2008 SEC Tournament – One for the Books

Play had to be delayed with 2:11 left in overtime of the Alabama-Mississippi State quarterfinal game in the SEC Tournament on Friday when a tornado struck the Georgia Dome.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the Atlanta area at 9:26 p.m. ET after radar indicated a storm capable of producing a tornado located about six miles west of Atlanta.

The tornado passed over Northside Drive, causing the Georgia Dome to shake and sway as the twister passed. Insulation from the Dome’s roof fell on the floor as both teams quickly evacuated the court.

Large sections of the Georgia Dome’s exteriors were on the ground outside of Gate E facing the Georgia World Congress Center. Several holes were visible near the Dome’s roof on the interior. Outside, full-grown trees lay on the ground uprooted.

Several fans said metal bolts and washers fell from the ceiling and said a pipe ripped a hole in the roof.

Mississippi State was leading Alabama 64-61 at the time.

After a more than 45-minute delay, the game was resumed and State held on for a 69-67 victory.

Georgia pulled off the story of the conference tournaments, winning the SEC. The Bulldogs came into the tournament with a losing record, but won three games in two days. Georgia also overcame a severe storm, which hit the Atlanta area Friday evening, ripping a hole in the Georgia Dome and postponing its quarterfinal game vs. Kentucky.

As for the rest of the conference, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Arkansas are virtual locks. Kentucky is the most intriguing team, going 12-4 in the SEC, but finishing with just a 18-12 overall record. Ole Miss was just the opposite, going 7-9 in conference play, but 21-10 overall. Both didn’t make the Big Dance. The two-time defending national champion Florida, which fell to Alabama in the first round, will try to redeem themselves in the NIT. Ole Miss received an invitation to the NIT as well.

The most surprising statement of the year: Georgia in the NCAA Tournament

Spotlight on Coach Gillispie

Billy Gillispie has been given a stacked deck to work with in his first year in the bluegrass and the deck, unfortunately, is stacked against him. There were bright spots, sure: the play of freshman Patrick Patterson, the energy and hustle of walk-ons and bit scholarship players, and some talent — misguided though it may be at the time — in the form of seniors Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley. And sophomores Jodie Meeks and Derrick Jasper had shown lots of potential as freshmen.

But it took a while for his team to really begin believing in their coach’s new system. There was resistance. Gillispie went through nearly a dozen starting lineups, playing the guys he thought bought in the most and worked the hardest in practice. Unfortunately, those weren’t always his most talented players.

And then there came the injuries. A seemingly endless parade of them: Derrick Jasper had microsurgery on his knee in the offseason and was slow to recover. Jodie Meeks fractured his groin, then followed that up with a hip flexor. Joe Crawford developed plantar fascitis, a painful foot condition which won’t heal fully until he can stay rest and rehab.

Finally, against Georgia, Ramel Bradley went down in spectacular and horrifying fashion. Fouled hard from behind by David Bliss on a runout, the point guard’s body became airborne and tracked a parabolic arc back down to the hardwood. Bradley landed hard on his chest and bounced his head off the court, cutting his chin badly enough that he needed stitches on the bench. Afterward it was determined that he had sustained a Grade 2 concussion. He was wobbly and in a fog after getting up.

He was also playing sick. Bradley had been vomiting throughout the morning and had been unable to keep food down. He left the game and wouldn’t return, although that was his coach’s decision, not his. Bradley tried to join the lay-up line as the team warmed up in preparation for the second half, but Gillispie mandated that he return to the locker room and rest.

That left a depleted roster bereft of their senior leader, plus Joe Crawford gimping around on a bad foot and cramping up thanks to being unable to practice at full speed for fear of aggravating the injury. But with Bradley on the bench, he gutted it out and contributed 26 points on one leg. Patrick Patterson has been averaging 39 minutes per game in SEC play; he logged 40 in Athens.

If you don’t see a team giving absolutely everything it’s got to tough out a win, you’re missing it.

Kentucky may not be a “good” team in the classical sense this year. At 10-9 overall, making the NCAA tournament is an extreme long shot. And they just as easily could have lost in their four conference wins; Kentucky has to give immeasurable effort to beat middling SEC teams. But as forgettable as the start to their season may have been, these players are forming a foundation from which Kentucky basketball can rebound and grow into an eventual contender.

Kentucky will face Auburn, Wednesday, 8 PM, on Raycom Sports.

Kentucky vs USC Preview

Their are many different scenarios that can unfold at Rupp Arena this Saturday when the UK Wildcats host South Carolina in an intriguing match-up of ranked opponent killer vs. the team that will give you everything its got but probably will not win. South Carolina will come into the game fresh off a near upset of the Florida Gators in which the Gators underestimated the Gamecocks. Hopefully that will not happen to the ‘Cats. Kentucky is coming into Saturday with a win over the #3 team in the nation in which they played almost the entire game to perfection to stun the Volunteers, the roles will be reversed for this one because USC will be the one trying to spoil Kentucky’s momentum and officially kill their slight dreams of making the NCAA tournament. Kentucky has had a hard time stopping USC’s guards the last couple years, allowing Tre’ Kelley to drop 30 on UK last season. That will be one of the keys for the game on Saturday for Kentucky to get this pretty realistic win.

KEYS TO THE GAME

The first key has already been touched on and that is the fact that UK must stop South Carolina’s guards. Devan Downey, a UAB transfer, leads the team and is 2nd in the conference with 19.9 ppg and also is 3rd in the conference with a 5.0 apg average. UK must slow him down for them to be successful. When Downey scores under 20 points the Gamecoks are only 3-6 and have lost to some pretty weak teams like George Mason and UNC-Asheville in a couple games that he has not reached the 20 point plateau. If Kentucky just gets in his jersey as they did to Chris Lofton UK should win this one pretty handely.

The second key to the game is to crash the boards hard and get second chance points. USC is 2nd to last in rebound defense allowing over 38 rpg and if guys like Perry Stevenson and Patrick Patterson can perform like they did against Tennessee then we should get at least 40 rebounds in the game. The only problem is that UK is a horrible rebounding team, we rank 2nd to last in rebound offense at 35 rpg and so we are actually at a disadvantage on the boards even with Carolina being so weak on the boards. Another stat that UK must control is turnover margin. USC is second in the league in TO margin and UK is second……to last in TO margin. South Carolina forces 3 more turnovers than they commit so they know how to handle the ball and control tempo, UK turns the ball over 1.8 more times per game than they force them and that MUST change, Kentucky will not even win these kind of games with poor TO stats like these. Ramel Bradley needs to get up in the jersey of Devan Downey as he did to the best pure scorer in the conference two nights ago Chris Lofton. Downey’s assist/TO ratio is not even 2:1 and for a player who plays point guard as much as Downey does that is not a good number. Again though UK is worse then USC at areas that they are extremely weak at, Ramel Bradley only has 5 more assists than TO’s on the season, that stat is very misleading though because first off he does not play the PG position as much as Downey and UK feeds the post much more than Carolina which will result in fewer assist chances because unless the player goes straight up without making the move there will not be an assist opportunity.

The third and probably most important key will be to still play the same way and with the same concentration as they did against UT, even though Carolina is one of the weaker teams in the conference they proved the other day against Florida that if you are in one of those look ahead mind sets with them they can stun you or at least come close to. If Devan Downey is on and the rest of the team is hitting shots then they will be hard to beat because UK is one of the weakest three point shooting teams in the league and they will most likely lose a shooting match with USC unless Meeks, Crawford, and Bradley are on fire. I do not expect Downey to score over 20 and hit a lot of threes because Ramel will be in his grill all night and when Ramel gets motivated or angry he is impossible to score on and Lofton found that out the hard way, with a nearly scoreless second half and a L in the win/loss column.

I think UK will win pretty convincingly at home against the Gamecocks, I see them winning by a score of 76-61 and I think it will be in large part due to Patrick Patterson who I think exposes the weak interior D that USC has and drops 23 & 11 on the ‘Cocks. Gillispie will make sure that UK does not look ahead a couple games and he will have them physically and especially mentally ready to be in the mindset to crush the Gamecocks as hard as possible.

NEXT GAME

Jan. 26 vs. South Carolina, 1:00 PM on Raycom Sports

Kentucky prepares for MSU

The first key to the game is the one that has plagued the Wildcats just about all year, and that is stopping the best player from the opposite team. That player tonight will be Junior Point Guard JaMont Gordon who leads Mississippi State in scoring, assists & steals. The Wildcats know all too well about Gordon, last season in the SEC tournament quarterfinals Gordon hit a last second game-tying three that sent the game into overtime and eventually led them to the win. The only time Kentucky has stopped the key player for the opponent this season was their last time out against Vandy when they held AJ Ogilvy in check. Sure enough they won the game and come into the game looking to prove the 2008 ‘Cats will be a new and improved version from that of 2007.

The second key to the game for Kentucky will be controlling the boards. Mississippi State is tied for the league lead with 42.6 RPG and they like to score off rebounds in the open floor. Kentucky out rebounded Vanderbilt by over 20 and that was the main reason for that victory. If Kentucky wins the rebounding battle they will no doubt be in the game no matter what they are doing on the offensive end.

The third and final key for the Wildcats in their game tonight will be keeping up the aggressivness on the offensive end. Kentucky looked as though they took Vandy by suprise by attacking the bakets with their guards and executing plays very well. Kentucky ran the ball up the floor and looked to score strongly rather than pull it out and play slow. If UK tries to play slow they will get beat because that will be playing right into the Bulldogs’ game plan.