As Post-Dispatch colleague Dave Matter reminded us, SEC basketball is uncommonly deep and talented this season.
Tuesday's chaotic conference play underscored that. Florida went on the road and steamrolled No. 11 Texas A&M 83-66 in just one of the surprises.
The Gators knocked down 17 shots from three-point range in that victory.
“Sometimes, when you make a few early, it snowballs for you,” Florida coach Mike White told reporters. “It certainly has happened to this team, this Gator team, certainly a few times this year, where you kind of see it in their eyes. We have a few very good shooters, and when you get off to a good start, sometimes you can carry that momentum for 40 minutes.”
Mississippi State ended its 18-game losing streak against ranked opponents by edging No. 22 Arkansas at home. "Anybody can beat anybody on a given night," Bulldogs coach Ben Howland noted afterward.
No. 23 Tennessee suffered a 94-84 loss at home to Auburn. The Tigers finally seem poised for a breakout as coach Bruce Pearl fights to keep his job amid college basketball's bribery scandal.
"It's a good win," Pearl said in a postgame radio interview. "Tennessee's a ranked team, I think they're like 9th in the RPI so a road win against that team is going to continue to help our math. We didn't play very well and we were off our game in many ways. The opponent had a lot to do with that, but the guys kind of battled back."
And after a disappointing 5-7 showing in non-conference play -- featuring losses to Belmont and Middle Tennessee -- Vanderbilt edged Alabama 76-75. The Crimson Tide carried a lofty Ratings Percentage Index of 28 into this game.
"We have lost some heart-breakers this year," Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew told reporters after the game. "To be able to face some adversity late and still win, there was definitely some excitement in the locker room tonight."
Mizzou enters the SEC fray tonight at South Carolina, perhaps somewhat boosted by the news that Michael Porter Jr. might play later this season after all.
But as Tuesday's results illustrated, any SEC victories will be precious for the Tigers after their uneven 10-3 showing in non-conference play.
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while the Blues keep struggling to generate offense:
Say, what was football coach Rich Rodriguez doing in his spare time at Arizona?
What is the wrong way for a coach to unwind after a big game?
Just how wide a net will the New York Giants cast in their coaching search?
THE GRIDIRON CHRONICLES
Here is what folks are writing about the College Football Playoff:
Stewart Mandel, The Athletic: "Six years ago, LSU and Alabama played a January rematch so dreadful it essentially broke the BCS. The mystical four-team playoff that college commissioners had spent decades avoiding suddenly came to fruition just six months after the Tide’s 21-0 strangling (featuring one touchdown and five field goals) of the Tigers in New Orleans. On the surface, next Monday’s Alabama-Georgia championship clash seems just as obnoxious, at least for those who live in every other part of the country. Once again, the game is being played on SEC soil (in Atlanta). Once again, Alabama got there without winning its own SEC division. Perhaps the most frustrating part for a fan in Columbus or Salt Lake City is that the SEC wasn’t particularly great this year. It went 2-5 in its other bowl games. There’s a reason nearly half the league just went through coaching changes."
Rodger Sherman, The Ringer: "Congratulations to the Process on securing yet another national championship. SEC fans will gloat about college football’s most powerful league once again putting two teams in the national championship game, the second time that the conference has pulled off this historic feat. But we all know that Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, and Florida will not play for the title next Monday night in Atlanta. (Goodness, especially not Tennessee and Florida.) It’ll be Alabama, the program playing in its sixth national championship game in the past nine seasons, and Georgia, the program that has most successfully modeled itself after Alabama under former Nick Saban defensive coordinator Kirby Smart. The Crimson Tide’s 24–6 win over Clemson in the Sugar Bowl semifinal looked a lot more like the average Alabama game of the past decade than it looked like Bama’s two recent national championship matchups with the Tigers. As it turns out, Clemson poses significantly less of an existential threat to the Tide when it doesn’t have Deshaun Watson. The Tigers ran 70 plays for 188 yards, an average of 2.7 per play, and quarterback Kelly Bryant set up 14 Alabama points with a pair of third-quarter interceptions. This game produced a brief moment of joy when Bama ran a play that resulted in a toe-tapping touchdown reception for 308-pound defensive lineman Da’Ron Payne, but otherwise there was no excitement — just the way Saban likes it. On the other hand, Georgia’s Rose Bowl win over Oklahoma was the most exciting game of the season. The Bulldogs beat the Sooners 54–48 in double overtime, a contest that began with five touchdowns in 16 minutes and ended with multiple fourth-quarter lead changes. It might be hard to see Saban’s influence in this one; Alabama hasn’t played in a game in which the teams combined to score 100 points this millennium."
Will Leitch, Sports on Earth: "(Kirby) Smart coaches like a young man who believes, deep down, he could still go out there and play. Saban coaches like a man who has done it all before and must do it again, must do it forever. The Smart-Saban matchup will be broken down and psychoanalyzed all week; there is plenty of time for that. But Smart, like his mentor, is a man who believes he can shape and control reality, who can bend it to his will. It is not always fun to watch coaches do this. Most of the time it is downright oppressive. But Smart coaches like his players play, and that's just about the most fun thing to watch in sports right now."
Pete Fiutak, College Football News: "Now-Nebraska head coach Scott Frost made the after-the-fact beef against the CFP committee that it made a 'conscious effort' to keep UCF low in the rankings, which is, of course, true, because the entire purpose of the CFP committee is to make a conscious effort to rank all teams where it believes they should be. But to insinuate that the committee knocked down UCF because it’s UCF, or not in the Power Five, is wrong. UCF was knocked down because its schedule wasn’t all that great – there was no conspiracy. Remember, for all the bickering, debating, and arguing, the CFP committee is honestly trying to do the right thing. There are no ulterior motives here. We can disagree, and we can argue, but this group really does want the four best teams in the playoff every year."
MEGAPHONE
"Over the years, I've had teammates who decided to hang it up and I would ask them how they knew when it was time to walk away. The answer was almost always the same: You just know. For me that time is now. Why? Quite simply, I just know."
Battered Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer, announcing his retirement in a farewell letter to fans.
