Breaking Down the SEC Tournament: SEMIFINALS
By Paul Jordan
Darn those Florida Gators. They handed me my only loss so far in prognosticating this SEC Tournament. Nothing against the Reptiles, but I went with the whole “it’s hard to beat the same team three times in a season” theory. We do have a pair of what should be extremely exciting games planned for the tournament as it should involve four teams headed to the dance. Let’s take a look, shall we?
SATURDAY
E2 KENTUCKY vs W1 ALABAMA
#16 KENTUCKY 23-8 (10-6)
ALABAMA 21-10 (12-4)
During the first meeting, Alabama controlled the Wildcats and led by as many 20 points and as John Calipari said “whipped” the Wildcats. Alabama led the game at half 37-30 but used the first firt five minutes of the second half to jump on the Wildcats and take a 52-32 lead with a 15-2 spurt. The Wildcats clawed their way back into the game playing perhaps their best defensive stretch of the season. UK forced turnovers on seven straight Tide possessions to claw back into the game. There were several Wildcat breakdowns, but UK inexplicably allowed Alabama to nail half of their 14 three point attempts, and Alabama is not a three point team.
Today, look for Alabama to try to control the game again going through Tony Mitchell and JaMychal Green. Both are good physical players, but both are prone to foul trouble. Kentucky really needs to attack from the beginning by launching from long range and get the Crimson Tide into a running game. It’s going to be hard to do, because Alabama is one of the most defensive minded teams, but UK should try to throw their own game at them and play the kind of turnover inducing defense they played at Alabama. Kentucky has a definite guard advantage and needs to exploit it.
KENTUCKY 71 ALABAMA 62
WHAT’S NEXT FOR KENTUCKY?
WINNER OF #12 FLORIDA/VANDERBILT GAME
E3 VANDERBILT vs E1 FLORIDA
VANDERBILT 23-9 (9-7)
#12 FLORIDA 25-6 (13-3)
Florida once again has the unenviable task of trying to beat the same team three times in a row. It’s not a bad thing though. I would assume it’s harder to avoid losing to the same team three times, but for some reason the common adage is that its tough to win three times. Fact is, very few teams in the SEC match up well with the Gators this year because they can not match up with the backcourt of Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton, and Chandler Parsons, who plays more like a guard than a forward. Unfortunately for the Gators, Kentucky and Vanderbilt match up best n those areas. Florida won game one in overtime, 65-61. The difference in that game basically came down to Kenny Boynton nailing a three pointer when John Jenkins missed his attempt. The Gators won game two by 10, 86-76. In that game, Vernon Macklin and Alex Tyus played exceptional games as Florida controlled the paint.
And that is probably where the battle for game two will be waged. Festus Ezeli has come on strong and has proven to be one of the best centers in the SEC East right now. Florida has Vernon Macklin and Alex Tyus, who can be tempermental and soft at times. Vandy needs Lance Goulbourne to step it up this game and put up some numbers. He scored just two points in the second game and was pushed around. Neither team are post teams, so whoever can grab an advantage here will get a big boost. The other issue is controlling John Jenkins. If UF can keep him around 15, they should be happy. But Jenkins is the best player in the SEC this year and he can change the outcome of the game in just a few minutes. Man, this is a tough game to call, but I think I have to pick the team I’d rather see Kentucky play and no disrepect is intended.
FLORIDA 71 VANDERBILT 67
WHAT’S NEXT FOR #12 FLORIDA?
WINNER OF #16 KENTUCKY/VANDERBILT
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