SEC hoops goes down to the wire

By Staff
Mar. 2, 2002
Scanning the sports scene on a Saturday while wondering how many more head coaches Jackie Sherrill can possibly hire …
If parity is what you want, then welcome to the Southeastern Conference. Especially when it comes to men's basketball.
The only thing for sure going into the last week of the regular season is that Alabama will be the No. 1 seed out of the West and Auburn will be No. 6.
With a win over South Carolina today, the Mississippi State will the No. 2 seed out of the West. After that things get confusing.
But just to make you more confused, let me enlighten you on some interesting scenarios.
If MSU loses and Ole Miss wins, then the s will be tied at 9-6 in conference play, but the Rebels would win on the third tiebreaker with a 2-0 record against Arkansas and would be the No. 2 seed and State the No. 3 seed.
If LSU wins at Auburn and Arkansas loses to Vanderbilt, n LSU will be No. 4 in the west and Arkansas would be No. 5. If both LSU and Arkansas lose, it would shake out the same way.
If Arkansas wins and LSU loses, then the Razorbacks would be No. 4 and LSU No. 5
Got it? Yeah, right.
Basically the West is like this Alabama is No. 1, Ole Miss and State will either be No. 2 or No. 3, LSU and Arkansas will be No. 4 or No. 5 and Auburn is No. 6.
Now, for the East.
Florida will either be No. 1 or No. 3, Georgia will be either No. 1 or No. 2 and Kentucky will be either No. 2 or No. 3.
Vanderbilt could be No. 4 or No. 5, Tennessee could be No. 4 or No. 6 and South Carolina could be No. 4, No. 5 or No. 6.
How about that for keeping things interesting until the last weekend of play.
If Florida beats Kentucky, then the Gators are the No. 1 seed out of the East. If Kentucky beat Florida and Georgia wins at Tennessee then the Bulldogs are No. 1 in the East, UK No. 2 and the Gators No. 3.
No matter what happens, it is worth keeping up with the scores this weekend for sure.
The SEC Tournament, which begins next week in Atlanta, should be interesting to say the least.
The only thing I expect is the unexpected, which means Alabama, which has already clinched the regular season SEC title outright, won't win the tournament.
This is truly a tournament where nobody is excited about who they are playing, because anybody can bet anybody. Auburn has already proven that to several teams this year, and the Tigers are clearly the weakest team in the league.
Richardson case
interesting one
I really don't know what to think about the tirade of Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson last week.
He obviously is under a lot of stress and is very tired.
He is a very good basketball coach that has made Arkansas a force to be reckoned with year in and year out, but he took it a little too far.
There are ways to gain ground and to make your point, but losing it is not one of those ways. Unfortunately the way he ranted and raved reminded me a whole lot of an out-of-control Bobby Knight.
I do not know Richardson and he certainly wouldn't know me if he saw me, but I do know this, what happened last week was disappointing.
He is better than that. And know he has probably sealed his own fate. His time at Arkansas will be short.
But not to worry, he will land somewhere else after a brief break and take that program to the top as well.
He may be a lot of things, but one of them is a good coach. A very good one.