Storm overshadows great game

March 14, 2008

Ken Rogers

The season Tide fans would like to forget ended on a night everyone connected with Alabama basketball will remember.
You know what? A tornado really does sound like a train as it barrels through.
The tornado—officially it’s being called strong winds, but if that wasn’t a twister I don’t want to be around when the real thing hits—disrupted a lot more than a college basketball game Friday night at the Georgia Dome.
Much of this area, CNN Center, the Dome and the Georgia World Congress next door, were damaged. Homes, too. Atlanta TV is reporting injuries, but not from the Dome.
If Mykal Riley played his last game for Alabama Friday night, it’s unfortunate no one will remember it. He put the game into overtime with a 3-pointer at the buzzer, and his 3-point attempt with 0.5 seconds left rattled in and out.
Mark Gottfried, who noted Riley’s improvement weeks ago, before it was apparent to everyone else, said that’s what seniors do.
“I think (Chris) Lofton made one today late in the game for Tennessee,“ Gottfried said. “That senior year everything is a little different. I think even Mykal Riley here coming down the stretch, you know the clock is ticking down on you and everything matters more. Practices are a little more important. Games. Everything. He stepped up for us and I thought was just absolutely terrific. He carried us here, I thought, in the last five or six games.“
At the end of regulation, he gave Alabama new life.
“Our guy stepped up there again I thought in a tough situation. He had a lot of courage, stepped up there and made it.“
Riley nearly had another magical moment at the end of the game. His 3-pointer would have won it.
“When the shot left his hands on the last shot, I watched the ball, and my heart said, that is in the basket. We’re winning the game. We’re playing tomorrow,“ Gottfried said.
“It seems like the ball went down in the net and came out of there. That’s kind of been our year. It’s been in and out.“

Tide takes 7-point halftime lead

Ken Rogers

Alabama went from the team that couldn’t shoot straight to the team that couldn’t miss.
As a result, the Crimson Tide overcame a 10-0 deficit and took a 36-29 lead into halftime.
It took less than two and a half minutes for the West-champion Bulldogs to take a double-digit lead. MSU used its powerful inside game to dominate early.
Alabama, outmatched inside, simply went outside and seemed to find a soft spot in the State zone. Brandon Hollinger, Mykal Riley, Rico Pickett and Alonzo Gee all buried 3-pointers in the final 10 minutes of the half. The Tide was 8-for-15 on 3-pointers and just 12-for-30 from the field. State helped by rushing things with its lead. The Bulldogs were just 1-of-10 in 3-pointers in the first half.
Alabama capitalized on 10 State turnovers to build the lead. Alabama enjoyed a 15-3 advantage on points after turnovers in the first half. State continued to pound Alabama inside, outscoring the Tide 18-4 in the paint.

Vols survive scare against Gamecocks

Ken Rogers

While Alabama rested Friday afternoon before its meeting with Mississippi State, the SEC Tournament rolled on with a pair of first-rate games.
It wasn’t easy, but Tennessee, the regular season champion, won for the first time in this tournament since 2005. The Vols survived a gutty effort South Carolina and edged the Gamecocks 89-87. Chris Lofton, who had shot just 1-for-9 from 3-point range, buried a wide-open three with 11 seconds remaining.
The lead changed four times in the final minute. Dominique Archie’s jam put the Gamecocks up 85-84 with 51 seconds to play. Tennessee’s Tyler Smith, who scored 11 straight for the Vols, finished that streak with a layup with 37 seconds left. Carolina’s Archie made a layup at the 23-second mark.
Then Lofton, who scored just 10 points, came off a backscreen set by Wayne Chism and coolly buried the 3-pointer with 12 seconds left.
“There’s several options on every play,“ Vols coach Bruce Pearl said. “Chris was going to get the ball. JaJuan (Smith) was the first option ... but Chris was going to get that touch.“
Devan Downey missed a 3-pointer for the Gamecocks, who couldn’t get another shot off an inbounds play with 1.4 seconds remaining.
“I wanted to go for the kill. I wanted to to beat them,“ said Downey, who led Carolina with 26 points. “The shot fell a little short, but it felt good. If I had to do it again, I would take the same shot.“
Instead, it fell to Lofton to save the Vols an embarrassing loss to a team they had blown out twice in the regular season.
“As a shooter, you always think the next one is going in,“ Lofton said of never hesitating to take the shot despite a subpar performance.
Dave Odom, who had earlier announced his retirement effective at the end of the season, had hoped his career wouldn’t end Friday.
“I could be happier had we won, but I don’t know that I could be any prouder,“ Odom said. “Tennessee is the odds-on favorite. They’re close to a double-digit favorite over anybody they play. Today will help them. They were close to losing today, and that will get their attention.“
Pearl said that South Carolina “gave us everything we wanted tonight.“ But he also noted his team’s offensive production overcame its defensive lapses.
“Don’t be too hard on the Vols,“ Pearl said. “We shot 57 percent. We had 35 field goals and had 27 assists.“
The Vols reached the semifinals for the first time since 1991.

Vols in a dogfight against South Carolina

Ken Rogers

The more I see them, the more Tennessee reminds me of a car with all the bells and whistles.
They are sleek, smooth, powerful and seductive. But will they break down on the side of the road?
While Alabama rested before Friday night’s contest with Mississippi State, I took advantage of the opportunity to see the SEC champion Vols play South Carolina. This game hasn’t provided many answers to that question.
Carolina outfought LSU Thursday, and Tennessee pressed and pushed the pace early trying to take advantage of that extra day of rest.
It didn’t make a difference in the first half, but with 10 minutes to go, the Gamecocks look a little leg weary. Still, they are in the game despite clearly outmanned physically.
It’s funny that the longer this stays a game, the louder the crowd gets for Carolina. It’s obvious most fans here are wearing orange. But the Gamecocks are picking up fans of the other teams—especially the thousands in the blue shirts—as the game rolls on and remains close.
Saw a couple of weird plays in this one. Tennessee’s mammoth 6-10, 267-pound freshman Brian Williams was called for offensive goaltending. Williams went up through the basket to help tip-in a shot that may have fallen anyway. Williams motioned to the refs that the basket should count, but they correctly waved it off. Nice try, though.
At the end of the half, with 1.4 seconds left, he Vols inbounded and fired up a halfcourt shot. The ball rebounded off the back iron, went up and bounced between the shot clock support and the top of the backboard. The ball rattled there a moment, then fell into the basket. Again, the basket was correctly disallowed.
UT should wear down Carolina in the closing minutes, but it will take a better opponent to determine if the Vols are a Ferrari or a Fiero.
Game 2 Friday will match Arkansas and Vanderbilt in what may be the most entertaining game of the tournament so far.
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Donovan rips Gators after loss

March 13, 2008

Ken Rogers

OK, I was surprised at Alabama’s domination of Florida in the first half of Thursday night’s game in the Georgia Dome.
But Billy Donovan wasn’t.
The Florida coach made it clear in his postgame comments that his Gators got what they deserved. He also made it clear it won’t be much fun to be a Gator basketball player in the offseason.
“I’m not surprised,“ said Donovan, who hadn’t lost in this tournament since 2004. “A lot of these guys talk a really, really good game, a lot of them do. I think our deficiencies, so to speak, that have affected our team are exposed and I have not been able to, as a coach, get them to focus on it, improve it, make it better or buy into it, or whatever word you want to use.
“No, I watch it every day, so I’m not surprised at all. ...  The reason we got down by so many points is because we didn’t shoot 54, 54, 55 percent as we did in some of these last couple games (losses to Kentucky, Mississippi State and Tennessee). ... It’s just that we got exposed because we shot such a low percentage that we really didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to win the game by getting down so many points.“
Donovan seemed irked that Chandler Parsons said the team wasn’t ready to play.
“I’ve got to take responsibility for that because I think that’s my job,“ the coach said. “That’s disappointing to hear. ... I don’t know how you can’t be excited. I think that that’s kind of the way Marreese came out.“
Marreese Speights was yanked from the game just 65 seconds in. He led the team with 15 points in just 20 minutes. But he was the poster boy of Florida’s defensive effort— or lack of it.
“We have some, I think, talent issues on the defensive end of the floor, foot speed-wise, that sometimes is not all their fault,“ Donovan said. “But also, I think, we have a commitment issue, which bothers me as a coach because I just got done coaching a group of guys the last two years that were so committed.“
The coach rejected the idea that his senior-less squad will mature and get better.
“It’s hard for me to be excited going forward because I don’t see things getting fixed, you know?“ Donovan said. “It’s in front of our guys, what it takes to win, and, like I said, for whatever reason, I haven’t brought it out in them. They’re not committed to it. But I’m not necessarily really that excited about these guys being sophomores, to be honest.
“I think people’s initial thing is, well, they’re going to get older. I never believe in that. I don’t think people change a whole lot, and I don’t think you’ve seen the basketball team change at all this year. So it’s hard for me to get overly thrilled or excited.“