Thursday, March 01, 2007

A Trip To The 2007 SEC Women's Basketball Tournament In Duluth, Georgia

You can feel the excitement in the air throughout the southeast as basketball is headed for tournament time, baby! The men are finishing up the regular season games this week headed toward the Georgia Dome on March 8th - 11th for the SEC Championships. The women are ready to rumble at the Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Georgia where big crowds are expected at the biggest sporting event yet to be held at the arena! Well i just happen to have my press pass in hand, headed Friday morning up to day 2 of the tourney.

First Round Byes:

Tennessee, Georgia, LSU and Vandy get byes on Thursday's first round games. All four teams had regular season winning percentages of .800 or better and are all nationally ranked.

Thursday's Early Round Summary:


South Carolina came from behind to beat #9 seed Auburn 65-63 in game 1. The Gamecocks meet up with Tennessee on Friday afternoon. Kentucky gets a red hot Georgia Lady Dogs on Friday after clawing the Arkansas Razorbacks 72-57. Ole Miss advances after beating Alabama 78-49. The Rebs get the LSU Tigers on Friday. Vanderbilt takes on Florida after a rare Gator win, beating Mississippi State 67-60 on Thursday.

In a side note, there is another women's basketball tournament being held this month in Georgia - down in Warm Springs - as the 33rd Annual National Women's Wheelchair Basketball Tournament at Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute began on March 1st. Congratulations, girls.

My journey to the SEC Women's Tournament began on Friday with a trip to the Arena at Gwinnett Center. If you didn't already know, watching four basketball games in a row is exhausting! But I will say the staff at the Arena took good care of us media types with a nice food spread and pretty comfortable surroundings. After picking up my credentials, I leisurely walked into the Tennessee/South Carolina game, surrounded by orange-clad fans makin' some noise. The Lady Vols were up 40 to 28 at the half and would go on to win, advancing to the next round early Saturday evening. I quickly found a great seat, beside the USC pep band, right on the floor at the foot of all the action. I decided that I would sit there as much as I could. Occasionally, I would be gently nudged from my spot to make room for the next team's pep band, so I moved to a nearby seat, right in front of a nice older couple, Vanderbilt fans from Nashville. They were nice and I must give it up to them, for a couple in their 60's, they were at every game whether or not their 'Dores played. And the funny thing was, due to seeding schedules, Vandy always played the late games. But they didn't complain despite getting to bed well after 1 o'clock in the morning. Sure enough, they were back the next day, ready for some action. While I was sitting close to my folks, sure enough Georgia Coach Andy Landers took a seat across the aisle only a few feet from me. I must say, he is the most relaxed head coach I think I've ever seen when he's not on the court coaching, slamming his fists into his forehead in anguish for one reason or another, usually when his team is not making their shots. Other coaches literally within my reach included a smartly-dressed Mickey DeMoss. The Kentucky coach was looking good dressed in a dark blue pin-striped suit. She's a little more high-strung than coach Landers, but considering what she has done with a formerly dormant Wildcat team, I think she can be forgiven. Kentucky, way far behind (53-20) with a little over nine minutes left, would fall to Georgia 72-40.

The next game in the session was probably the most exciting game of the weekend when scrappy Ole Miss took it to mammoth LSU, cooling off toward the end of the first half, but staging a major come-back in the last ten minutes, down by only five with 7:52 left in the game. I've never heard Mississippi sports fans as loud as they were in the last three minutes of the game, seeing their girls lose a heartbreaker to the Lady Tigers 52-46 after the Rebs tied it up with free-throws with one minute remaining in the game. What a thriller! Ole Miss Coach and alum Carol Ross called the last three minutes of the game a "classic", straight from her lips to my notepad. The next game on tap was a little uglier, due in part to a technical called on Florida coach Carolyn Peck. If you didn't already know, the embattled coaching legend was fired earlier in the season after producing only three SEC wins this season. Down by 20 to Vandy at the half, the imposing and beautiful Peck ran down to my end of the floor and let loose a profanity-laced tirade, using the 'F' word repeatedly on a referee who called the technical. That sparked a bit of a rally by the Gators in the last 13 minutes of the game, but wound up getting schooled by the lady 'Dores 105-77. Can I just say that I believe coach Peck is one of the classiest, tallest and most beautiful coaches I've ever seen. She teared up when I asked her at the press conference why she couldn't produce a championship caliber team at Florida like she did when her Perdue Boilermakers won the national championship a few years back. She did not lay the blame on anyone, but did give herself proper credit for cleaning up a program in complete disarray. I believe Florida has a bright future because of Coach Peck and we wish her the best.

Semi-final action began on Saturday with a packed house! Yes, the crowd was largely clad in Tennessee orange, but LSU fans were their typically rowdy selves as the Lady Vols and the LSU Tigers took the court in early evening action. LSU knew they had to minimize Candace Parker, which they did. LSU's Sylvia Fowles got her 60th double-double in the 63-54 victory, advancing LSU to the championship final on Sunday. Most Tennessee fans remained for the Georgia/Vandy game later that night. Georgia looked flatter than a pancake in the first half- only scoring 18 points, down 37-18 at the half, only to lose 81-56. During the game, the entire LSU Lady Tigers squad, including their assistant coach surrounded me at my seat on the floor. I was nervous at first, but soon felt comfortable chatting it up with the ladies. Sylvia Fowles, the team's biggest star, sat right next to me, texting and eating with her teammates, fending off autograph hounds from nearby. I don't blame her for not wanting to be bothered. She was nice about it, but she was right in wanting some down time before the team had to go back to their hotel.

So it was Vandy and LSU for Sunday's finals, set for 7:30 PM. The crowd was a bit smaller, but was still loud. One thing I learned about LSU fans is that they're very loud and rowdy, much like they are at football games. It's nice that SEC women's basketball teams are drawing not only large crowds, but vocal ones as well. It was a little surprising how excited these fans got, enthusiastically pulling for their gals. Major shouts to all the fans who showed up, supporting their schools. Thanks to the great, friendly and helpful staff of the SEC, the NCAA and the staff of the Gwinnett arena for a great tournament. And congratulations to Vanderbilt, who beat LSU, the number one defensive team heading into the tournament, 51-45. Vandy gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tourney in March.

The Good: Beginning with the tournament champions Vanderbilt Commodores, at first glance they're arguably the smallest girls in the SEC, but they're fast and likely to score 100 on you after quick, explosive starts. I believe Vandy, with their rock solid defense will surprise many in their run through the NCAAs.....One of the most amazing stats of the weekend - 73 percent three-point shot completions by Vanderbilt heading into Sunday's victory. Wow!......I found it particularly classy that during halftime of the first rounds Thursday and Friday, they honored some of each school's legendary players, such as former Georgia star Bernadette Maddox...... The award for rowdiest pep band has to go to Florida whose band and cheerleaders never lost their spirit or their smiles despite their Gators getting ROCKED late Friday night. (Runner-up, Mississippi)......The award for hottest dance team goes to Kentucky who looked good in a powder-blue sweats and t-shirt combo, doin' their thing! (Runner-up, Georgia)......Tennessee fans filled the Gwinnett arena nearly all weekend, prompting arena officials to openly hope the Lady Vols advanced to Sunday's finals. They didn't make it, but fan support of one of the nation's best women's teams is impressive anywhere they go......I was impressed by Georgia coach Andy Landers, who posed for pictures while relaxing in the stands before his game. He brought smiles to several star-struck little girls who got a souveneir picture to keep......The food spread was great. We were treated to a Mexican fiesta Friday night and had snacks and beverages all weekend.

The Bad: One of the only celebrity-types that was not particularly nice to me was former WNBA and college coach Van Chancellor, whose game-calling and color-commentaries can be seen on Fox Sports Net during the season. I said hello to him. He snubbed me and moved on......I saw fans from every team at the tournament except Mississippi State. Bulldogs fans - if you want your team to win, it would help if you showed up to cheer them on!.....The arena was nearly empty at the half of the Vandy/Florida game. Yes it was late and the game was very one-sided, but it takes alot away from the atmosphere when no one is there to see it.

The Ugly: During the tournament, one of the sponsors - Chick-fil-A, gave away prizes to person's sitting in certain seats of the arena. When it was announced that someone sitting in the LSU section had won a prize, the over-sized Chick-fil-A Cow made a scary trip down the steps of the upper decks through the rowdy crowd. He survived, but I had my doubts for a moment or two.

Well that's my trip to the SEC Women's tournament. It was a blast. I would have actually had to really work had home-town Georgia advanced to the finals. But they didn't, so I got enjoy myself. Next year's tournament is at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville. But stay tuned, as Bosco's Beat heads for the NCAAs later this month! See you then.