Nashville feels like home for the Cats

By Tim Tucker

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

NASHVILLE -– As always, the streets and stands at the SEC tournament are dominated by Kentucky fans. Tennessee, playing in its home state, probably has the next largest fan delegation here this week, albeit a distant second.

Bridgestone Arena will be rocking at 1 p.m. Saturday, when Kentucky and Tennessee meet in the first semifinal.

The Vols know the bulk of the crowd will be against them, even thought the game will be played 180 miles from their campus.

"You [saw] that today when Kentucky played. They had the whole arena," Tennessee forward/center Wayne Chism said Friday. "So we've really got to come out and be very patient against them because they're going to have the crowd on their side."

Said Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, "Well, we are in Nashville, Tennessee, and we're going to try to defend our territory."

The teams split their regular-season meetings, Kentucky winning 73-62 in Lexington on Feb. 13 and Tennessee winning 74-65 in Knoxville two weeks later. That loss was one of the Cats' only two defeats this season.

Kentucky forward Patrick Patterson said the Vols "played a lot harder than we did" in Knoxville. He said the third meeting will be "an extremely emotional and tough game," but also "a lot of fun."

Kentucky, the nation's No. 2-ranked team, advanced to the semis by beating Alabama 73-67 Friday, despite being outrebounded 45-33 and shooting 1-for-13 from 3-point range. Tennessee advanced by beating Ole Miss 76-65.

First out-of-state win

Georgia's first-round win over Arkansas late Thursday night was a breakthrough for the Bulldogs: It was their first win of the season outside the state of Georgia.

The Dogs were 0-12 outside Georgia, going 0-11 in opponents' arenas and also losing to St. John's in Madison Square Garden. Until Thursday night, the Dogs' victory farthest from Athens was a Dec. 19 win in Gwinnett Arena over Illinois.

East vs. West

SEC East teams were 5-1 vs. SEC West teams in the tournament through Friday afternoon's games.

That continued a trend from the regular season, when the East went 27-9 vs. the West. The East's top four  teams –- Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Florida -– were a combined 24-0 vs. West.

Georgia bucked the trend in the regular season, going 1-5 vs. the West. But the Bulldogs beat the West's No. 3 seed, Arkansas, in the first round.

First buzzer-beater

Maybe the most memorable play from Georgia's first-round win was guard Ricky McPhee's long 3-pointer at the first-half buzzer that gave the Dogs an eight-point halftime lead and a surge of momentum.

Georgia forward Travis Leslie said he believes that was the first buzzer-beater a UGA player had hit all season, so "we knew it was a good sign."

"It was a broken-down play and I was lucky I made it," said McPhee, who is called "McThree" by his teammates. "To get three on that definitely was a momentum booster."