s game against Missouri. The Rebels were down 42-28 midway through the second half and in dire need of a spark. A loss surely would have meant a ticket to the NIT, and an NIT appearance probably would have meant the end of Kennedy’s tenure in Oxford. Seven seasons without an NCAA bid wears on a program, and after squandering a favorable position, it would have been hard to justify keeping Kennedy on the job. An era was about to end, a career about to drift into uncertainty.

And then, just when the flame was about to be extinguished, Ole Miss rallied. The Rebels hit a tying three and then a winning bucket in the final 35 seconds of regulation to shock Missouri and advance. Because of Kentucky’s loss, Ole Miss played a spent Vanderbilt team and wore down the 10th-seeded Commodores in the second half of Saturday’s semifinals. The Rebels had leapfrogged both Tennessee and Kentucky in the SEC pecking order, and they got one additional bit of help when Alabama, another bubble team, failed to beat Florida in Saturday’s other semifinal. Ole Miss just needed to play Florida close in order to secure an NCAA bid.

It did better than that, however, winning its first SEC Tournament championship since 1981.

A few key plays in the second half fueled an Ole Miss rally from a deficit that was as large as 14 points in the first half. The first big play came with just under 17 minutes left. Ole Miss, trailing by eight, received a favorable call when a layup by Florida’s Erik Murphy was goaltended by Murphy Holloway of the Rebels, but ruled a blocked shot instead. Ole Miss got the ball in the open floor, leading to a Marshall Henderson three-pointer that made the score 41-36 in favor of Florida. The Gators’ substantial working margin had been reduced, and for the first time all day, Ole Miss truly began to believe it could win. The rest of the game witnessed a surge in the Rebels’ confidence while the Gators, who saw both Murphy and Kenny Boynton get dinged up with injuries, lost their form and flow. Kennedy, who coached the best basketball of his life this past weekend, helped aid his team’s comeback by throwing a zone defense at Florida, a tactic that confused the Gators and made them much more passive at the offensive end of the floor.

The next two big plays were one of the same: Florida’s Scottie Wilbekin fouled Henderson – a lights-out three-point shooter – on two separate three-point attempts to give Ole Miss six easy points. Henderson saw the ball go through the basket on six foul shots, giving him stability and certainty on the court. Henderson committed seven turnovers on Sunday, and he is prone to taking very wild shots that sabotage his team’s offense, but when given six free throws by Wilbekin, Henderson became a different player. He found a hot hand, and that in turn forced Florida to double-team him on the perimeter. Henderson responded with a basketball IQ that – while not high during the season – was off the charts on Sunday. Henderson passed out of double-teams to feed big man Murphy Holloway, who gained a series of layups in the second half, en route to 23 points on 11-of-14 shooting. Ole Miss carved up Florida’s normally stout defense, and that’s why the Rebels were able to gain a 59-53 lead with 7:16 left.

Florida regrouped on defense to cut Ole Miss’ lead to 61-59 with 3:25 left, but the Gators – who simply do not shoot very confidently late in close games – could not make foul shots or threes under pressure. Florida hit only one three in the final 8:58 while going 1 of 7 from the foul line. The missed threes are one thing, but 1 of 7 from the charity stripe in the final nine minutes of regulation will lead to an NCAA tournament loss for the Gators, who gained a No. 3 seed in the event. Florida finished 8 of 17 at the foul line on Sunday, a big reason why Ole Miss is dancing for the first time since 2002… and why Andy Kennedy, a man who was looking for walking papers a few days ago, has secured his job status in Oxford.

Matt Zemek

SEC Tournament – Semifinals

(1) Florida 61 (4) Alabama 51

Florida advances to play (3) Ole Miss in the championship game on March 17

The Alabama Crimson Tide and head coach Anthony Grant can never seem to shake the ghost of the Florida Gators and head coach Billy Donovan. Whenever Alabama has stood on the cusp of a meaningful achievement, Florida has seemed to stand in the way. The Gators, under Donovan, moved to 6-0 against Alabama under Grant on Saturday. A win in the first semifinal of the SEC Tournament pushed Florida into Sunday’s championship game against Ole Miss while knocking Alabama out of the at-large discussion for the NCAA tournament.

Florida will haunt Alabama in the coming offseason. The Crimson Tide played two strong 25-to 30-minute games against the Gators in the month of March, but could not finish on either occasion. On March 2, Alabama gained a 47-41 lead with 9:54 left in regulation, only to suffer a massive scoring drought. The Tide scored just one point in the next seven minutes, as Florida rallied for a 64-52 win. Florida, which has not won a game by a single-digit margin this season, was not even able to enjoy the satisfaction of winning that particular contest by a small number.

This reunion, just two weeks after that March 2 encounter, unfolded in virtually the same manner.

Alabama, needing to win the SEC Tournament to realistically qualify for the Big Dance, was nevertheless in position to make a strong claim for an at-large bid with a win over Florida, the regular season SEC champion. With 16:04 left, it looked as though the Tide had their table set, leading by a 37-27 margin and hounding Florida’s offense at every turn. Then, however, another scoring drought – the bane of Bama’s existence – reared its ugly head.

The Tide scored just three points over the following seven minutes. With 9:04 left, Florida – thanks to a 20-3 tsunami – had taken a 47-40 lead. During that surge, Kenny Boynton – whose shooting touch has been missing for most of this season – found the hot hand for the Gators. The Florida senior scored 13 points in those seven minutes, including 11 straight points to single-handedly turn a 37-29 Alabama lead into a 40-37 Florida lead by the 12-minute mark of regulation. Once in possession of a scoreboard edge, Florida’s defense did not allow Alabama to regain any leverage. With the Gators leading by an uncomfortable 50-46 margin with 7:08 left, Florida put the clamps on the Tide one more time. Alabama did not score in the next 4:11. Florida built a 56-46 lead and was not threatened in the final three minutes of play.

(3) Ole Miss 64 (10) Vanderbilt 52

Ole Miss advances to play (1) Florida in the championship game on March 17

The Vanderbilt Commodores shot the ball well in a second-round win over Arkansas on Thursday and in a quarterfinal win over Kentucky on Friday.

In the second SEC semifinal on Saturday against the Ole Miss Rebels, the Dores’ shots – and legs – turned to dust.

Mississippi, down 26-18 late in the first half, used an 8-0 run to forge a 26-all tie at halftime. The Rebels then continued to apply steady defensive pressure while smartly using a zone defense, banking on the assumption that Vanderbilt – playing its third game in three days – would not be able to hit a steady stream of long jump shots. Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy played his cards right, and his hungry team – given new life in pursuit of an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament – roared down the stretch. Ole Miss held Vanderbilt to just six points in a span of nearly 13 minutes in the second half, tucking away a massive win that could very well get the Rebels in the field of 68.

Ole Miss looked like an NIT team a few weeks ago when it lost to Mississippi State, the second really bad loss for the Rebels in SEC competition, the other one coming against South Carolina. When the SEC Tournament began, Ole Miss stood in the back of the line behind Kentucky and Tennessee on the list of bubble teams, with Alabama in the Rebels’ same basic position. However, when Kentucky and Tennessee crashed out of the tournament in the quarterfinals and Alabama failed to get a must-have win over Florida in the semifinals, Ole Miss – thanks to its second-half comeback over Missouri on Friday, shot up in the SEC pecking order.

This win over Vanderbilt doesn’t improve Ole Miss’s resume, but it represents the avoidance of a bad loss, giving the Selection Committee one more reason to take the Rebels on Sunday. Ole Miss has 25 wins, but the real reason why the Rebels might get into the Big Dance is that they won their ninth road- or neutral-court game against Vanderbilt while also owning eight wins against the top 100 of the RPI. If Ole Miss can merely play Florida close in Sunday’s championship game, many bracketologists (though not all) will conclude that the Rebels have done enough to get an at-large bid. That would be quite a turnaround for Kennedy, a coach who seemed to be a goner after the loss to Mississippi State.

My, how quickly things can and do change in a wild college basketball season.

Matt Zemek

SEC Tournament – Quarterfinals

(1) Florida 80 (9) LSU 58 

Florida advances to play (4) Alabama in the semifinals on March 16

The LSU Tigers ran into a much better team on Friday afternoon in the first quarterfinal of the SEC Tournament. The Florida Gators won the outright regular season championship in their conference, and they’re looking to add a tournament title to their hardware collection.

Florida got off to a great start in pursuit of another trophy. The Gators put away LSU early in the second half to rest their starters and stay fresh for a semifinal date with Alabama. Florida’s Erik Murphy delivered a career performance, scoring 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting while snapping down 12 rebounds. Florida hit 51 percent of its field goal attempts and 55 percent of its threes, all while holding LSU to 33-percent shooting for the day. 

(4) Alabama 58 (5) Tennessee 48 

Alabama advances to play (1) Florida in the semifinals on March 16

The Tennessee Volunteers knew how much they needed to beat the Alabama Crimson Tide on Friday afternoon in the second quarterfinal of the SEC Tournament in Nashville. That knowledge, however, weighed them down instead of liberating them, and as a result, the Vols will have to endure a long wait on Selection Sunday.

Tennessee might still make the field of 68 due to Kentucky’s SEC quarterfinal loss to Vanderbilt plus other bubble-based results in other corners of the country, but the Vols can’t feel comfortable about their situation after laying an egg against Alabama. Tennessee simply didn’t shoot the rock very well. The Big Orange squeezed the orange too tightly, hitting just 32 percent of their field goal attempts and making only 7 of 14 free throws. Jordan McRae, who had been shooting and scoring at a torrid pace for the Vols in recent weeks, hit just 3 of 13 shots and finished with a meager 9 points. Alabama’s defense bothered Tennessee all game long, forcing the Vols away from the basket and limiting the impact of UT’s brawny big man, Jarnell Stokes, who gobbled up 13 rebounds but scored a modest 12 points.

Alabama took care of business at the foul line as well, making 15 of 19 tries while Tennessee faltered at the other end of the court. Trevor Releford (14 points) and Levi Randolph (15) combined for 29 points to lead the charge for the Crimson Tide, who must beat Florida on Saturday in the SEC semifinals to have any hope of an at-large bid.

(10) Vanderbilt 64 (2) Kentucky 48 

Vanderbilt advances to play (3) Ole Miss in the semifinals on March 16

The defending national champions in college basketball will probably not be allowed to defend that title in the 2013 NCAA Tournament. That’s not a guarantee, but the above sentence is not a misprint, either.

Kentucky had to, at the very least, take care of the mediocre yet improving Vanderbilt Commodores on Friday evening in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. The Wildcats had to win at least one game on a neutral court to show that they were still a balanced, capable team without big man Nerlens Noel, whose February injury knocked him out for the rest of the season. Kentucky entered this game without a single non-Noel win away from Rupp Arena. The Selection Committee needed to see UK claim at least one game away from the Cats’ home floor, and now that Big Blue has been blasted by Vandy, it’s more likely than not that Kentucky will miss the NCAA tournament, a frankly unfathomable occurrence for head coach John Calipari.

Vanderbilt outplayed Kentucky from start to finish, save for a few very brief stretches that the Commodores were able to minimize. Five players scored at least nine points for Vanderbilt, which hit 50 percent of its field goal attempts while Kentucky made just 35 percent of its tries. Vanderbilt doubled Kentucky’s number of three-point makes (8 to 4) and outscored Big Blue at the foul line (10-8). Kentucky’s backcourt combination of Julius Mays and Ryan Harrow hit just 4 of 23 shots as a pair, a level of inefficiency the Cats couldn’t overcome.

Now, Kentucky will have to endure a Selection Sunday afternoon that is unlikely to bring good news. Vanderbilt, on the other hand, is now two wins away from a very improbable automatic bid to the NCAA tournament… and a successful defense of its 2012 SEC Tournament championship.

(3) Ole Miss 64 (6) Missouri 62

Ole Miss advances to play (10) Vanderbilt in the semifinals on March 16

The Ole Miss Rebels seemed to be ticketed for the NIT, but now, they just might be able to make a late backdoor charge to the NCAA tournament, saving coach Andy Kennedy’s job.

No, Ole Miss is hardly a certainty for the Big Dance, but the Rebels dramatically improved their odds of reaching Bracketville by storming back in the second half to stun the Missouri Tigers late Friday night in Nashville. Down 42-28 early in the second half, the Rebels roared to life and tied Missouri on multiple occasions in the final minutes before getting a game-winning 10-foot floater from Derrick Millinghaus with 1.1 seconds left to claim an exhilarating triumph.

Ole Miss held Missouri to just six points in the final 8:52 of this contest, as the Tigers – who are great in Mizzou Arena – reaffirmed just how undependable they are away from their home floor. Missouri’s drought enabled Ole Miss to tie the score at 59-all with 1:14 left. Mizzou guard Phil Pressey then hit a three-pointer to give the Tigers a 62-59 lead, but Millinghaus – off a great feed from teammate Marshall Henderson – knocked down a triple of his own to tie the score with 29 seconds to go.

Then came the key play of the game. Missouri senior Laurence Bowers inexplicably threw a lob inbounds pass to the midcourt line, with no teammate there to gather the ball. Henderson picked it off, and after a timeout, Millinghaus got inside the foul line and swished his floater, giving Ole Miss new life in the NCAA tournament chase. Ole Miss must beat Vanderbilt on Saturday in the SEC semifinals, but if it does, it will bolster its case for NCAA inclusion while also moving within one win of an automatic bid, the best way for the Rebels to enter the field of 68.

Matt Zemek

SEC Tournament – Second Round

(9) LSU 68 (8) Georgia 63

LSU advances to play (1) Florida in the quarterfinals on March 15

The LSU Tigers are fighting for a bid… not to the NCAA tournament, but to the National Invitation Tournament. They took a big step in that direction on Thursday in Nashville, beating the Georgia Bulldogs in the second round of the expanded, 14-team, five-day SEC Tournament.

LSU built a huge lead, taking a 47-26 advantage with just over 16 minutes left in regulation. Georgia roared back, however, and because LSU was so awful at the free throw line (13 of 28), the Bulldogs gained a fighting chance in the closing moments. LSU’s Johnny O’Bryant hit just 6 of 17 foul shots on the afternoon, and after he missed a pair of free throws with 27 seconds left, Georgia – trailing 66-63 – had a chance to tie. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia’s best player, scored 32 points in this game, but he needed three more with 14 seconds left if the Bulldogs were going to prolong their season. Caldwell-Pope’s tying three-point attempt missed, and when LSU’s Andre Stringer hit two foul shots with seven seconds left, Georgia’s comeback bid had been thwarted.

(5) Tennessee 69 (13) Mississippi State 53

Tennessee advances to play (4) Alabama in the quarterfinals on March 15

The Tennessee Volunteers knew that if they lost to the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Thursday in Nashville, they would not make the NCAA tournament. Now, Big Orange can move one step closer to a spot in the NCAAs if it can take care of its bitter and ancient rival on Friday.

Tennessee earned a date with Alabama in the SEC quarterfinals after taking care of Mississippi State in the second round. The Bulldogs, who did well just to win one game in Nashville and escape the first round, finally saw their season come to a merciful end. MSU was dogged by a combination of injuries and suspensions in head coach Rick Ray’s first season on the job. This program will welcome the arrival of the offseason and a chance to build something better by the time November arrives.

Jordan McRae scored 17 points to lead Tennessee, while Craig Sword scored 19 for Mississippi State.

(10) Vanderbilt 75 (7) Arkansas 72

Vanderbilt advances to play (2) Kentucky in the quarterfinals on March 15

The Arkansas Razorbacks entered the SEC Tournament knowing that they weren’t going to play a true road game – that was the good news for the SEC’s worst road team in 2013. The Hogs also knew, however, that they weren’t going to play a true home game in Bud Walton Arena – that was the bad news for a team that excels when playing in Fayetteville, Ark., but not in any other town or locality in these United States.

Clearly, the benefits of not playing a true road game were outweighed by the negatives of not being able to play in Bud Walton Arena. Nashville is not Fayetteville, and so it was that Arkansas bowed out of the SEC Tournament without winning a game for the fifth straight season. Not since 2008 has Arkansas managed to win at least one game in the SEC’s postseason basketball bash.

Vanderbilt struggled mightily at the free throw line, hitting just 17 of 30 shots, while forward Rod Odom hit just 3 of 11 charity pitches. However, some ghastly Arkansas turnovers in the final minutes prevented the Razorbacks from winning on a night when they fell behind by as many as 16 points.

(6) Missouri 62 (11) Texas A&M 50

Missouri advances to play (3) Ole Miss in the quarterfinals on March 15

In a matchup of the two newest SEC programs, Missouri beat Texas A&M in what would have been a Big 12 Tournament game a year ago. Texas A&M was awful on Thursday. The Aggies hit just 24 percent of their shots. Leading scorer Elston Turner hit just 3 of his 17 field goal tries, finishing with only 7 points. Missouri placed four players in double figures, with Alex Oriakhi leading the charge. The transfer from Connecticut scored 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting. No one on the A&M roster had an answer for his power and strength near the rim.

Matt Zemek