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Can Underachieving SEC Provide A Few Surprises In Tampa?

The Associated Press

Coach Billy Donovan, Walter Hodge and the Gators probably need at least two wins this week to make the NCAAs.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 10, 2009

Updated: 03/10/2009 11:35 am

TAMPA - At last year's SEC men's basketball tournament, there was never a dull moment. It blew into Atlanta, and Atlanta blew right back.

A tornado took off part of the Georgia Dome roof at one point, and the whole thing was moved to Georgia Tech's arena, where Georgia, of all teams, sprang upset after upset to win the tourney and crash the NCAA get-together that followed.

Now, the Southeastern Conference tournament comes to Tampa's St. Pete Times Forum. Dull moments might outnumber fans at the Forum this week. It'll be like a four-day Lightning game.

There is not exactly a buzz, not like when the Atlantic Coast Conference rolled its show into town a few years ago. The roof probably won't blow off, but it has pretty much already caved in on the SEC this season.

Is there a worse major conference?

Florida and Kentucky, perennial basketball powers, are on the outside of the NCAA Tournament looking in as they come to Tampa. Both schools need a run, though the idea of all those lemming Kentucky fans trooping off to the NIT is just too delicious not to pull for them to lose deep down in your bones.

LSU is the only ranked SEC team, and it's coming off a loss as it hits the tournament. While the Big East and ACC will be sending oodles of schools to the NCAA, the SEC will be lucky to get four. That might be a stretch, in fact, if things go just wrong, which they have all season.

Tennessee underachieved from the start. Georgia, one year removed from its SEC miracle, fired coach Dennis Felton in midseason, which didn't stop the Bulldogs from being truly awful, though not so awful that it couldn't beat Florida and Kentucky - heck, Kentucky lost to VMI at home this season. Where's Tubby Smith when you need him?

What else? Oh, yes, there was Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy, who got drunk (What would you do if you coached Mississippi?) and was arrested on charges of punching Cincinnati cab driver Mohamed Jiddou, who also accused Kennedy of calling him "bin Laden."

Kennedy is suing the cab driver for defamation of character, and — get this — even Kennedy's wife, Kimber, is suing the cabbie, claiming that all this stress has hurt her husband so badly that it's hurting their, well, let's just say she isn't in the lineup when Coachy comes into the bedroom at night.

We're not making any of this up.

You can't make up this SEC season

Gosh, can't they just roll the Kennedys and the cabbies out into the Forum and leave it at that. Or maybe Tim Tebow can just throw the old pigskin around for a few hours, and we could leave it at that.

Instead, the SEC trudges in.

Maybe we're being a little hard on the SEC. And it might be a bit of a show, all these clawing, desperate (read: bad) teams fighting for an NCAA spot, as if it was the MEAC or something.

Maybe it's not that bad. Florida? Billy Donovan's Gators have to win at least two games to make the NCAAs. I think the Gators will do that, beating Arkansas and Auburn, before friendly crowds at the Forum.

Yes, LSU will make the NCAA Tournament, no matter what. Tennessee will make it, too, and probably South Carolina. So that would be four SEC teams out of this great, big mess, and we guess it could have been worse.

Like we said, don't count out this SEC Tournament just yet. Remember when the Forum hosted the NCAA's first and second rounds last season? There were few ranked or big-name teams in that part of the bracket, yet it turned into the best subregional in recent memory, with upsets, close games and even a buzzer beater.

So there.

It all starts Thursday. Choose you cabbie wisely and beat it on down to the Forum. Tickets are still available, really available, for all games. As for the starting times? Well, what time can you get there?

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