Gators, 'Cats final set

By By Austin Bishop/EMG regional sports director
March 14, 2004
ATLANTA The finals are set.
Kentucky, a 78-63 winner over South Carolina, and Florida, a 91-69 winner over Vanderbilt, will meet for the 2004 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament title at noon today at the Georgia Dome.
Who will win the game is still up in the air, but one thing is for sure the Georgia Dome will be full of blue.
The UK faithful have been the dominant fan base at the tournament. Mississippi State probably had the second-biggest following, followed by Florida and Alabama.
The Vanderbilt and South Carolina fans made a little stronger showing on Saturday, as both of their teams earned a spot in the semifinals.
Kentucky has won both games over Florida this season, taking a 68-65 win in Gainesville and an 82-62 win at Rupp Arena to end the regular season.
The East is far from the least
The SEC East proved to be dominate in this year's tournament, earning all four spots in the semifinals. In fact, West division teams only won one game, that being Alabama's 84-49 first-round thumping of Tennessee.
In head-to-head East against West matchups, the East went 6-1. The East wins were: Georgia 73, Auburn 59; South Carolina 91, Arkansas 81; Vanderbilt 70, Ole Miss 50; Florida 75, Alabama 73; Vanderbilt 74, Mississippi State 70; and South Carolina 85, LSU 64
Making news the hard way
Going into MSU's 74-70 overtime loss to Vanderbilt, an SEC regular season champion had not lost its first game in the SEC Tournament since 2000 when Tennessee lost to South Carolina. UT was co-champions that year along with Florida, Kentucky and LSU.
The last time an outright regular season champion lost its tourney opener was in 1990 when Georgia lost to Vanderbilt in overtime.
The overtime blues
While Mississippi State took three overtime wins in the regular season this year, the Bulldogs' overtime history in the SEC Tournament hasn't been so good.
In fact, it's bad.
Friday's loss left MSU at 0-4 in extra sessions at the tournament. The exact opposite is true for Vandy. The Commodores are now 3-0 in SEC Tournament overtime contests.
Where did he come from?
Little-known Florida guard Lee Humphrey made what could well be the biggest shot of the season for the Gators on Friday night as he sank a desperation shot from the corner that arched high and ripped through the bottom of the net as the buzzer sounded in Florida's 75-73 overtime win over Alabama.
It's a good thing that ESPN shows highlights all night, or it may have been the shot that nobody ever saw.
Due to the fact that both of the night session's games went into overtime it was past midnight in the Eastern time zone when Humphrey's shot finally gave the Gators their hard-fought win.
While Humphrey only had three points for the night, the other was a free throw that helped force overtime, the freshman point guard felt good about the game-winning shot.
Humphrey, who has started just eight of the 23 Florida games he has played in, came into the game averaging just 3.9 points per game.
They're just babies
Although the Florida Gators were ranked No. 1 in the country early in the season, don't be thinking this is a veteran squad.
In fact, Florida which is now 20-9 for the season following it's 91-69 win in Saturday's SEC Tournament semifinals has the fourth youngest team in the country.
Eighty percent of Florida's scholarships players (eight out of 10) are either freshmen or sophomores. The only senior is Bonell Colas, and David Lee is a junior.
That may be a little deceptive to SEC fans who think they've been watching Matt Walsh and Anthony Roberson play for years. In fact, they are both just sophomores but have been starters and vital cogs for the Gators since their freshman seasons.
Who is the youngest team in the country? That honor belongs to Villanova who only has one out of 10 scholarship players who is not a freshman or sophomore.
Shoot, shoot, shoot
For some reason, opposing fans just love to rag on the Florida's mop-headed Matt Walsh.
Maybe it's his curly locks. Maybe it's beatnik looking goatee. Maybe it's because he is overly cocky and is very demonstrative on the court.
But, whatever the reason most every time Walsh gets the ball in his hands the fans began to chant Shoot, shoot, shoot.'
Usually that's not a very good suggestion.
Walsh averages 15.7 points per game and shoots a respectable 44 percent from the field and 34 percent from three-point range.
On Friday night however, the game plan worked out well for Alabama fans.
Walsh was awful from the floor, making just 1-of-15 shots from the field and going a dismal 1-of-12 from behind the three-point arc. The three points were Walsh's low for the season and tied his lowest career output.
But it didn't really matter, as the Gators took a 75-73 overtime win over the Crimson Tide.