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Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings is objecting to Kentucky’s SEC basketball schedule, reports Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean. Stallings objects to the fact that for the second straight season UK does not have a Thursday-Saturday rotation in its slate.

An excerpt:

But the league’s second-longest-tenured coach wants to know why Kentucky will not play a Thursday-Saturday combo for the second consecutive season. And it’s not just that. The Wildcats have Saturday games with four SEC opponents that are coming off Thursday night games — the most of any team in the league.

“Go figure that one out for me, would you?” Stallings said. “We all agreed to do it, so if you have one, like we have one, I’m not going to complain. To not have any and to be able to play four teams that have to do it to play you … that’s not right.”

Kentucky does have one Thursday game, on March 1 vs. Georgia, but it’s followed by a Sunday game at Florida.

Kentucky has very little to do with its conference scheduling. That is set by the conference office in Birmingham, with the league working with schools and television on dates and times. The key word there is television. ESPN likes Kentucky in its Super Tuesday slot. The Cats were in that very slot for last night’s 86-63 thumping of Arkansas.

In fact, UK has five Super Tuesday slots this year:

• Jan. 17 – Arkansas
• Jan. 24 – at Georgia
• Jan. 31 – Tennessee
• Feb. 7 – Florida
• Feb. 21 – at Mississippi State

SEC links for Tuesday:

SEC TEAMS IN NCAA TOURNAMENT — Here’s the second-round schedule:

• Thursday, 2:45 p.m. — Princeton vs. Kentucky (CBS)
• Thursday, 4:10 p.m. — Richmond vs. Vanderbilt (TBS)
• Thursday, 6:50 p.m. — UC-Santa Barbara vs. Florida (TBS)
• Friday, 12:40 p.m. — Michigan vs. Tennessee (truTV)
• Friday, 9:45 p.m. — Georgia vs. Washington (CBS)

STALLINGS APOLOGIZES TO STATE –”Vanderbilt men’s coach Kevin Stallings apologized Monday,” reports John Pitts of the NE Mississippi Daily Journal, “for accusing Mississippi State of trying to deliberately step on the foot of an injured Vandy player in Friday’s SEC tournament game. ‘I simply misunderstood what my player told me about an incident that happened in the SE Tournament,’ Stallings said in the statement. ‘I have apologized to coach Stansbury.’”

BEILEIN A NEW PUZZLE FOR PEARL – Tennessee gets ready to play Michigan in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Reports Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News-Sentinel, “Pearl’s No. 9-seeded Vols (19-14) are about to play Beilein’s No. 8-seeded Wolverines (20-13) at 12:40 p.m. Friday as they open the NCAA tournament in a second-round game in Charlotte, N.C. By then, UT hopes to be familiar with Beilein’s complicated, guarded – and highly successful – ways. Beilein, 58, is the only active coach to have achieved 20-win seasons at four different collegiate levels: junior college, NAIA, Division II and Division I.”

Continue reading ‘SEC: With Pelphrey out, is Tubby Smith on Arkansas list?’

Kentucky coach John Calipari and Vandy coach Kevin Stallings in their respective post-game press conferences.

Complete audio from both coaches’ press conference after Kentucky’s 68-66 win over Vanderbilt.

• Click here to download Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings press conference.

(AP photo/Mark Humphrey)

A couple of weeks back, after Vanderbilt surprisingly dropped a game to visiting Arkansas, Commodores coach Kevin Stallings mentioned how his team was forced to play a Thursday night game for TV purposes before turning around and playing again on Saturday.

He also mentioned that Kentucky does not face such a predicament this year.

(Arkansas does not have a Thursday night game, by the way. LSU does, but then plays next on a Sunday.)

Now, the ‘Dores are back on the Thursday-Saturday swing. Last night, they beat Alabama 81-77. On Saturday, they entertain Kentucky. In fact, considering last night’s game had an 8 p.m. CST tip-off, and Saturday’s game is a 1 p.m. CST tipoff, Stallings’ club will be playing two games in less than 36 hours.

So how has the Thursday-Saturday combo worked so far? Through four weeks of the SEC basketball season, teams that played on Thursday night are 2-5 in games they played on Saturday. Only Florida and Mississippi State have followed Thursday night appearances with Saturday victories.

Click the continue button for a breakdown of the SEC Thursday-Saturday combo games this year.

Continue reading ‘That Thursday-Saturday SEC basketball combo’

Alabama coach Anthony Grant was not happy near end of Alabama's loss at Vanderbilt. (AP photo/Mark Humphrey)

At Thursday’s UK basketball media opp, John Calipari was asked how much of an advantage was it that Vanderbilt had to play a game on Thursday night before entertaining Calipari’s Cats about 36 hours later?

Ever the kidder, Calipari said, “I don’t think it gives them that much of an advantage.”

Ever the thespian, Calipari kept a straight face. When informed the question referred to Kentucky owning an advantage in the calendar discrepancy — the Cats did play on Tuesday, after all — the coach said, “We took (Wednesday) off,” before starting Thursday’s practice.

Vanderbilt did more than practice Thursday, edging Alabama 81-77 in a bare-knuckles battle at Memorial Gym. The Commodores made 22 of 27 free throws and nine three pointers on the way to overcoming a 77-76 Crimson Tide lead with 25.8 seconds left.

Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean wrote:

Brad Tinsley always tries to get his shot on the rim after being fouled.

“You never know what could happen,” he said. “It could rattle in.”

Or simply swish.

Vanderbilt’s junior point guard peeled off a screen, sank a 17-footer while taking contact from Trevor Releford and completed the three-point play to lift the No. 23 Commodores over Alabama 81-77 in an SEC men’s thriller on Thursday night at Memorial Gym.

Continue reading ‘Vanderbilt tunes up for UK by beating Alabama’

SEC links for Wednesday:

• Chris Echegaray of the Tennessean reports on the demand for SEC Tournament tickets.
• Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean reports on SEC coaches voting Vandy’s Kevin Stallings as Coach of the Year.
• Florida has made a stronger NCAA case this year than in the previous two, writes Kevin Brockway in the Gainesville Sun.
• David Jones of Florida Today writes that the Gators can’t afford to lose to Auburn.
• Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald writes that Florida needs to take two.
• Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that Tennessee has confidence heading to Nashville.
• Jeff Schultz of the AJC thinks Georgia poses a threat in Nashville.
• David Brandt of the Clarion-Ledger reports that Eniel Polynice is back with Ole Miss, could play Friday.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Tournament tickets are hot items’

Video of Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings talking about the loss to Kentucky.

ESPN’s Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit preview the SEC:

SEC links for Monday:

• Jeff Lockridge of the Tennessean reports that Kevin Stallings’ “raise” helped fund Vandy basketball’s trip to Australia.
• Knoxville News-Sentinel reports that Tennessee receiver Gerald Jones could be out 4-6 weeks.
• David Climer of the Tennessean writes that ex-UT coach Phil Fulmer may use TV spotlight to return to coaching.
• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel says Urban Meyer needs to lay off Ron Zook.
• David Paschall of the Chattanooga Times Free Press writes that Steve Spurrier is quiet about South Carolina’s prospects.
• Joe Person of The State reports that a couple of South Carolina players face legal issues.

Continue reading ‘SEC links: Stallings helped pay Vandy’s trip to Australia’