SEC BASKETBALL ROUNDUP – LSU lost at home to Coastal Carolina, coached by ex-Auburn coach Cliff Ellis. Reports Scott Hotard of The Advocate, “For the second time in as many games, the LSU men’s basketball team overcame a second-half deficit to provide their home crowd a thrilling endgame. This time, the Tigers were unable to finish. Storm Warren forced overtime Monday night with a putback in the final seconds of regulation, but Coastal Carolina outscored the Tigers by nine in the extra frame for a 78-69 triumph.”
– Ole Miss whipped Kentucky’s next foe, Mississippi Valley 101-69. Reports Kyle Veazey of the Clarion-Ledger, “Ole Miss outrebounded Valley 44-35 and shot 54.7 percent from the field compared to Valley’s 35.9 percent. It wasn’t one of those hot nights from the 3-point line, either. Ole Miss outscored Valley 46-32 in the paint. With 18 points, senior Ole Miss guard Chris Warren moved into ninth place on the school’s scoring list. Ole Miss won its third straight; it’ll host East Tennessee State, a 4-4 team that won at Mississippi State last week, on Saturday.”
– Mississippi State beat Nicholls State 67-58: “Mississippi State held off Nicholls State late after leading most of the game for a 67-58 win in front of an announced crowd of 2,378 at Humphrey Coliseum,” reports Brandon Marcello of the Clarion-Ledger. “It was the third of a five-game marathon stretch of games in as many days and, perhaps, the most important. MSU coach Rick Stansbury, known for his man-to-man philosophy on defense, had his team play zone against the Colonels’ Princeton-style offense and, in the process, kept the Bulldogs (6-2) from growing tired.”
GUS MALZAHN GETS A RAISE -- The Auburn offensive coordinator turns down the head coaching job at Vanderbilt in exchange for getting his contract doubled. Reports Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News, “t’s a good day to be Gus Malzahn. The Birmingham News reported Auburn has given Malzahn a contract extension while more than doubling his contract to $1.3 million. Assuming all $1.3 million is guaranteed, that makes Malzahn among the highest-paid assistant coaches in the country, if not No. 1. It also means he would make more than about half of the Division I-A head coaches right now, according to a recent USA Today survey. That is, until their agents renegotiate some of their contracts after this news.”
– Jay G. Tate of the Montgomery Advertiser reports: “Malzahn instead will continue his work on the Plains after receiving a raise and contract extension from his current employer. “We have the best staff in the country and while we want our coaches to strive to become head coaches, retaining them as long as we can is important to me and the entire Auburn family,” Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said. “Gus is a very bright and talented coach and we are looking forward to beginning preparation for the BCS national championship.”
John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky and a 1981 graduate of the University of Kentucky, he covered UK football for 13 seasons before being promoted to columnist in 2000. Born in Paris, he graduated from George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester in 1977. He lives in Lexington with his wife and two sons. In 2010, his Sidelines blog was one of four Editor and Publisher's EPpy Award finalists for best sports blog. You can e-mail him at jclay@herald-leader.com. Send him a friend request on Facebook.
