If Vanderbilt beats Tennessee tonight at the SEC Tournament, then the Arkansas Razorbacks will have drawn one of the hottest opponents in the SEC Tournament.
Obviously, that does not include Kentucky.
On Jan. 31, the Commodores had lost at Texas A&M and were 11-10 overall and a dismal 1-7 in SEC play.
Since then the Commodores are 8-2. The highest-seeded team they beat during that stretch was No. 6 seed Ole Miss, which also is the only team they beat that had a winning record in conference play.
The combined SEC record of those seven teams -- they played Florida, Tennessee and Alabama twice in that span‚ is 49-77.
However, the victory over the Rebels was in Oxford, and Vandy has something of a home court advantage with the SEC Tournament being played in Nashville, Tenn.
Vandy split with Tennessee, losing 76-73 in overtime at home and winning 73-65 in Knoxville.
Of all the conference tournaments being played or have already been played, the prohibitive favorite to win its tournament is Kentucky at 1-4 odds.
It would be hard to bet against the Wildcats, and being on their side of the SEC Tournament bracket isn't a good thing.
It would be interesting to know how many tickets fans of No. 14 seed Missouri bought for the tournament.
Not that many showed up for home games as the Tigers struggled through a tough season after being left at the altar by Frank Haith.
Haith was at Missouri for three years. His first season, with Mike Anderson's recruits, the Tigers went 30-5 overall and 14-4 in SEC play and Haith was named national coach of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
The next year the Tigers were 23-11 and 11-7. Haith started bringing in his own players, some of whom were transfers, and went 23-12, 9-9 last season.
That's not a good trend, and Haith took a step down when he took the head coaching job at Tulsa. He led the Hurricane to a 21-9 overall record and a 14-4 record in American Conference play with Danny Manning's recruits, finishing second to SMU.
It was understandable that the Tigers Nation was disappointed when Anderson decided to go home to Arkansas, but if that made them mad, Haith should have sent them over the edge.
Kim Anderson, a former player and assistant at Missouri, was hired last spring to be the head coach. What he needs, besides some talent, is patience from his bosses.
This is going to be a long process.
Hot Springs is the place to be Saturday. Just don't expect to get a hotel room or even a condo from Paul Chmura.
As if it weren't enough that the Rebel Stakes attracted a top field of thoroughbreds to Oaklawn Park for this very important Kentucky Derby prep race, the finals of the high school boys and girls basketball state championships are being played in Hot Springs and include some dream matchups.
If it weren't a dead period for college basketball coaches, fans would be watching the first game Saturday morning with some of the biggest names in college basketball when North Little Rock and Bentonville hook up at 11 a.m.
Bentonville features national recruit Malik Monk, a junior, and North Little Rock has KeVaughn Allen, who has orally committed to Florida.
The only thing that might prevent Monk and Allen from being one-and-done players in college is that the NCAA and NBA are going to propose that players who want to leave school early attend a camp that will be created in May of next year.
Prospects will go through a series of basketball drills at the camp and will meet privately with NBA officials, who will advise them on their likelihood of being drafted and encourage those who won't be drafted to return to school. The NCAA has said it will extend its deadline for a player to take his name out of draft consideration until after the camp.
Sports on 03/12/2015