FAYETTEVILLE - Florida’s 10-0 SEC record will be put to its sternest test yet this week, with the Gators taking on Tennessee and Kentucky on the road.
Florida’s winning streak reached 15 games following its 78-69 victory over Alabama on Saturday, the team’s school-record 29th in a row at the O’Connell Center.
Coach Billy Donovan wasn’t happy with his team’s defense, which allowed the Crimson Tide to shoot 55 percent for the game and 54 percent from three-point range.
Asked his thoughts about Florida being 10-0 in the SEC, Donovan praised his team’s “connectivity” and “unselfish” approach, but he also suggested Florida hasn’t played a rugged schedule just yet.
Donovan said the Gators’ road games - at Arkansas, Auburn, Alabama and Mississippi State - all had something in common.
“Those are hard road games, OK,” Donovan said.
“But in reality, if you look at the league standings right now, most of our road games have been against the bottom half of this league and most of our schedule has been against the bottom half of this league.
“Now we have four of the next five on the road … and then five of your last eight are on the road. It all’s going to even out, so I’m not overly like joyous and great because we’re 10-0. I think it will all shake out at the end after 18 games.”
Donovan was tough on his team’s defense against Alabama on Saturday, but Florida has been the league’s best defensive outfit.
SEC teams have scored less than 51 points in nine conference games and four of them have come against the Gators.
Doubling up
SEC teams face five league opponents twice and the other eight teams once to comprise the 18-game league schedule, which obviously creates an unbalanced conference schedule.
This season, Georgia appears to be the recipient of the easiest schedule, while Kentucky and South Carolina appear to be saddled with the toughest slates.
The five opponents the Bulldogs face twice - Arkansas LSU, Missouri, Mississippi State and South Carolina - have combined for an 18-32 SEC record.
Only LSU from that group, which is 6-4 in the SEC, has a winning record.
The five opponents Kentucky and South Carolina play twice have gone 30-20 thus far.
Records for double opponents for the rest of the league: Alabama 28-22, Arkansas 27-23, Auburn 23-27, Florida 21-29, LSU 27-23, Ole Miss 20-30, Mississippi State 28-22, Missouri 24-26, Tennessee 26-24, Texas A&M 21-29 and Vanderbilt 27-23.
Smart move?
Florida Coach Billy Donovan, who coached Oklahoma State’s Marcus Smart for two years on U.S.
national teams, said Smart “is a great kid and I never had one bit of a problem with him,” two days after Smart gave a two-handed shove to a heckling Texas Tech fan.
Smart, who passed up a top NBA Draft position to return to school this season, was given a three-game suspension by the Big 12 Conference for the incident.
Donovan and several other SEC coaches were asked about the incident and how they talk to their players about dealing with unruly or abusive fans.
“I just feel bad for him because I know him as a great kid, too, and it’s just a hard deal,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said.
“I think that fans more and more are of the opinion that they can say whatever they want without regard and without ramification,” Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings said.
“And probably because at times you can do so anonymously, whether it’s talk radio or Internet type things and then all of a sudden you get into a public setting and maybe there is some carryover.”Injury report
LSU guard Malik Morgan has been lost for the season, Coach Johnny Jones said Monday, after tearing a patellar tendon late in the Tigers’ 87-80 victory over Auburn on Saturday.
Morgan, a sophomore, has averaged 4.9 points per game over the past two seasons.
Mississippi State point guard I.J. Ready (Little Rock Parkview), who missed Saturday’s loss to Kentucky while nursing a fever, tested negative for the flu, Coach Rick Ray said on Monday’s SEC coaches teleconference. Ray said the trainers would have to wait for Ready’s fever to subside before updating his status for Wednesday’s game against Georgia.
Georgia’s Nemanja Djurisic left the Bulldogs’ 62-50 victory over Texas A&M with 1:42 remaining with an apparent ankle injury.
23 in a row
Missouri guards Jabari Brown and Jordan Clarkson have scored at least 10 points in all 23 games, the most consecutive games to open a season for a Tiger since Melvin Booker did it in the first 23 games of the 1993-1994 season.
Doug Smith scored at least 10 points in all 30 games he played during the 1990-91 season for Missouri.Odom honored
Vanderbilt’s Rod Odom was named the SEC player of the week Monday.
Odom, a 6-9 senior forward, averaged 24 points and made 7 of 14 three-pointers in games against Tennessee and Arkansas.
Odom missed a three-pointer at the buzzer that would have given the Commodores a home victory over the Razorbacks on Saturday.
Milestone
Georgia Coach Mark Fox notched his 200th coaching victory in the Bulldogs’ 62-50 victory over Texas A&M on Saturday. Fox is now 200-116 in 10 seasons at Nevada and Georgia.
Turnaround stats
SEC coaches are not particularly fond of the format that has teams playing on Thursday and Saturday, which two league teams do each week.
However, teams that have played in the first five Thursday games are 6-4 in the Saturday game that follows two days later.
SEC teams that were on the road in the Thursday game are 4-1 on the next Saturday, including a 2-0 mark by Florida.
Road play
The SEC’s best road record in conference play belongs to Florida, which is 4-0. Kentucky is 3-2, Vanderbilt is 2-2, Ole Miss and Tennessee are 2-3, and Missouri is 2-4.
Arkansas notched its first SEC road victory at Vanderbilt on Saturday to join Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M with one road victory.
Four teams - Alabama,Auburn, Mississippi State and South Carolina - have not won an SEC road game.
Tip-ins
Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes had a streak of four consecutive games with at least 10 points and 10 rebounds end with a 17-point, eight-rebound performance in the Volunteers’ 72-53 victory over South Carolina on Saturday.
Georgia improved to 3-0 all-time against Texas A&M with its 62-50 victory at Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday.
Quotebook
“We were bad the
whole game, to be honest with you.” Florida Coach Billy Donovan on his team’s defense after
Alabama shot 55 percent from the floor in the Gators’
78-69 victory on Saturday.
“Huge win. Huge,
huge win. It’s a home game against a top 50
team that everyone has slotted ahead of us. Huge win.” Mississippi Coach
Andy Kennedy after the
Rebels’ 91-88 victory over Missouri on Saturday
By the numbers
3◊Games with 20-plus points each for
Missouri’s Jabari Brown, Earnest Ross and Jordan Clarkson 13◊Consecutive victories by Tennessee over South Carolina 60◊Georgia’s shooting percentage (27 of 45) in its 91-78 victory over LSU on Thursday 200◊Career victories for Georgia Coach Mark Fox
Game of the week
FLORIDA AT KENTUCKY, SATURDAY, 8 P.M., ESPN
The SEC’s titans finally hook up for the first of two meetings. Kentucky is 14-0 at home and its freshman are jelling. Florida, which has won 15 games in a row, has a two-game lead, so a victory would put the Gators three up with seven to play.
TODAY’S GAMES All times Central Florida at Tennessee, 6 p.m.
Mississippi at Alabama, 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES Kentucky at Auburn, 7 p.m.
Vanderbilt at South Carolina, 7 p.m.
Georgia at Mississippi St. , 8 p.m.
LSU at Texas A&M, 8 p.m.
THURSDAY’S GAMES Arkansas at Missouri, 6 p.m.
SATURDAY’S GAMES Texas A&M at Vanderbilt, 12:30 p.m.
Mississippi St. at Auburn, 12:30 p.m. Alabama at South Carolina, 3 p.m.
Ole Miss at Georgia, 3 p.m.
Tennessee at Missouri, 3 p.m.
LSU at Arkansas, 4 p.m.
Florida at Kentucky, 8 p.m.
Sports, Pages 17 on 02/11/2014