THE CHATTER
How good or bad is the SEC in men’s basketball?
In February, Georgia coach Mark Fox blamed jealousy from other leagues for the SEC’s lack of appreciation on the hardwood.
“People are gonna pick on the SEC because they don’t like us, because we wear them out in football,” Fox said. “That’s the truth. We’ve dominated in football. And every league, our league included, deserves some criticism from time to time for how your league has played. But I think there’s probably some truth to that. They’re tired of us whuppin’ them in football.”
But you can now give SEC commissioner Mike Slive some credit for being realistic and honest about where the league stands vs. the rest of the nation.
“We’re not putting enough teams in the NCAA tournament,” Slive said Friday night during the SEC-TV telecast. “We’re focusing on how we schedule. We’re looking at everything we do in men’s basketball. … There’s a perception our basketball isn’t quite there. We want to change that perception.”
The league’s RPI rating is seventh among conferences this season and most predictions have only three teams getting dates to the dance tonight when the field of 68 is released — Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee.
However, three of the past eight men’s champions were from the SEC — Florida in 2006-07 and Kentucky in 2012.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS
That said, look who has the most national champions by conference in the past 20 years:
SEC — 6
ACC — 5
Big East — 5
Pac-12 — 2
Big Ten — 1
Big 12 — 1
CELEBRITY TWEET
Just in case you’ve read this far, but care more about football:
“Alabama football practice begins.” — @ByCasagrande (Michael Casagrande of AL.com) around 2:15 p.m. Saturday
A HURTIN’ HEART
Marshall Henderson scored 19 points for Ole Miss in a 75-73 loss to Georgia late Friday night, but the Rebels’ sharpshooter made only 5 of 21 shots, including 2 of 16 3-pointers. And he took it hard.
An emotional Henderson said his teammates encouraged him to keep shooting.
“They just said, ‘Keep shooting, keep shooting. We’ll live and die with it,’” Henderson said. “It was hard. There are so many thoughts running through my head. It’s crushing, in my heart, because I wanted it so bad for everyone. I take the blame for that. And that’s what hurts.”
Henderson set an SEC tournament record with 19 3-point attempts and scored 21 points Thursday. Now the Rebels must wait to see if they get an NIT bid.
“Last night he made the big ones,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “Tonight, the shots don’t go. But we have to live with that because that’s who we are.”
BY THE NUMBERS
10 Largest deficit Saturday for Florida vs. Tennessee, and the Gators' largest deficit of the season.
HE SAID IT
“We have our faults. We’re not perfect. But I’ve never walked off the court saying, ‘Wow, these guys didn’t get after it, they didn’t compete.’” — Florida coach Billy Donovan
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