SEC Notebook
Brent Beaird, SEC Columnist
Alabama (11-3), which has won three straight and four of five, opens its SEC schedule Saturday at Georgia. JaMychal Green appears recovered from a right shoulder injury that he sustained in the Dec. 17 loss to Kansas State. Green and Tony Mitchell are two of the best big men in the league. Alabama scored 29 points off of a season-high 22 turnovers in the Georgia Tech win Tuesday night. The Tide plays at Georgia on Saturday.
Georgia (9-5) comes into conference play on a five-game win streak. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Gerald Robinson and Donte' Williams have been stalwarts for the Bulldogs. Losing sophomore forward Marcus Thornton, the team’s leading rebounder, to a knee injury was a blow.
Auburn (10-4) is off to its best start since the 1999-2000 season. They earned their 10th win of the year a full two months quicker than in Barbee’s first year, an 11-20 campaign. The Tigers are entering conference play on the road at Vanderbilt on Saturday and at home against No. 2 Kentucky next Wednesday. Despite an impressive record, the Tigers best win was probably over South Florida. The Tigers were woeful in games against better competition such as Seton Hall, Florida State and Long Beach State.
Vanderbilt (10-4) is on a four-game win streak heading into Southeastern Conference play. Festus Ezeli recently set the Commodores’ career record for blocked shots with 159, eclipsing Will Perdue’s 157. Vanderbilt remains home this week to open SEC play at 12:30 p.m. Saturday against the Auburn Tigers, who have lost five straight to the Commodores.
Arkansas (11-3) opens conference play at home against Mississippi State on Saturday. The Hogs have six straight games. BJ Young, who scored at least 24 points in losses at Connecticut and Oklahoma, has been a bright spot. The Razorbacks have struggled with turnovers, but they are averaging 76.9 points and shooting 43.5% from the field
Mississippi State (13-2) opens the SEC season Saturday at
Arkansas. Junior forward Arnett Moultrie leads the conference with
eight double-doubles. State is 8-0 in those games. He is averaging
16.8 points and 11.4 rebounds. State has struggled defensively as
of late. Four of the last five opponents have shot over 42%. State
has held only one of those opponents to under 64 points.
LSU (10-4) had won seven straight games until a loss to Virginia 57-52. The Tigers entered its final nonconference matchup having held seven straight opponents below 60 points, as well as nine of the last 10. The highlight of the non-conference schedule was a win over then-No. 10 Marquette. Ole Miss visits Saturday in the Southeastern Conference opener.
Ole Miss (10-4) snapped a three-game losing streak Tuesday with a win over SMU. For a second-straight game, the Rebels were without the services of leading rebounder Murphy Holloway due to a high ankle sprain. Reginald Buckner picked up some of the slack, grabbing 11 rebounds. Ole Miss' leading scorer, sophomore guard Dundrecous Nelson, has been dismissed from the Rebels' basketball program. The announcement was made Thursday, one day after Nelson was arrested by Oxford police.
Kentucky (14-1) has beaten Kansas, North Carolina and Louisville in the pre-conference season. They have trailed only three times at half this season. Freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist sustained an injury in the chest area earlier in the week, but he should be fine this weekend. Kentucky is out-rebounding its opponents 42.6-33.1 on average. Six Wildcat players are averaging a double-figure scoring. The Wildcats host South Carolina Saturday.
South Carolina (8-6) enters SEC play having won six of their last seven games. The Gamecocks have recovered after a 2-5 start that included losses to Elon and Tennessee State and getting swept at a Las Vegas tournament. South Carolina has improved every game since winning at Clemson by doing a better job of shooting and mtaking care of the ball. The Gamecocks have led at the half in five straight games and are 6-1 when leading at the break.
Florida (12-3) is the best 3-point shooting team in the
league. In 12 of 15 games, the Gators hit double figures in made
3-pointers. Even 6-foot-10 forward Erik Murphy shoots them at a 51%
clip. They have been rebounded only four times this season.
Guard Erving Walker moved into third all-time at Florida in assists
passing Nick Calathes' career mark of 452 set in his two seasons as
a Gator. The Gators start league play at Tennessee
Saturday.
Tennessee (7-7) was on a four-game win streak before losing Tuesday night to Memphis. Coach Cuonzo Martin is fine with his team shooting repeatedly from beyond the 3-point line. The Vols shot 39 attempts from the arc against Chattanooga and 50 against North Carolina A & T.
Required Reading
A report on the Florida Gator guards
Can anyone dominate the boards like the Wildcats?
Auburn struggles in its most recent loss
What I knew
It is common knowledge that Kentucky point guard Marquis Teague is struggling. He is not among the SEC’s 30 best scorers. He is 10 th best in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio. To his credit, Teague is third in the league in assists (4.5 pg). Teague is 5-for-27 from 3-point range in Kentucky’s last 10 games.
What I should have known
Few people thought Alabama’s Andrew Steele would play this season due to numerous concussions. He has been a forgotten man until Tuesday against Georgia Tech when the junior guard finished with nine points in only 12 minutes.
Stat of the Week
Kenny Gabriel recorded the first triple-double in Auburn men's basketball history Monday night. The senior finished with 24 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks in the Tigers' 67-41 win over Bethune-Cookman University. He is averaging 12.8 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 2.9 bpg.
ODDS AND ENDS
TOUGH SCHEDULE: On Saturday in Kentucky, the Gamecocks will face one of the nation’s top two teams for a third time this season. South Carolina lost to then-No. 1 North Carolina and then-No. 2 Ohio State. South Carolina will face the five teams with SEC’s highest RPI rankings in seven of its first eight league games.
TOUGH VOL: Trae Golden, who leads Tennessee with an average of 14.8 points and 30 minutes per game, started against Chattanooga just three days after having surgery to repair damage done when his nose was fractured during a practice drill on Dec. 16. He has played in every game since then, missing only a couple of practices.
MILLER TIME: Kentucky senior Darius Miller became the 58th player in program history to score 1,000 points during his career, Miller moved past former Cats Bobby Watson (1,001 points) and Jimmy Dan Conner (1,009) for 56th on UK's all-time scoring list. He trails No. 55 Ron Mercer by three points and No. 54 Bob Burrow by 13 points.
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Murphy photo courtesy of Univ. of Florida Athletics
Brent Beaird writes for Lindyssports.com, Gator Bait magazine and
Samssportsline.com. He can be heard on 1010XL sports radio in
Jacksonville, Florida. Brent, who is a Heisman Trophy voter,
can be contacted at brentbeaird@comcast.net
