What has been the tenure of SEC M BBall Coaches during the Expansion Era?

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/789219524897869825

Bartlett, who coached the Gators from 1966-73, was 88.

Bartlett's record with the Gators was 95-85. His .528 winning percentage in Gainesville is seventh best all-time at the school. His 62 SEC wins still sit at the third-highest spot in program history.

Bartlett played at Tennessee from 1949-52 and also was a standout tennis player for the Volunteers, winning six SEC titles.

He was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/patrickbrownTFP/status/788773232874749953

Strick Green
‏@StrickGreen

@patrickbrownTFP @SEC @KentuckyMBB ouch just hasn't been same since Hamilton fired pearl smh so stupid

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/790247187733180417

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/JohnBrady_Coach/status/790535131517771776

[jbcarol]

Kevin Brockway
‏@gatorhoops

Billy D off to a 1-0 start in year two as coach w/Oklahoma City Thunder, who beat Sixers 103-97 behind 32 pts from Russell Westbrook.

[jbcarol]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Andy Kennedy, now the dean of SEC coaches at Mississippi following Kevin Stallings' departure from Vanderbilt, said the SEC has beefed up its non-conference schedules and is starting to see dividends.

"I think people get so overwhelmed with the dominance that is SEC football they all want to take a pause from the SEC," Kennedy said. "They happen to want to pause when we're in the midst of our conference schedule. We have to do our jobs ... This should be a five-, six-, seven-bid league every year, and my hope is we can get back soon."

Who had Kennedy surviving to be dean of SEC coaches eight years ago?

Mike Allen, Kennedy's lawyer in the criminal case, said the coach "vehemently denies" he struck or used racial slurs against Jiddou.

Kennedy pleaded guilty to a "verbal altercation which escalated into an" incident that didn't involve slurs or violence, Allen added. "He did not strike Mr. Jiddou," Allen, the former husband of Judge Allen, said.

[jbcarol]

Mark Leslie Fox

Mark Fox, now 47, is entering is eighth season at Georgia.  He is currently 61-59 in SEC regular season games, one of the small relative number of SEC coaches to have an all-time winning conference record.  Fox has led the Bulldogs to the postseason (the new standard for SEC coaches it seems) the past three seasons.  In total, Fox teams have made two NCAA Tournaments and two NITs.  He has not won an NCAA-T game at Georgia.

Fox came to Georgia from Nevada where he replaced Trent Johnson. He led the Wolfpack to the NCAA-T his first three seasons.  His last two Nevade teams made the CBI prior to his hiring by Georgia.  He was an assistant coach through the '90's at Kansas State and before that Washington.

[jbcarol]

Did you know?

1. With Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson as coach, Arkansas received 22 bids to the NCAA Tournament in a 25-year span. The Hogs have gotten four bids in the last 15 years.

2. Besides Kentucky, Georgia is the only SEC program to win 10 or more regular-season conference games in each of the past three years. Georgia is also the only program other than UK to advance to the SEC Tournament semifinals in each of the past three years.

7. Scotty Thurman, a key player on Arkansas' 1994 national championship team, is a first-year assistant coach with the Hogs.

8. Georgia can set a program record by winning 20 or more games for a fourth straight season.

9. New Vanderbilt coach Bryce Drew intends to use more of a dribble-drive offense.

Ouch

1. The programs absent the longest from the NCAA Tournament are Auburn (13 years) and South Carolina (12 years).

2. Florida ranked 323rd out of 351 Division I teams in free-throw accuracy last season.

3. Georgia hasn't won an NCAA Tournament game since 2002.

5. Mississippi State has not played in the NCAA Tournament since firing Rick Stansbury as coach in 2012. In the previous 11 seasons, Stansbury led State to six NCAA Tournaments.

6. Kentucky is not the only team lacking a lot of experience. Tennessee and Texas A&M have only three upperclassmen on their rosters (two seniors, one junior in both cases).

7. Arkansas lost eight games by four points or fewer last season

8. LSU's 2015-16 season, which began with great optimism thanks to Ben Simmons, ended with a 71-38 loss to Texas A&M.

9. In the last four years, the SEC has ranked no better than sixth in conference Ratings Percentage Index.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/796719413605101568

67. Rick Stansbury at Western Kentucky

The former head coach at Mississippi State added three graduate transfers — Junior Lomomba (Providence), Que Johnson (Washington State), and Pancake Thomas (Hartford) — since being hired last March. Don't be shocked if the Hilltoppers are a dangerous team during the Conference-USA Tournament next spring.

41. Kevin Stallings' first season at Pitt

Jamie Dixon led Pitt to 11 NCAA Tournament appearances in 13 seasons and Stallings has an excellent chance to reach the field of 68 in 2017 as four starters return. The problem? The Panthers were still only picked to finish 12th in the ACC Preseason Poll.

35. Mike White

Many SEC coaches believe that White has the league's second-best team and it will be interesting to see if Florida can return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. One thing to remember: the Gators won't play a true non-conference home game until mid-December due to renovations at the O'Connell Center.

36. Bud Walton Arena

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/AntonioCMorales/status/796793347486732288

OXFORD -  There's no hesitation before Bob Huggins fires away on his old protege, Andy Kennedy.

"It's hard to imagine him being the dean of anything," Huggins said.

Kennedy has taken the Rebels from years of bursting NCAA Tournament bubbles (and the lows of a very public arrest) to a 2013 SEC Tournament title, two tourney appearances and the opening of a new basketball arena.

He's a survivor, and Kennedy's 11th season — the longest tenure of any SEC men's basketball or football coach — begins Friday against UT-Martin (6 p.m., SEC Network+) at The Pavilion.

By the time this season ends, Kennedy will have faced 38 different SEC coaches.

"The one thing I did learn from Bob Huggins is don't be soft, don't be a whiner, don't make excuses," Kennedy said. "Go grind and do the best you can do. That's really the reason I'm standing here 11 years later. I'm certainly not the smartest, the most innovative, but the one thing that has allowed me to stand the test of time is being stubborn and being persistent in my approach."

***

Persistence. That's the word that comes up a lot when people talk about Kennedy.

Kennedy said he read Rick Pitino's book...

South Carolina coach Frank Martin was an assistant with Kennedy under Huggins at Cincinnati. During Martin's first year with the Bearcats they were with a short rotation and about to face Louisville and were concerned about Jason Maxiell potentially falling into foul trouble. Kennedy pestered Huggins for days to practice zone defense, which Huggins just did not do at Cincinnati.

Maxiell picked up his third foul against the Cardinals with the Bearcats up 15, and Huggins relented to Kennedy's suggestion. Except Louisville immediately knocked down three consecutive 3s against the zone.

"Hugs absolutely annihilated him on the sideline," Martin said. "AK never flinched. He just kind of sat there staring into space, like why does this happen to me? But he looked at me and said, 'Are you kidding me?' But that's who he is. People trust him. He could convince Hugs to play zone, something he just wouldn't do during his time at Cincinnati."

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker ‏@KyleTucker_AJC Nov 11

11 of 14 SEC coaches have been to multiple NCAA Tournaments, 7 to a Sweet 16, 6 to an Elite Eight, 3 to Final Four:  https://t.co/CxIImcWbh0

"This is a good league with good teams and good players," Arkansas guard Dusty Hannahs said recently at SEC media day, looking rather annoyed at questions about a general lack of R-E-S-P-E-C-T for anybody not named Kentucky.

"It's kind of like we're all the pretty girl with the big winter coat on and no one looks at her until she takes her coat off," Georgia coach Mark Fox said. "Well, you guys gotta take a hard look at us and say, 'Hey, you know what? This league might be just as good as some of these other leagues.' "

Right now, no one is saying that.

SEC stacks up like this nationally: 3. Kentucky, 31. Florida, 37. Texas A&M, 54. Vanderbilt, 58. Georgia, 61. Arkansas, 62. Ole Miss, 68. Mississippi State, 77. South Carolina, 79. Auburn, 87. Alabama, 99. Tennessee, 104. LSU, 190. Missouri. That puts eight teams within striking distance of the NCAA Tournament.

COACHING CREDIBILITY

Thanks to a series of smart hires in recent years, 11 of the league's 14 head coaches have NCAA Tournament experience. These guys have combined for 83 appearances: Tennessee's Rick Barnes (22), Kentucky's John Calipari (17), Mississippi State's Ben Howland (10), Auburn's Bruce Pearl (Eight), Arkansas' Mike Anderson (7), Georgia's Mark Fox (5), South Carolina's Frank Martin (4), Texas A&M's Billy Kennedy (3), LSU's Johnny Jones (3), Ole Miss' Andy Kennedy (2) and Vanderbilt's Bryce Drew (2).

"I'm willing to put the coaching staffs that we have in this league up against anybody," Martin said.

Barnes, Calipari and Howland have been to Final Fours. Anderson, Martin and Pearl have reached the Elite Eight. Billy Kennedy just took the Aggies to the Sweet 16. Even the three coaches who've not been dancing...

[jbcarol]

 Jeff Goodman ‏@GoodmanESPN Nov 11

Oregon's Dana Altman signed a seven-year contract totaling $18.45 million that will extend him through the... http://es.pn/2fkySv7

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN/status/787014732968497153

Jody Demling ‏@jdemling 14h14 hours ago

Western Kentucky officially announces the signing of guard Josh Anderson, the No. 50 player in the '17 class.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/799360594390421504

ATHENS – The irony is not lost on either of them, that Hugh Durham would lead Georgia to its first and only NCAA Final Four appearance the year after he lost to the NBA the greatest player he ever coached, Dominique Wilkins.

"If I was there, we probably could have won the whole thing," Wilkins says matter-of-factly.

For Durham, it represents a lifetime of achievement. While the bulk of this honor is certainly the result of an long and successful 17-year career as Georgia's basketball coach, it is also a recognition for his accomplishments as a player at Florida State, where he still holds some records; as a coach at Florida State, where he made his first run to the Final Four and also a runner-up finish; and as a coach at Jacksonville, his third stop where he left as the school's winningest coach.

All told, Durham posted 633 victories in 37 seasons (230 at FSU, 297 at UGA, 106 at JU). He remains the only coach in Division I history to lead two schools to their only Final Four appearance and one of only 12 to take two schools to the Final Four.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/GoodmanESPN/status/798705574431039489

oop$, insinuation

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/joerexrode/status/798901481575510016

Bryce Drew could have been Rick Byrd. Which means he could have been Homer Drew.

He could have stayed at Valparaiso his entire career, stitched into the same community for decades, winning at a high rate as a mid-major college basketball coach and getting in his shots at the big boys.

Rick Byrd could have been Bryce Drew. He could have moved on from Belmont, parlaying the consistent excellence of that program into a high-major job.

Would he still have ended up one of the most respected sports figures in this state and voices within the coaching profession? We'll never know, just as we don't know how this move to Vanderbilt will work out for Bryce Drew.

But Homer Drew, Bryce's father and predecessor at Valpo, and 9,115 others got to see them go at it Wednesday night at Memorial Gym, in a sneaky-good November basketball game. In a state filled with quality men's and women's programs, here are two of this season's best stories — Drew's attempt to make a splash in his debut season at Vandy, Byrd's push to return to the NCAA Tournament with his 31st team, for the eighth time in 12 years...

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/FrankMartin_SC/status/802742434388180992

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/803698244555509760

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/SpiritBen/status/804177669701177344

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/KySportsRadio/status/805842144275681280

Norman "Hanging" Chad writes the Couch Slouch column for the Washington Post, and this morning, he penned a piece in which he calls Rick Pitino the devil:

    Now, I am not an NCAA regulator and I have not seen the updated NCAA handbook, but my hunch is that sex with strippers falls under the category of "impermissible benefits."

    Then again, when Pitino had sex on a table in a Louisville restaurant in 2003 with a woman other than his wife, it did not violate the morals clause of his contract, so who's to say?

[jbcarol]

 Joe Lunardi ‏@ESPNLunardi 16h16 hours ago

Winning percentage since 13-14: Villanova (.890), Wichita State (.852), Gonzaga (.847), Arizona (.831), Virginia (.828) and Kentucky (.821).

[jbcarol]

Billy Gillispie says he is retiring, citing health concerns

57-year-old Gillispie said in a text message to The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday that he's been battling high blood pressure since the summer. The former Texas A&M and Texas Tech coach said he is following the advice of doctors by leaving early in his second season at Ranger College, a junior college located around 90 miles west of Fort Worth, Texas.

Gillispie was a rising star in the coaching profession after quick rebuilding jobs at UTEP and A&M.

[jbcarol]

 Jeff Goodman ‏@GoodmanESPN 15h15 hours ago

Eddie Fogler also helped hire Donnie Tyndall at Southern Miss, Pat Chambers at Penn State, Ray Giacoletti at Drake.

[jbcarol]

Happy birthday

... To Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson. He turns 57 on Monday.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/AU_History/status/808023373523652608

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/809069704887365633

When Mark Fox agreed to come to Georgia in 2009 — accepting a position he considered his "dream" job — he didn't completely realize what he was getting into.

It's one thing to understand the challenges of taking over a scar-covered basketball program at a school with a football mindset. It's quite another when the Georgia's school's president, then Michael Adams, gives you a cold slap of reality before the first practice.

"Our president at the time sat me down after I took the job and said, 'This is going to take you over a decade,'" Fox said Tuesday. "And I looked at him (thinking), 'Are you serious?' He said, 'This is going to take you 10 to 12 years.' He said, 'You're just not going to be able to fix it that fast.' We probably had deeper-seeded problems than maybe I understood at the time. That first trip we had guys who forget their shoes or their uniforms because they hadn't been used to doing things and taking ownership of their own successes. That's not to be critical of the previous staff, but you have to educate kids in every area of their life."

This could/should be the best Bulldogs' team during his eight-year tenure. It probably needs to be...

[jbcarol]

Bruce Pearl, Auburn get revenge on former Auburn coach Cliff Ellis at Auburn Arena

https://twitter.com/Tomas_Verde/status/809621789814980608

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/mikecav20/status/809555443693527040

Left in '97 for Celtics.  Took UofL job in '01.

Hard to get good help.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/gordoszone/status/817374232199970817

Gordo: How attractive is the Mizzou basketball job?

Gordon says the university will have no problem attracting candidates to replace Kim Anderson because of factors such as geography, superior facilities and (until recently) a history of success.

[jbcarol]

ex-Bama coach Mark Gottfried's team:

Jeff Goodman ‏@GoodmanESPN 6h6 hours ago

Almost every NBA guy I have talked to about NC State says the same thing: Overall team just doesn't play hard. Certainly clear today.

UNC just blasted NC State by 51. 2nd-largest point differential in series history. North Carolina beat NC State in 1920-21 season, 62-10.


The make-up game

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/819384734996373504

Josh Ward ‏@Josh_Ward 13h13 hours ago

South Carolina coach Frank Martin in postgame press conference: "We just made this a prehistoric game today. It was unbelievable."

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/820842498377580544

When the 2017 McDonald's All-American teams were announced Sunday night, the Wildcats had four, bringing Calipari's total to 29 since 2009 and Kentucky's all-time tally to 61.

Point guard Quade Green, small forward Jarred Vanderbilt, power forward P.J. Washington and center Nick Richards all made the East team for the McDonald's game.

UK McD's ALL-AMERICANS (CALIPARI ERA)

2017 (4) – Quade Green, Jarred Vanderbilt, P.J. Washington, Nick Richards

2016 (4) – Malik Monk, De'Aaron Fox, Bam Adebayo, Sacha Killeya-Jones

2015 (1) – Isaiah Briscoe

2014 (4) – Karl-Anthony Towns, Trey Lyles, Tyler Ulis, Devin Booker

2013 (6) – Andrew Harrison, Aaron Harrison, Julius Randle, James Young, Dakari Johnson, Marcus Lee

2012 (2) – Alex Poythress, Archie Goodwin

2011 (4) – Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Marquis Teague, Kyle Wiltjer

2010 (3) – Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, Doron Lamb

2009 (1) – DeMarcus Cousins

* Kentucky signees Hamidou Diallo (2016), Wenyen Gabriel (2016), Jamal Murray (2015), Skal Labissiere (2015), Nerlens Noel (2012), Enes Kanter (2010), John Wall (2009), Eric Bledsoe (2009) and Daniel Orton (2009) were all 5-star recruits, too, but were either not eligible for or not chosen to play in the McDonald's game.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/WesleySinor/status/821930051868459012

Call Bruce Pearl Mr. 500.

Auburn's men's basketball coach grabbed his milestone 500th career victory Wednesday night as his team took down visiting LSU, 78-74.

It was a much-needed victory for Auburn, which improved to 12-6 overall and 2-4 in SEC play with rival Alabama up next on the schedule. LSU dropped to 9-8, 1-4.

Following the game Auburn had a special presentation for Pearl as his players donned T-shirts that commemorated his win.

"I'm obviously grateful," Pearl said. "My daughter came in from Atlanta, I had some friends come in from Evansville that were dear friends of mine when I was at Southern Indiana. I think your family and everybody else kind of makes a bigger deal about this."

[jbcarol]

Buzz Peterson ‏@BuzzPeterson Jan 21

Congrats to one of my former players (Ron Slay) on being named SEC Legend. Not sure I had a player play the game with so much HEART.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/824481026575589376

Fox blamed himself for not getting his team ready to play. He did not blame himself for a first-half ejection, which appeared to be the culmination of a couple weeks of frustration with officiating.

Fox was ejected with 1:59 left in the first half of Georgia's 80-60 home loss to Alabama. It was an eight-point game when Georgia's Jordan Harris was called for a carry, leading Fox to get so upset he received two quick technicals and was booted.

But even though the lead soon grew to 14, and his team never got back in it, Fox did not back down afterwards.

"I have no regrets for what happened," Fox said. "I have no regrets for what happened. We were not playing nearly in a way that we were going to have success. Did I think it was going to ignite our team? No."

Fox was asked if this was the culmination of what happened at the end of recent losses at Florida (when Georgia was upset with foul calls) and Texas A&M (when a clock malfunction led to a stunning loss).

"You know, obviously can't comment about those two games," Fox said, adding: "So yeah .... perhaps."

Then Fox was asked if specifically his issue was whether Harris should have been called for the carry, or whether Alabama guard Corban Collins had also been carrying the ball and it had not been called.

Fox smiled and hesitated a few moments.

"Again, I cannot comment on that situation," Fox said.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was at the game. He sat on press row, but left that seat before halftime. It wasn't clear where he went following that.

Corban carried Tide to victory

[jbcarol]

Not Jerry Tipton ‏@NotJerryTipton 7h7 hours ago

Not Jerry Tipton Retweeted tbg37

At UK, John Calipari has a higher winning percentage against Louisville than he does against the SEC. So according to math, the SEC >>> UofL


https://twitter.com/tbg37/status/825001928673390592

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/KyleTucker_AJC/status/825052671765803010

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/KyleTucker_AJC/status/825525644356362242

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/827494619118239744

He's a complicated man. Know one understands him but his woman.

The trailer for ESPN's upcoming "30 for 30" documentary on Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari came out Thursday night, and it's all kinds of intriguing. The one-minute teaser ends with Calipari saying, "You're gonna hate me, because I come to your town and we beat your team."

You'll have to wait until April 13 to see that, but you can get a better idea of why some people really do hate Calipari –

"He was young, in his early 30s, trying very, very hard to get the (Massachusetts) program going and his career going. He needed all the media he could get," said Yahoo Sports columnist Dan Wetzel, who was a student reporter at UMass in the early 1990s when Calipari first found fame. "I thought pretty early on he'd be a star. It's pretty obvious the first time you meet him. He's a very charismatic guy, high-energy, big-thinking, all of those things."

He had to be to get anyone to care about college sports in the Northeast, where professional teams dominate headlines and ticket sales.

"It was a complete afterthought that they had a team, let alone that they would get good, be No. 1 in the country and end up in the Final Four," Wetzel said. "He needed to get fans and he wanted to get attention. He didn't care how. He wanted a feud with Boston College. He wanted a feud with Jim Calhoun at UConn. He wanted a feud with John Chaney at Temple. He would push and push and push. He would poke the bear.

"He would create, 'Look at me, look at me, look at me,' and then people looked at him, and it worked."

Calipari cashed in on his unthinkable success at UMass and moved on, briefly to the NBA. When he was fired by the New Jersey Nets, he wasted no time building another unlikely powerhouse at Memphis. The Tigers came within seconds of winning a national championship and produced the first of Calipari's four No. 1 overall draft picks, Derrick Rose.

CBS Sports columnist Gary Parrish covered Calipari's first four seasons at Memphis for the local newspaper and got to know him well enough that the coach often granted him post-practice interviews while he showered.

"...Even when he's full of it, he's convincing. It should be no surprise to anybody that if you get him in a room with a 17-year-old and that 17-year-old's mother, he blows them away."

That's one reason some people hate Calipari. They think he's too slick. Parrish thinks that's hogwash.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/SECNetwork/status/827350434666967040

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/827692881423040516

wenty years have come and gone since South Carolina basketball finished a season on top of the SEC standings.

Now, the Gamecocks are in the hunt, sitting at 8-1 halfway through the conference slate. Eddie Fogler, the coach of that 1997 SEC championship team, says he sees some similarities between the team Frank Martin has this season and the one he had that won the conference.

"I see toughness. I see grit. I see great coaching. I see a commitment to the defensive end of the court," Fogler said. "That's a great formula for success."

South Carolina finished the 1997 season with a 24-8 overall record and a 15-1 record in the conference. This weekend, that team is being honored during Legends Weekend on the 20th anniversary of their achievement.

1997 Gamecocks clinched their title on March 2 with a win at Kentucky. The 2016-17 Gamecocks came up short in their attempt to win at Kentucky, falling by 16.

Former USC coach, who was at the helm from 1993-2001, remains close to the program.

"First of all, Frank Martin is a great coach," Fogler said. "To take the group that he has right now and to have them in the position they are in with a lot of games to go, is truly remarkable. It's fun to watch a team that plays the game the right way and guards as well as anybody in the country, plays unselfishly and knows what good shots are. It's fun to watch. Great effort every day. I go to one practice a week and they bring it every practice. Frank brings it every day to the court. There's no days off."

[jbcarol]

Matthew Stevens ‏@matthewcstevens 14m14 minutes ago

Bruce Pearl is now 1 of 4 coaches in Auburn history to get a season sweep vs. Alabama. Pearl, Ellis, Smith & Eaves.

Pearl now joins a Auburn club w/ the all-time wins leader, the last guy to win a SEC title and a guy who had his name on its previous arena

[jbcarol]

Adam Zagoria ‏@AdamZagoria 10h10 hours ago

No. 24 Florida blows out No. 8 Kentucky, 88-66. Largest margin of victory for Florida in a win over UK.

[jbcarol]

Bama's game at South Carolina will be the 10th time the Crimson Tide have faced a ranked team under head coach Avery Johnson. They are 4-5 in those games.

Bama went 3-28 against ranked teams during Anthony Grant's tenure.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/828728066843226113

https://twitter.com/johnP_hayes/status/828721061323747329

Florida's situation was far more stable when Donovan left than when he came in, which probably made it easier for White to step in and have immediate success.

When Donovan took over, Florida had five NCAA Tournament appearances and one Final Four in program history. NCAA sanctions weren't very far in the past either. But under Donovan's coaching, the Gators made 14 more tournaments and four more Final Fours. He created an environment for White that was much more favorable by comparison.

Still, it bodes well for White and the Gators that he's been able to maintain some of that success after taking over for the best coach in program history.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/829403185903198212

The first quadruple overtime game of the college basketball season ended with Alabama getting its first road win over a ranked team since 2004.

Crimson Tide blew a 17-point lead during regulation and later battled back from a seven-point deficit late in overtime No. 2 before eventually pulling out a 90-86 win over No. 19 South Carolina in overtime No. 4.

Alabama (14-9, 7-4 SEC) ended the game on a 6-0 run after South Carolina (19-5, 9-2) took an 86-84 lead with 3:25 remaining in the fourth overtime.

Avery Johnson Jr. scored a game- and career-high 23 points.

Coach Johnson is 5-5 against ranked teams at Bama.

[jbcarol]

Kyle Tucker ‏@KyleTucker_AJC 10h10 hours ago

Recorded Episode 5 of Everybody's Superpod tonight. Great talk with former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson. On 1990s Cats-Hogs and SEC hoops


Will post as soon as it is available for public consumption

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/Michael_Carvell/status/830114051506180096

[jbcarol]

David Cloninger ‏@DCTheState 2h2 hours ago

That is just USC's fifth winning SEC season in 26 years. Second time USC has done it back-to-back. Gamecocks remain tied for first place.

Frank Martin and Eddie Fogler are the only two coaches in USC history to have two winning SEC seasons.

[jbcarol]

https://twitter.com/aldotcomSports/status/831873224795369472

Mark Gottfried might be on his way out as head basketball coach at North Carolina State.

The former Alabama player and coach is the midst of a second straight subpar season with the Wolfpack, who are 14-12 overall and 3-10 in ACC play heading into Wednesday's game against North Carolina. Gottfried reached the NCAA tournament in each of his first four seasons at N.C. State, but is on the verge of missing postseason play for the second straight year barring a late surge.

This week, several reports surfarced that N.C. State was at least exploring the idea of removing Gottfried at season's end. Late Monday, Raleigh TV station WTDV reported that the decision to fire Gottfried had already been made.

The Sporting News reported Tuesday that N.C. State officials had begun reaching out to other coaches to replace Gottfried.

"Mark Gottfried remains our head coach and we are all focused on our next opponent," N.C. State associate athletic director Fred Demarest said in a statement released by the school. "To suggest we have reached out to any other coach is both incorrect and blatantly irresponsible."