Vanderbilt doesn’t play in the 2010 Southeastern Conference Tournament until late tomorrow night, but we found out this morning who the hometown Commodores will be rooting for when they watch the Arkansas/Georgia game.
It sounds like Vandy will be Arkansas fans for the night.
There is a story in this morning’s edition of The Tennessean taking a look at Vanderbilt’s potential first-round matchup. The Commodores — who have a first-round bye in the tournament — face the winner of tonight’s game between the Razorbacks and Bulldogs on Friday night at 8:45. You can read the story by clicking this link.
Here is what Vanderbilt forward A.J. Ogilvy said: “We haven’t played our best basketball against Georgia. That will be weighing on our minds.”
He’s right. Vanderbilt split the season series with Georgia and it wasn’t easy. The Commodores suffered a 14-point loss to the Bulldogs on Feb. 6 and needed overtime to beat Georgia at home on Feb. 25. The Bulldogs have taken on an unofficial title of teams opponents don’t really want to see in this tournament because of the matchup problems they pose with their size inside. Unfortunately for Arkansas, they get to match up with them tonight and we’ll see how the Hogs fare.
So is Vandy’s preference bulletin board material for the Razorbacks? You could spin it that way, I guess. But it’s the truth. The Commodores didn’t have any problem with the Razorbacks in the only meeting between the two teams this year, rolling to a 27-point win in Fayetteville.
“Arkansas is a great team, but we just had a great game,” Vandy’s Andre Walker said in the story. “That day we were clicking.”
________________________________________________
That’s not the only item of interest in The Tennessean today.
The newspaper also surveyed 12 media members about various SEC basketball topics. Things like best player (Kentucky’s John Wall), Best and Worst officials (Ted Valentine on both lists?), Best site for the SEC Tournament (Atlanta and Nashville) and Best Player You Saw in Person (Pete Maravich and Shaquille O’Neal wre tied). One other topic was a ranking of the best coaches in the league. The panel selected Bruce Pearl as the SEC’s top coach, while Kentucky’s John Calipari, Florida’s Billy Donovan, Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings and Mississippi State’s Rick Stansbury rounded out the top five.
Arkansas coach John Pelphrey was 11th on the list ahead of only Auburn coach Jeff Lebo.
________________________________________________
Is Central Arkansas going to turn to a former Razorback to fill its basketball coaching vacancy.
Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com cited sources as saying Corliss Williamson is a finalist for the position. Currently, Williamson is the head coach at Arkansas Baptist.
________________________________________________
Alabama/South Carolina has tipped off here in the Bridgestone Arena. I’ll be in the building all day, but working on baseball and track stories that will appear in tomorrow’s papers. But if I run across anything else of interest while here in the spacious media room I’ll let you know.
