2011 SEC Tournament: Breaking Down the Second Day
By Paul Jordan
Day One of the SEC Tournament is in the books and wouldn’t you know it. I went 4-0 on my picks for the opening round. Not to brag, because I am sure 99.9999% of you made the same picks. There was not too much drama (except for the Tennessee game) and there were no upsets. But the real action starts today with the quarterfinals, and I am sure we may see some drama today.
FRIDAY
1:00 PM E4 GEORGIA vs W1 ALABAMA
GEORGIA 21-10 (9-7)
ALABAMA 20-10 (12-4)
If you believe the talking heads, they would tell you that Georgia is a tournament team and that Alabama is on the bubble. I’m sure neither coach actually thinks they are “in” the tournament yet, so this should be a heck of a game between the two sophomore SEC coaches. It is going to be an “unstoppable fore vs immovable object” type of game as Georgia’s explosive offense will face off against Alabama’s stubborn defense. Georgia’s strength is it’s “inside/outside” attack of Leslie, Robinson, and Thompkins. Alabama has a solid frontcourt with JyMychal Green and Tony Mitchell leading the charge.
These two teams just met on March 5 with Alabama grinding out a 65-57 victory over the Bulldogs. In that game, Georgia cut an 11 point Alabama lead to just five, but they ran out of steam and could not finish. Green led Alabama with 19 points and Mitchell added 11 rebounds. Leslie scored 15 points and Thompkins 10 boards in the loss. Look for another low scoring affair as everyone seems to have problem scoring against the Tide. In the end, I think Alabama needs the game more and his team will leave everything on the floor.
ALABAMA 61 GEORGIA 58
WHAT’S NEXT FOR ALABAMA?
WINNER OF #16 KENTUCKY/OLE MISS
3:30PM W3 MISSISSIPPI vs E2 KENTUCKY
MISSISSIPPI 20-12 (7-9)
#16 KENTUCKY 22-8 (10-6)
Mississippi comes into the game needing to win three more games to advance to the NCAA Tournament and Kentucky is looking for revenge from a regular season loss. The Rebels have a powerful one-two punch of Chris Warren and Zach Graham who can both take over a game with their scoring. The Rebels have a good frontcourt, but it’s not the type of post presence that has bothered UK this season. The Rebels are a model of inconsistency as they defeated Alabama and lost to Auburn in back to back games.
In the previous meeting, Chris Warren sank a 25 foot three pointer over two defenders with just 2.9 seconds remaining to seal the deal in a 71-69 Ole Miss victory. The defeat was especially crushing to UK as the Rebels were just 1-5 in the SEC. The Rebels had 8 3-pointers in that game and were led by Chris Warren’s 22 points. Terrence Jones led Kentucky with 22 points and 12 rebounds. In that game, Terrence Jones, Brandon Knight, and Doron Lamb scored 57 of UK’s 69 points. Look for the rest of the Wildcat’s to get involved this time.
KENTUCKY 71 MISSISSIPPI 59
WHAT’S NEXT FOR KENTUCKY?
WINNER OF GEORGIA/ALABAMA
7:30 PM E5 TENNESSEEE vs E1 FLORIDA
TENNESSEE 19-13 (8-8)
#12 FLORIDA 24-6 (13-3)
This is probably going to be one of the best matchups of today, if not the tournament. The Gators are comfortably in the NCAA and with a win, would probably solidify a number three seed. The Vols, by some accounts are in, but a win today would seal the deal and give the Vols 20 wins. Florida’s starting five has been together for two years and they have three players (Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton, and Chandler Parsons) who can take over a game. The Vols have dangerous players in Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris. Brian Williams is hit or miss but he had a very good game last night versus Arkansas.
Florida won both games this season by a total of six points. Florida defeated Tennessee 81-75 in overtime when the teams met in Knoxville. In that first game, Alex Tyus had the uncommon role as headliner as he had 18 points and 7 rebounds, including a key steal in overtime. The Vols were led by Cameron Tatum’s 21 points and Harris grabbed 10 boards. In the second game, Florida was down 6 points at the half and needed a driving layup by Erving Walker with :14 remaining to escape with a 61-60 win. Scotty Hopson scored 22 points in that game while Erving Walker scored 16 for the Gators. In today’s matchup, Florida has the difficult task of defeating the same team three times in one season.
TENNESSEE 71 FLORIDA 67
WHAT’S NEXT FOR TENNESSEE?
WINNER OF VANDERBILT/MISSISSIPPI STATE
10:00PM W2 MISSISSIPPI STATE vs E3 VANDERBILT
MISSISSIPPI STATE 17-13 (9-7)
VANDERBILT 22-9 (9-7)
The Bulldogs are playing their best basketball of the season right now winning three straight wins and four of their last five. Let’s forget for a second that one of those losses was to LSU. Regardless, Rick Stansbury always has his team ready to play in the tournament. Vanderbilt has been struggling at the wrong time going 2-3 over the last five games. Keep in mind those two wins were over LSU and the losses were to tournament teams, Tennessee, Florida, and Kentucky.
The Commodores defeated the Bulldogs 81-74 on January 22. Jeffrey Taylor scored 25 points and John Jenkins had 21 points to lead the Commodores. The Commodores were down four points at the half, but played well in the second half and got the come from behind win. Ravern Johnson led the Bulldogs with 19 points. It bears watching how effective John Jenkins will be tonight. He sat out the LSU game with a tweaked ankle but should play tonight.&
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VANDERBILT 71 MISSISSIPPI STATE 63
WHAT’S NEXT FOR VANDERBILT?
WINNER OF TENNESSEE/FLORIDA
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