While he's in town, Kentucky coach John Calipari may not be satisfied with leading the Wildcats to the SEC championship. He may try to fill Georgia State's basketball coaching vacancy. Not with himself, mind you.
"There's a couple guys I'll probably call them, say, 'Hey, you need to consider this, that and the other,'" Calipari said, referring to the Panthers' job, open since Rod Barnes was fired Feb. 27.
Calipari, who wouldn't identify possible candidates, said he loved the potential of the job because of its location in Atlanta ("a great city") and its membership in the Colonial Athletic Association. With teams such as George Mason, Virginia Commonwealth and UNC-Wilmington, all of whom have won in the NCAA tournament in recent history, Calipari said the potential to do likewise exists at Georgia State.
"It's kind of like when I went to UMass," he said. "They said, ‘Why did you like the job? It's the worst job in college basketball.' We're in a league with Temple. And they were No. 1 in the country and if they can be No. 1, we can be No. 1."
The Wildcats practiced at Georgia State on Thursday.
"I think it's a heck of a situation," he said.
Grant's mind not on NCAA
Alabama coach Anthony Grant did not use the victory over Georgia as a platform to lobby for an NCAA tournament at-large berth.
"Our focus is the SEC tournament," he said. "We're excited to be here in Atlanta. We're excited about the opportunity to compete for a championship. ... So that's all we're worried about."
Alabama plays Kentucky in the SEC semifinals at 1 p.m. Saturday.
On Jan. 18 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama beat Kentucky 68-66. The Wildcats fell behind by 20 points before nearly winning at the end. Kentucky forward Josh Harrellson said his team has a grudge against the Crimson Tide.
"They already beat us. We want our rematch," Harrellson said. "Hopefully we can play with a lot more intensity and a lot more effort than we did last time and hopefully not get down by 20 again and show them how we play basketball."
Leslie's sister OK
Georgia forward Travis Leslie had his highest-scoring game of the season against Alabama on Friday, despite playing while deeply worried about his older sister, who is stationed in Japan with the Navy.
He was not able to contact Shaquela Leslie before the game, but Georgia coach Mark Fox reported via Twitter a few hours afterward: "Travis' sister just emailed that she is OK. Thanks for the prayers."
Japan was struck early Friday by an 8.9-magnitude earthquake and a devastating tsunami.
Leslie scored 24 points, 15 of them in the first half, in Georgia's overtime loss to Alabama in the second round of the SEC tournament. "He played great under the circumstances," Fox said. Leslie's previous high-scoring game this season was 23 points in a Nov. 25 double-overtime loss to Notre Dame.
Fox on fatigue
Fox said that "for the first time maybe all year" he saw signs of fatigue in his team as it relinquished a 14-point second-half lead Friday.
"I probably should have played more guys," Fox said. "But this was a hard-fought game, and I rolled the dice with those kids who have carried us so far this year. But [Alabama's] pressure wore on us. ... You got to credit their defense for being pretty relentless."
Three Georgia players logged 40-plus minutes in the overtime game, while another played 39 minutes.
Georgian thwarts Bulldogs
Alabama forward Tony Mitchell, who made the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:33 left in overtime, hails from Swainsboro. Mitchell said Georgia recruited him, but he decided to go to Alabama with friends JaMychal Green and Andrew Steele.
"The play was for me to come off a ball screen and look for a post feed, but everyone sagged and backed off of me and left me wide open, so I decided to take a shot," said Mitchell, who was a 27.8 percent 3-point shooter entering the game.
Mitchell said it was the biggest shot he had made since "a long time ago back in high school."
Job safe
Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy is expected to return for his sixth season, athletic director Pete Boone said following the Rebels' loss to Kentucky.
Boone said he planned to meet with Kennedy next week to discuss "strengths and weaknesses and progress made and [to] plan." Boone acknowledged that the longer a coach is in a job where he isn't meeting fans' expectations, "you're going to end up with a group of people that just may not be Andy Kennedy fans."
In five seasons at Ole Miss, Kennedy has won 20 games four times, but has not made the NCAA tournament and will not this year. The Rebels could receive a fourth NIT bid.
Feeling his pain
Calipari had empathy for Fox, who called a timeout at the end of regulation just before guard Dustin Ware made a 3-pointer that would have won the game. Calipari called it a "feel" decision, based on not liking what kind of shot his team could get without re-setting. He said a similar situation happened to him last season against South Carolina.
"We made the basket, and they're looking at me, You called a timeout," he said. "I didn't think you were going to make it, or I wouldn’t have called the timeout."
In the stands
Through the first three sessions -- Thursday afternoon and evening and Friday afternoon -- attendance was tracking with or slightly exceeding numbers from previous tournaments held at the Georgia Dome. After drawing 12,144 and 15,145 to Friday's sessions, 21,875 attended the Friday afternoon session, heavily aided by Kentucky's presence in the second game. That figure was higher than the third session of the past six tournaments held at the dome.
Single-session tickets are available at Ticketmaster and at the dome box office.
Etc.
In the first half of the Kentucky-Alabama game, referees had a Kentucky fan removed from the student section near the floor for using foul language toward a referee. ... Georgia is 5-2 vs. SEC West teams this season, with both of the losses to Alabama. ... The loss was Georgia's third in four overtime games this season. ... Georgia committed 31 turnovers in its two games against Alabama, including 15 Friday. ... Kentucky is now 15-0 against Ole Miss in the SEC tournament. The Rebels are the only SEC team (not counting former member Georgia Tech) that Kentucky is undefeated against in the tournament.
About the Author
