(AP photo)
Saturday was a day of surprises in the SEC, starting at Alabama where head coach Anthony Grant sent sophomore point guard Trevor Releford, junior guard Andrew Steele and senior forward JaMychael Green from Baton Rouge back home to Tuscaloosa for a violation of team rules. There, they joined junior forward Tony Mitchell, who was suspended earlier in the week.
Without those four players, the Tide lost 67-58 at LSU, snapping a three-game Bama win streak. Freshman guard Rodney Cooper did score 28 points for the Tide. Justin Hamilton scored 21 for LSU, which has won two of its last three games.
But Alabama is now 5-5 in the SEC and 16-8 overall, its aspirations of making the NCAA Tournament in clear jeopardy. On Tuesday, Alabama plays host to Florida, which has problems of its own.
Billy Donovan’s Gators lost to Tennessee for the second time this season, this time 75-70 in Gainesville. Florida is a finesse team. Tennessee is a physical team. The physical team has won both games. In this one, UT outscored the Gators 36-14 in the paint, snapping Florida’s 19-game home winning streak. It was Tennesse’s first road win in eight tries.
Florida lost sophomore forward Will Yeguete who ran into the basket support and suffered a laceration and a concussion.
Florida wasn’t the only home team to take a surprising loss. Mississippi State fell at home 70-68 to Georgia in overtime. State coach Rick Stansbury blamed it on the TV-dictated Thursday-Saturday scheduling combo. State beat Ole Miss on Thursday night, then ran out of gas against Georgia, which got a key three-pointer from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with 1:08 left in OT.
It was the seconds straight win for Georgia, which beat Arkansas 81-59 on Wednesday night.
With both taking losses on Saturday, MSU and Vanderbilt are both still tied for third, now at 6-4. Alabama, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Tennessee are tied for fifth place at 5-5.
Ole Miss held on to beat visiting Auburn 61-54, thanks in a part to a personal 12-0 run by Murphy Holloway. Auburn has lost five of its last six games.
Arkansas won its 17th straight home game, beating South Carolina 76-65. B.J. Young scored 27 points for the Razorbacks.
Of course, Kentucky leads the standings with a perfect 11-0 mark. The Cats are now three games ahead of Florida with five games to play.
