Arkansas has started an investigation into a photo of coach John Pelphrey with two recruits that documents an NCAA violation.
The photo, obtained by cbssports.com, shows Pelphrey with two Arkansas high school juniors taken at a high school tournament in Arkansas in December. According to NCAA rules, coaches cannot make off-campus contact with prospects until July 1 after their junior year. The two players pictured, Archie Goodwin and Trey Smith of Sylvan Hill High in Sherwood, Ark., are juniors. Goodwin is considered one of the top players in his class in the country. Both players told cbssports.com that the meeting was brief.
Michael Buckner, a Florida attorney who advises schools on NCAA investigations, said the NCAA will look into the level of contact and see if it was part of a pattern of behavior. He said Pelphrey should have known it was a violation and that the NCAA could limit the school's contact with those particular prospects.
"Generally speaking, this would be considered a secondary violation," Buckner said. "Now, if there's more to the story, those things can change."
Pelphrey's future at the school is already in question. Arkansas had a losing record in the SEC for the third year in a row and attendance is down. Pelphrey is in his fourth season and won't make the NCAA tournament after Arkansas lost to Tennessee on Thursday night.
"We're certainly very sensitive of those things and take that stuff very, very seriously," Pelphrey said following his team's loss. "It'll be looked into with regards to our compliance people, and if there's [a violation], we'll certainly cooperate and be forthcoming."
Thompkins' influence
Auburn coach Tony Barbee said Georgia is a particularly dangerous team when Trey Thompkins is shooting well from the perimeter, as he was Thursday.
"He's going to be a tough matchup for anybody that they play," Barbee said, "whether it's in this tournament or whether it's in that NCAA tournament, where I think they belong."
Thompkins made eight of 15 shots from the field, including three of five from 3-point range.
"When he's rolling like that, it opens up a lot of other players' games," Price said.
A high-scoring Thompkins "gives us a lot of confidence on the team," forward Chris Barnes said. "It also gives him a lot of confidence because when he's not scoring, he really gets down on himself."
Stopping Ross
After scoring 30 points against Georgia in the regular season, Auburn guard Earnest Ross scored four Thursday.
"It probably wasn't a lot of fun for our players to watch him score 30 against us on the game film," Georgia coach Mark Fox said. "So we had a much better approach. ... We gave him a little special attention, because he whooped us the first time."
Guard Travis Leslie, who defended Ross in both games, "did a much better job," Fox said.
Trying for a repeat
In 2008, Georgia opened its miracle run in the SEC tournament with a 97-95 overtime win over Mississippi. Chris Warren remembers because he was a freshman guard on that Rebels team. "We left town after that, but we heard what happened," he said.
What happened was a tornado that forced the tournament to be moved to Georgia Tech, and the Bulldogs won three more games to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament. Now Ole Miss is hoping for a repeat, except with the Rebels as winner. The Rebels are 20-12, but their RPI was 79th entering Thursday's game.
"They [Georgia] did it, so it shows that it can be done," said Warren, who led his team with 20 points. "We feel it’s a must. We have to win this tournament if we want to make it into the [NCAA tournament]. But I feel that can be accomplished.”
The ‘bye' factor
Alabama, which had a first-round bye, will be the more rested team in Friday's quarterfinal against Georgia. But the Bulldogs weren't overly taxed in their 18-point victory over Auburn.
"We still had [four] guys play 30 minutes; it just wasn't the wrestling match that sometimes games can be," Fox said.
Fox said that Alabama will be fresher, but "this is the time of year where you got to just overcome that."
Late night showdown
The winner of Thursday night's late Vanderbilt-LSU game will play West 2nd-seed Mississippi State at 10 p.m. Friday night.
The Bulldogs lost to the Commodores 81-74 and split two games with the Tigers. Mississippi State won its last three games of the regular season and has won its first tournament game five of the past six years.
Fashionably late
East 1st-seed Florida was the final team to arrive, landing in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon. East 2nd-seed Kentucky arrived Wednesday night, had a shootaround that night at the Georgia Dome and practiced at Georgia State on Thursday. West 1st-seed Alabama got into town late Wednesday and practiced Thursday at Morehouse. West 2nd-seed Mississippi State flew in Wednesday afternoon, had a Thursday morning shootaround at the dome and a longer practice at Georgia State.
Record breaker
Ole Miss guard Zach Graham from Peachtree Ridge High set a school record by playing in his 133rd career game. Graham has not missed a game since joining the team in 2007. Against South Carolina, he had eight points, including an alley-oop dunk, and six rebounds.
Etc.
Thursday's win was Georgia's sixth in seven games this season against SEC West opponents, with the only loss being last Saturday's at Alabama. Georgia is 4-6 vs. SEC East teams. ... Georgia had two players with double-doubles against Auburn -- Thompkins (22 points, 10 rebounds) and Leslie (12 points, 10 rebounds). It was the first time since a Jan. 12 loss at Vanderbilt that the Bulldogs had two players with double-doubles. ... Single-session tickets are available at Ticketmaster and the Georgia Dome box office. Thursday, the price range on Ticketmaster's website for Friday's two sessions -- before myriad fees and taxes, of course -- was $45-$60. Tickets are also available for Saturday and Sunday. ... In the crowd: A Kentucky fan wearing a T-shirt that read "I still hate Laettner," referring to Wildcats' villain and former Duke star Christian Laettner. Though their team won't play until Friday, Kentucky fans had the most fans in the dome by far. ... Attendance at the Thursday afternoon session was 12,144.
Staff writer Jeff Schultz contributed to this article.
About the Author
