As expected, most of the (over)reaction to taunting becoming a live-ball penalty has zeroed in on the problems with having a celebration penalty in the first place. Guidelines for just what behavior is allowed and disallowed are vague and – as we well know – whimsically applied.

I understand the apprehension. A penalty on a scoring play can cost a team the game – a holding call on a long touchdown run completely changed the 1993 Arkansas game. I also understand the fear that games could hang on such subjective calls. Not to get too semantic, but most calls are subjective. If you buy into the old saw that holding could be called on every play, far more games turn on the subjective application of the holding penalty than on unsportsmanlike conduct. I’m all for clarifying the celebration rule (or scrapping it entirely – as unlikely as that seems). If we’re going to have a celebration penalty – and it looks as if we’re stuck with it – the focus should be on getting it right.

I still wonder if this is as big of a deal as we’re making it out to be. Yesterday I said that one of the few gray areas was a player diving into the endzone. Even that seems to be less of a concern. “If it’s close to diving into the end zone, most likely it would be ruled that the act ended while in the end zone. We’ll be lenient,” [NCAA national coordinator of college football officiating Dave] Parry said. Of course we’re relying on conditional statements and promises here, but the frequency and types of incidents that could be affected by this rule continue to dwindle.

I elicited some message board help last night trying to come up with the last time that this penalty would have affected a Georgia touchdown. The best we could come up with? Bruce Thornton’s interception return against FSU in the 2003 Sugar Bowl. That was a fairly cut-and-dried example of taunting before a score – no ambiguity or argument there. Eight seasons ago. And this is the rule change that’s going to ruin the sport?

Tony Barnhart sums up why I think this rule makes sense:

What all of us who follow college football want is for the rules to be consistent and for the officials to apply them consistently. If a block in the back or a hold occurs at the five-yard line with a player running in for the score, the score does not count. The penalty is marked off from the spot of the foul…Same thing here.

So now that rule is consistent with other penalties. It’s the application of the rule that will be the trick.

Barnhart agrees that this rule would come up a lot less frequently than the dire predictions would have us think. “In the hundreds of Division I-A games played in 2010, this penalty will be called on a scoring play 10 or less times,” he predicts. That sounds about right.

The NCAA has approved the rules changes proposed in February – wedge blocking is banned, eyeblack messages are verboten, and – sure to get the most press today – taunting during a play will be enforced as a live-ball foul.

The actual frequency of this penalty will have to be watched when the rule is put into place for the 2011 season. I still expect that the rule will be applied much less than people seem to think – most taunting occurs after the play. Remember – in the oft-cited A.J. Green play (even brought up in today’s AP article!), the new rule wouldn’t have changed a thing.

People seem to be projecting their dislike for the celebration penalty and the capricious way in which it’s applied onto this particular rule. That’s fine, but repeal/reform of the celebration call is another issue. In this case, the new rule is correct – if we’re going to have a celebration penalty, a live-ball taunting penalty should be treated like holding or any other live-ball foul and be penalized from the spot of the foul. The only real room for a gray area is on plays where the guy scoring dives into the end zone.

Attrition is nothing new for Georgia basketball. Transfers have given (the Hayes twins) and taken away (Tony Cole). The departure of several key players hastened the decline of Dennis Felton’s program. Attrition continues into the Mark Fox era: two players recently gave notice of their intent to transfer. All in all, Georgia has had nine players transfer out of the program since the 2003-2004 season. But, as the Gainesville Sun finds, the Bulldogs’ situation isn’t all that unusual among SEC teams. “Overall, 96 players have transferred from SEC men’s basketball schools since 2003-04,” they report. That’s an average of eight per team.

One interesting takeaway is that a high volume of transfers doesn’t necessarily sink a program (or vice versa). Kentucky and Florida are right up near the top of the list, and the survey includes the time period during which the Gators won back-to-back national titles. Auburn’s only had three players leave since 2004, but that relative stability hasn’t helped them much. A program can only take so much, though – it took one of the best freshmen classes in SEC history to revive Kentucky’s talent level, and the Sun explains how five Florida transfers in the past two years have left the bench precariously thin.

Of course not all transfers are equal. The report doesn’t distinguish between a seldom-used reserve transferring for more playing time or a key starter like Billy Humphrey who was dismissed from the team before he transferred. Losing a guy to Belmont and losing one to Ohio State aren’t exactly equal in terms of impact on the program. Still – attrition of any kind can have an effect on APR, depth, scholarship numbers, and recruiting strategy. The numbers are even higher if you include players who were dismissed without transferring.

Billy Donovan, as the focus of the piece, seems to take it in stride. “The fact is that 40 percent of all kids never make it to their junior year once they enter on a college campus,” Donovan notes. “Kids want to play.”

(h/t Team Speed Kills)

Last week, Mark Richt, somewhat surprisingly, made it a point to respond to an AJC blog post that was critical of the philosophy behind using Logan Gray to field punts in certain situations. No wriggle room here – this was a direct criticism of the head coach.

Though the absence of the author during Richt’s response made a personal confrontation impossible, Richt still focused on the specific disagreement and countered by taking a few minutes to explain his position. Though there’s still quite strong disagreement on the use of Gray as a returner, the tone from author and coach has remained respectful and professional, and we all held hands and sang while the sun set.

At the time, Blutarsky wrote (quite presciently, as it turns out), “First off, kudos to Richt for responding – and responding in a respectful way. I can think of several of his peers (as well as countless anonymous bloggers/commenters) who wouldn’t have been nearly so decent about that.”

It didn’t take long for one of Richt’s peers to prove the Senator right. Urban Meyer’s confrontation with Jeremy Fowler bordered on threatening and intimidating, and it’s being pretty universally condemned today.

The point isn’t that Meyer is an awful human being or that a reporter is beyond reproach. We all know Meyer is an intense man with fierce loyalty. The thing is that Meyer went off about a piece that was actually somewhat positive about Deonte Thompson. I’m still trying to figure out whom Meyer is defending.

Let’s look at the piece that has Meyer so upset. Thompson, through Fowler, described a Florida offense that involved a lot of scrambling with improvised passing. And, as Fowler points out, nearly half of those passes went to just two favorite targets – Cooper and Hernandez. Nothing about that was vicious or really all that inaccurate. Thompson felt that he might be more productive with a quarterback that relied more on timing and rhythm. Fine.

The use of the term “real quarterback” of course is at the center of this whole blowup. As Chris Brown tweeted last night, this would have been a non-story had Thompson used a label like “traditional” or “dropback” instead to describe Brantley. Thompson wasn’t wrong or even malicious and just hoped a few more passes would come his way with a different type of quarterback.

Fowler even ends his short piece with a supporting and positive quote from Thompson’s new position coach. If Meyer is taking issue with an article that claims that Thompson hasn’t lived up to his billing yet, he also has an issue with Zach Azzanni. Fowler also adds a quote from Azzanni about Thompson’s humility and eagerness to be coached.

There was only one person who could come away from Fowler’s original piece in a less-than-positive light, and that’s the guy who is, by implication, not the “real quarterback.” Chris Low has it right (h/t GTP). When Meyer threatened, “If that was my son, we’d be going at it right now,” did he mean Tebow?

Doc Saturday asks for thoughts about the NFL’s new overtime rules and what it means for college football. As for the NFL policy itself, it’s not very smart to just go halfway on this. A team only gets possession in overtime if they allow a field goal but not a touchdown? If you’re going to call the current system inadequate, just do the simple thing and allow each team a minimum of one possession regardless of what the other team does with theirs. Will it take Favre watching his defense give up an overtime touchdown before they see this all the way through?

Turning to the college overtime system, I kind of like it the way it is. It’s true that it’s a little too easy to score, and I do like the wrinkle of requiring a two-point try in later rounds of overtime. That one change has prevented a lot of the endless overtimes that we saw during the first few years of the system, and those marathons are much less of a concern now (and truly the exception). If I’d endorse one change, fine – start them at the 40 instead of the 25. But leave the format unchanged otherwise. I don’t mind that it condenses the game down to more of a shootout; you had four quarters to impress us with your punting game and mastery of field position.

Mark Fox’s Bulldogs picked a great time for their first win of the season outside of the state of Georgia. In fact, Georgia’s 77-64 win over Arkansas in the first round of the SEC Tournament was Georgia’s first victory in an SEC Tournament game outside of Georgia since 1997 when the Bulldogs made a run to the tournament finals in Memphis.

Georgia knew from experience that Arkansas was more than capable of making a second half push that could erase a Bulldog lead, but this time the Dawgs were ready. The Razorbacks’ Courtney Fortson dominated the game down the stretch in their win over Georgia in Athens, but Georgia’s duo of Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie took over this time. With 5:27 left, Fortson hit a shot that cut Georgia’s lead to five. A Thompkins basket and a few free throws pushed the margin to seven, and then Georgia turned to its gameplan to put the game away. The Bulldogs exploited a size advantage by bringing the posts outside and letting Travis Leslie get position inside. Fox explained,

…we walked through that very set that we ran there in our shootaround today, and we felt like, if they played three guards, that we would have an advantage with Travis on the low-block area. And so those two kids were dialled in mentally and were able to take advantage of that.

Leslie found himself in that position on consecutive possessions, and he converted two easy baskets that iced the game. The Bulldogs held on the defensive end, cleaned up on the glass, and made sure that their lead would not evaporate again. Thompkins finished with an impressive 23 points and 14 rebounds, and Leslie added 21 in one of his best games in weeks.

The win earns Georgia another shot at Vanderbilt. The Dawgs handled the Commodores in Athens, and we still have a pretty fresh memory of that heartbreaking last-minute collapse in Nashville and the overtime loss just a few weeks ago. Georgia matches up well with Vandy, but we know that the Commodores are a quality veteran team that has to be tired of hearing about how well Georgia has played them. The Bulldogs will have to continue to own the glass, be a bit more judicious with fouls among the frontcourt players, and continue to reduce those “November turnovers” as Fox called them. Thompkins and Leslie will have to show up big again of course, but the ability to defend Jermaine Beal and John Jenkins could be the biggest key for the Bulldogs in tonight’s game.

Clay Travis made note of the disappointing turnout by the Arkansas faithful, and that was pretty apparent on TV too. I guess it is kind of sad. I also remember some of those great tournaments in the 1990s when Arkansas and Kentucky, led by Richardson and Pitino, were slugging it out in the years after Arkansas joined the conference. We know all about the “Catlanta” phenomenon these days when the tournament comes to the Dome, but Arkansas fans turned the Memphis Pyramid arena into the “Pigamid” in the years that the tournament was held on the banks of the Mississippi. It was surreal experience for fans of other schools for the Kentucky and Arkansas fans, who basically shared about 90% of the arena, to go back and forth between “GO BIG BLUE” and calling the Hogs in the middle of a game that involved neither team.

It seemed that Georgia had to face Arkansas every year in the quarterfinals. The Dawgs would get by a team like LSU on Thursday, and then Thurman and Williamson and 10,000 fans in a different shade of red were waiting to send Georgia home the next day. Arkansas hasn’t been that scary in a long time, and as Travis writes, those once-fearsome and omnipresent fans aren’t buying what John Pelphrey is selling.

The subject of Tim Tebow’s draft status continues to take shots from all sides, and many are getting a chuckle from LSU quarterback receiver Russell Shepard’s admission that Tebow’s struggles played a role in Shepard’s decision to move to wide receiver.

Shepard observed that in college “you can get away with being an athlete sort of like what Florida did with Tebow,” deftly claiming Tebow’s plight as Shepard’s own cover for not hacking it at quarterback. The key words there are “sort of.” Shepard wasn’t remotely anything like Tebow either as a quarterback or as an impact freshman in the SEC. To say Tebow “got away with being an athlete” is a bit like saying that Bill Gates got away with being a college dropout.

Tebow, though mainly used as a change-of-pace in short yardage situations, still managed to complete 67% of his passes, throw five touchdowns against a single interception, and finish his freshman year with a quarterback rating over 200.

Shepard, despite playing in 10 games as a true freshman, didn’t attempt a pass. Oh, he was just in there to run? Even on the ground Tebow had a better freshman season with nearly 200 more yards than Shepard. Shepard had a long way to go before he started earning comparisons with Tebow – try Kodi Burns or Randall Cobb first.

Tebow might or might not stick in the NFL – far be it from us to make the case for him. The backlash though is to the point now that even this Georgia fan is starting to hope he does. Tebow might thrive or flop or become a serviceable role player in the pros, but but none of that has anything to do with Russell Shepard just being a good football player who runs fast instead of being an SEC quarterback.

Congratulations to Trey Thompkins – he’s Georgia’s first All-SEC first-teamer since Jarvis Hayes. He’s made the transition from promising freshman to legitimate SEC star, and he’d be in position to challenge for SEC player of the year honors if he returns next year.

I wondered why Travis Leslie didn’t make the second team, but I’m not bent out of shape about it. Leslie had his breakthrough season, and he’s positioned to be one of the league’s most visible players as long as he chooses to remain at Georgia. I think that visibility might have worked against him later in the season. Leslie’s eye-opening performances at Kentucky and against Tennessee in January set expectations as high as they were for anyone including Thompkins. It’s unfair to say that Travis faded down the stretch, but three of the four games this year in which he didn’t score in double figures came in the last weeks of the season. It also doesn’t help that his best late-season performance, at Vanderbilt, ended in a loss in which Leslie had a chance to win the game in regulation. There are an awful lot of quality players on that second team, and I can’t really quibble with any of those selections. Leslie would have been as good of a choice as most of them but not a heads-and-shoulders better choice.

I should also say something about the coach of the year selection. Chris Littmann smells a rat, and I’m finding it hard to disagree with him. Kevin Stallings and his team had a really nice season, but John Calipari turned in the best coaching job of the season.

The only argument to be made against Calipari is this: well of COURSE Kentucky finished first. My [sports-averse female relative] could have coached that bunch to an SEC title.

There’s something to that – the best coaching job isn’t necessarily done by the coach of the team that finishes first. Pat Summitt did another fine job leading Tennessee back to the top of the SEC on the women’s side, but the biggest accomplishment belonged to Matthew Mitchell who led Kentucky from a preseason forecast of 11th place to a solid second place finish. That was an exceptional coaching job, and – though Kentucky didn’t win the league – Mitchell was deservedly named the coach of the year.

It’s unwise to automatically dismiss a successful coach from a team loaded with talent. To begin with, it discounts the role of the coach in assembling that talent. We think of great coaches as those who could get the most out of any bunch of players, but championships are won by those who can teach the game and attract the highest quality of players. Wooden would have been a success anywhere, but you don’t have a dynasty without bringing men like Alcindor and Walton into the program. There’s a tendency for a coach with so much talent at his disposal to be disregarded as a caretaker with a just-don’t-screw-it-up mandate.

Even after you assemble a loaded roster you still have to get that talent to perform, understand roles, and buy into a system. It’s not a given. There is no shortage of analysis of what has gone wrong with the 16-15 North Carolina Tar Heels, but you don’t have to search very long to find a common theme: for whatever reasons a team loaded with 7 McDonald’s All-Americans was almost uncoachable. Calipari brought in a great recruiting class, meshed it with returning players like Patterson, and got a roster with one eye on the NBA committed to winning a title. As we discussed last week, Kentucky’s turnaround has been as much about defense as it has been about the entertaining offense. Changing a program’s culture in one season and persuading so many key newcomers to embrace the work and sacrifice required by high-level defense is a tremendous coaching job.

Vanderbilt had a good season probably highlighted by a sweep of Tennessee. I don’t want to diminish anything they’ve accomplished. They were picked to finish third in the SEC East. They finished second with a roster that returned its top four scorers and didn’t exactly feature scrubs – four Commodores earned some sort of postseason mention. Good results, good coaching, but hardly up to the level or impact we saw from what Calipari was able to accomplish in his first season.

SEE ALSO: Complete list of SEC basketball postseason honors

  It’s time again for my annual indulgence.  There’s always a great vibe around a conference tournament, and the SEC women’s tournament returns to the Arena at Gwinnett Center on Thursday for the first of three visits over the next five years. Since the tournament is right down the road, I’ll be camped out there throughout the weekend to mix with the fans and students from around the conference.  I might have an update or two here throughout the tournament about Georgia’s experience, but I’ll probably be a lot more active on Twitter.

Georgia got a bit of a disappointment on Sunday when they finished in a four-way tie for third place but came out on the short end of the tiebreaker with the #6 seed.  That outcome might not be a terrible thing.  The seeding lets Georgia avoid possible matchups with Tennessee, Vanderbilt, or LSU until the finals.  Georgia would have to play some tough opponents regardless if they plan on advancing to Saturday or Sunday, but the seeding would help them avoid some of the hotter teams in the conference.  In a season where Georgia has lost to teams as low as the #10 seed, there’s no such thing as a truly “easy” path through this tournament.

The Lady Dogs slipped to the #6 seed after starting the season 16-0 thanks to a midseason slump that included losses in six of eight games.  They’ve righted the ship somewhat and won three of their final four regular season games.  Midseason injuries still linger, but they’re as healthy as they’ve been since the start of conference play. 

Georgia’s all-conference honorees tell the story of the season.  Ashley Houts was every bit the senior leader that she was expected to be and earned a spot on the all-SEC first team. Georgia’s fortunes turned this year on the arrival of six freshmen, and two in particular – Jasmine James and Jasmine Hassell – have played big roles.  The pair was named to the all-freshmen team this week.

Georgia’s path through the tournament

• Thursday:  9:00 PM vs #11 Alabama (Fox Sports South)
• Friday:  9:00 PM vs. #3 Mississippi State (Fox Sports South)
• Saturday: 6:00 PM Semifinal (ESPNU)
• Sunday: 6:30 PM Final (ESPN2)

Now on to the teams (get the bracket here):

The Favorite

1. Tennessee (15-1): After a relatively disappointing season a year ago, the Lady Vols are again the regular season SEC champs. They have a single blemish on their conference mark: a road loss at Georgia that came down to the final shot. Tennessee isn’t back to where they expect to be on the national scene – not many teams can stand out from underneath UConn’s shadow – but the Lady Vols are at least back to their customary position as SEC Tournament favorites. That’s not to say that they’re a lock to win. They’ve looked vulnerable several times away from home. They lost at Georgia and had very close calls against Ole Miss, Florida, and South Carolina, and they will face one of those teams in the quarterfinals. Tennessee can get past most teams by leaning on good defense, but their scoring can run streaky.

The Surprise

2. Kentucky (11-5): Kentucky rolled through nonconference play with only one loss, and most of us chalked it up to a weak schedule. They started just 1-2, and it looked as if preseason expectations of a difficult season would bear out. UK was picked to finish 11th by the coaches and media before the season, but Matthew Mitchell has done another great job building this team. They rolled off eight straight conference wins and soon established themselves as the league’s second-best team. Their formula has been simple: defend the home court and ride the star. They are a perfect 14-0 at home this year, but they only faced Tennessee in Knoxville. Victoria Dunlap is top 5 in scoring, rebounding, steals, and blocks. The emergence of freshman guard A’dia Mathies makes them that much more of a complete team, and they lead the league in scoring. UK ended up sweeping the coach, player, and freshman of the year awards in the SEC.  If the tournament were at Rupp Arena, you’d like their chances.

The Logjam

Four teams finished tied for third place, and it’s fitting that they went 2-2 as a group on Sunday in order to end up with identical records just a game over .500. All four teams are good enough to earn NCAA Tournament consideration, but they all have weaknesses and inconsistencies that have led to seven conference losses each. It wouldn’t surprise me to see one or more from this group playing for the title on Sunday, but they’re just as likely to be done by Friday.

3. Mississippi State (9-7): Congrats, Bulldogs. You started the day in 4th place, had a 30-point loss hung on you, and moved up to 3rd place as a result. MSU can thank the SEC tiebreaker rules for its tournament seed, but the foundation for that seed was laid with wins over Georgia and Vanderbilt. MSU loves to shoot the outside shot – no other team has attempted more than their 655 three-point attempts. Unfortunately they’re in the bottom half of the league in three-point percentage. Their outside shooting has been enough to land them among the top seeds in the conference, but it hasn’t quite been good enough to keep them in the rankings where they started the season. Alexis Rack is the three-point specialist, and the team’s fortunes often ride on her outside shot. Chanel Mokango is enough of a presence inside to force teams to respect the paint.

4. LSU (9-7): LSU enters the tournament as the hot team you’d rather not play. The Tigers endured a rough start to SEC play that saw them sputter to a 4-6 league record by mid-February. They’ve since won 5 of 6 games with the only loss coming at Tennessee. No shame there. The difference has been a rededication to a smothering style of defense. LSU has given up an average of just 44 PPG in their last five wins and now leads the league in scoring defense. Their offense can be summed up in the name of Allison Hightower, but their midseason turnaround has come as others have started to contribute. A likely LSU-Vanderbilt game on Friday could be one of the most entertaining quarterfinal matchups.

5. Vanderbilt (9-7): Find a team with no key players over 6’1", and that team’s probably in trouble. It’s to Vanderbilt’s credit that they’ve managed to remain a very competitive and successful team with only one real frontcourt player. Hannah Tuomi, at 6’1", is facing taller opponents every night but still finds a way to be effective, tough, and – in the eyes of opponents – pesky while doing the rebounding, screening, and other dirty work that has to be done for a team to win. With Tuomi as the extent of the frontcourt Vandy had better shoot well from outside, and they do – they lead the SEC at just over 38% from behind the arc. Veteran guards Jence Rhoads and Merideth Marsh fit right into the talented, tough, and smart style we’ve come to expect from Melanie Balcomb’s teams. Vanderbilt, the league’s defending tournament champion, is one of those teams that knows how to turn it on for the postseason even if they’re not a top seed.

6. Georgia (9-7): Georgia might be kicking themselves for a last-second loss to Ole Miss that could have earned them a much higher seed, but they’ve been on the happier end of close games far more often this year. Big games from the offense have been the exception, so the expectation is for closely-contested games decided by defense. Injuries and fatigue in the middle of the season kept Georgia from playing the kind of defense that propelled them to a 16-0 start, but the team has showed signs of life down the stretch. They have a trio of nice frontcourt players, but the team will go as guards Ashley Houts and Jasmine Jones go.

Upset Specialists

The four teams leading the bottom half of the division all failed to post winning records in conference, but each has at least one quality win to their credit. All four of these teams were able to beat Georgia. Auburn beat LSU and Kentucky. South Carolina just won at Vanderbilt. Ole Miss swept LSU and beat Mississippi State. With that kind of upset potential from this group, top seeds Tennessee and Kentucky could face a stiff challenge in the quarterfinals on Friday.

7. Florida (7-9): Florida just wasn’t quite able to break through this year. Their only win of note is an upset of Georgia a little over a week ago. Like Vanderbilt, Florida is an undersized team. It doesn’t help that Azania Stewart, one of their few frontcourt players, has been sidelined due to injury. Stewart had 21 points and 11 rebounds in Florida’s overtime win over first-round opponent Auburn back in January, and there isn’t anyone to take up that slack. Guards Steffi Sorensen and Jordan Jones will have to come up big, and the Gators will have to outwork Auburn on the glass to advance.

8. South Carolina (7-9): Coach Dawn Staley’s rebuilding project continued to move forward this year. Just a couple of years removed from the league cellar they were nearly .500 in conference this year. They’ve won in tough road environments at Auburn, Georgia, and Vanderbilt. A late four-game slide will keep them from doing much more this season, but that season-ending win in Nashville shows that they have plenty of fight still. South Carolina has a classic inside-out combo: Freshman Kelsey Bone has made an immediate impact by finishing top 10 in both scoring and rebounding. Valerie Nainima is one of the league’s top outside shooters.

9. Ole Miss (7-9): Ole Miss looked for a while like a team that was headed for a memorable season. They started SEC play 5-1 which included consecutive wins over LSU, Mississippi State, and Georgia. They’ve only won two games since and have slid down the standings and likely out of the NCAA Tournament. Bianca Thomas is the SEC’s leading scorer and could carry her team past the first round. One player to watch is forward Nikki Byrd – she’s a key contributor and was injured in the season finale.

10. Auburn (5-11): Wins over Kentucky, Georgia, and LSU show what Auburn is capable of. They just haven’t been able to play at that level in many other games. They lean on the post play of KeKe Carrier and the streaky outside shooting of Alli Smalley. Carrier could be a devastating force against an undersized Florida team – she scored 24 when they met in January and won’t have Azania Stewart to worry about. If Auburn can advance past Florida, they’ll play Kentucky on Friday, and Auburn beat UK less than a week ago.

 Leaving the Bus Idling

For the first time in several years, the teams at the bottom of the league aren’t automatic outs. Both Alabama and Arkansas have made some noise this year and could make their opening round opponents very nervous.

11. Alabama (4-12): Alabama has had a rough few years in the conference, but they’re beginning to show signs of progress. They won as many SEC games this year (4) as they’ve won in the past three seasons. They’ve even managed to sweep Florida this year, and a win over rival Auburn has to be one of the program’s bright spots lately. They lack any real stars, but forward Tierney Jenkins is nearly averaging a double-double.

12. Arkansas (4-12): Last year Arkansas rolled off a string of wins to rise from the bottom of the league to middle-of-the-pack respectability. It looked as if they might be headed in a similar direction this year when they posted thre straight wins in February including road wins at Auburn and South Carolina. But the Razorbacks have faded down the stretch and have lost three straight entering postseason play. They played first-round opponent Vanderbilt close back in January and have the athleticism at guard to match the Vanderbilt backcourt.

I’ve been enjoying David Hale’s look at some of the stats that could play a role in the outcome of the 2010 football season, and we can turn some similar analysis on the basketball team to understand what’s behind Georgia’s rebuilding effort.

Most sports have stats that aren’t listed in the box score but have become part of the vocabulary of those trying to understand the games. Sabermetrics has taken over baseball analysis. Football fans talk about hidden yardage and SDPI. Basketball fans try to identify hustle plays and are even starting to apply Sabermetrics-like analysis to hoops.

There’s a basketball stat that goes back over 50 years – points per possession (PPP). It’s a way to measure a team’s efficiency: the more points you can get out of each possession the more efficient your offense. The reverse holds true for defense. It applies whether you are a slow-paced team or an up-tempo team. There are many ways to determine the total number of possessions in a game (other than outright charting them as some teams do), but a formula like this can be used to approximate total possessions from most box scores:

Possessions = field goal attempts – offensive rebounds + turnovers + (0.475 x free throw attempts)

Generally speaking, better offenses seem to have a PPP around 1.10 or higher. A number under 1.00 isn’t great, and below 0.90 is putrid.

To illustrate how far Georgia’s offense has come under Mark Fox, Georgia’s PPP last year was a dismal 0.88 – Georgia managed far less than a point per possession. You’ll have to dig to find many major programs worse than that. In a typical game with 65-75 possessions, Georgia could expect about 57-66 points. That won’t win many games.

Georgia’s PPP has improved this year by a whopping 20% to 1.06 PPP. Defensive efficiency has dropped marginally this year, but it pales next to the improvement on offense. Anyone watching Georgia hoops has seen it; these numbers quantify the improvement.

For all the talk of Wall and Cousins and Patterson and the rest of the explosive Kentucky offense, their PPP on offense is only one tick better than Georgia’s: 1.07 vs. 1.06. What’s propelled Kentucky to the top of the national rankings has been its ability on defense to hold opponents to 0.93 PPP. A Basketball Prospectus notes, Kentucky is holding opponents to 27% from behind the arc this year.

Georgia’s ability to play close at Rupp Arena earlier this year raised a lot of eyebrows. Was it a case of Georgia playing well that kept it close? Not really – it was one of Georgia’s least efficient offensive performances of the year. Kentucky managed about 1.02 PPP in that game – slightly below their season average but not by much. It was an above-average performance by the Georgia defense. The key stat was Kentucky going 2-14 from behind the arc. Georgia on the other hand had a PPP of just 0.92 – far below their season average but pretty close to Kentucky’s average defensive efficiency. Georgia stayed in the game thanks to shooting 43% on three-pointers, but their 26 turnovers destroyed their efficiency and ultimately cost them down the stretch. If Georgia had managed a PPP of just 1.00 in Lexington with the same number of possessions, they would have scored around 74 points and made the ending much more interesting.

Valuing possessions is important in any sport, but it becomes acute against a team like Kentucky that has been so effective all year in crippling opponents’ offensive efficiency. Georgia will have to shoot well, but they’ll have to focus on turnovers in order to have a chance tonight. That’s not just a concern for Ware the point guard – Trey Thompkins led the Bulldogs with 6 turnovers against the Cats in January, and the inability to hold on to the ball was truly a team effort. If Georgia can maintain possession and get off a good shot within their offense, chances are they’ll be able to score in the 70s and give us a much better result this time.

…is keeping one of your rivals out. Though just one man’s opinion, this bit of prognostication warmed my heart on this cold morning:

The Gators are not [among the first four teams left out of the NCAA tournament] because of Tuesday night’s loss to Vanderbilt, at least not by that defeat alone. The failure to beat Georgia in Athens may haunt this Florida team, especially if they end up in the NIT for the third straight season.

We do what we can. A few of us were watching the usual SportsCenter bubble discussion over lunch today. Teams like Illinois and Georgia Tech came up for discussion. Both teams might be on the outside looking in, but the most satisfaction came from not seeing Georgia listed as a “bad loss” for either. On the contrary; for teams like Virginia Tech who are fighting the stigma of a weak schedule, a win over Georgia is becoming a point in their favor.

Georgia dispatched Arkansas by more than 20 points on an emotional Senior Day, but they faced the unusual “reward” of  falling in the standings at the same time thanks to the quirks of the SEC tiebreaker system. It was that kind of day in the conference on a Sunday that saw three big upsets and  seven teams finish the season within two games of each other.

The Lady Dogs entered the day with a pretty firm grip on 5th place in the SEC standings.  There was a realistic shot of moving into 4th place:  an LSU win over Mississippi State in Baton Rouge would place those teams in a three-way tie with Georgia for 4th place at 9-7 in conference.  Since those three teams were all 1-1 against each other, Georgia’s win over Tennessee would be the trump card that landed them the 4th seed and the coveted first-round bye.

That scenario actually unfolded. Unfortunately South Carolina’s upset of Vanderbilt in Nashville was all it took for Georgia to fall from the 4th seed to the 6th seed.  Vandy’s loss meant that four teams – Vandy, LSU, Mississippi State, and Georgia – all finished tied for 3rd place at 9-7.  The same tiebreaker system that would have awarded Georgia the #4 seed in a three-way tie scenario was much kinder to Mississippi State and LSU in a four-way tie.  Those two teams earned byes while Vandy and Georgia are left to play on Thursday. 

Here’s how the order shakes out:

1. Tennessee
2. Kentucky
3. Mississippi State
4. LSU
5. Vanderbilt
6. Georgia
7. Florida
8. South Carolina
9. Ole Miss
10. Auburn
11. Alabama
12. Arkansas 

We’ll have our annual tournament preview soon, but start with this:  it might look as if Georgia got a bit of a shaft falling to the bottom of that four-way logjam, but the #6 seed means they avoid the side of the bracket with tournament favorite Tennessee, red-hot LSU, and pesky Vanderbilt.

Georgia Tech knew that they’re going to be without starting quarterback Josh Nesbitt for spring practice as he recovers from surgery on his ankle. That position took another hit today when the AJC reported that backup Jaybo Shaw would be transferring to Georgia Southern. That leaves rising sophomore Tevin Washington as the only Tech quarterback for spring who has taken a snap in a game.

Behind Washington are a pair of redshirt freshmen – David Sims and Jordan Luallen.

How is that different from Georgia, I hear you ask? Georgia, after all, is also entering spring with only one QB with limited playing experience and a pair of redshirt freshmen. But while Tech will now enter spring practice without either of the two quarterbacks on top of their depth chart, Georgia will at least have their presumptive starter and top three quarterbacks available for spring practice.

It’s been noticed this week that one RPI estimate puts Georgia ahead of North Carolina. Ordinarily that would be one hell of a benchmark for a program, but this year it’s a punchline and just a bit of trivia as Carolina’s season swirls around the bowl. (Other RPI estimates still have Georgia behind UNC.)

We’ve seen Georgia and Carolina against a couple of common opponents – Kentucky and Georgia Tech. It’s not close. Carolina has no one with the abilities of Travis Leslie, and I’d take Trey Thompkins right now over (a healthy) Ed Davis. The Dawgs beat Georgia Tech, and they gave Kentucky a much better game at Rupp.

Yes, there’s a bit of tongue-in-cheek here since we all know that Carolina lost a lot of punch from last year’s national championship team while Georgia, well, didn’t. Recruiting heals many wounds, and UNC is between waves of talent though their current lineup is hardly without highly-touted players. Georgia will add some interesting pieces next year to continue their rebuilding project, but Carolina will welcome what might be the nation’s best incoming class of perimeter players. An RPI in the 80s is a low point for Carolina. Can Georgia recruit well enough going forward to make sure that a similar RPI is also Mark Fox’s low point?

Aside: Georgia’s also not very far away from Oklahoma in the current RPI estimations. Sooner coach Jeff Capel was considered a leading candidate to fill the Georgia vacancy a year ago.

I don’t know whether to celebrate or bang my head against a wall. If a college hoops fan in your home or office has gone missing or shows up with bloodshot eyes, they’ve probably discovered the NCAA’s basketball vault – an archive of every game from the Sweet 16 and beyond over the last decade.

As someone who loves the game and the tournament, it’s bliss. As a Georgia fan, it’s beyond depressing to realize that even the relative glory years of Jarvis Hayes didn’t produce a team that made the cut for this archive. Look at the list. Alabama. Davidson. George Mason. Iowa State. KENT FREAKING STATE. Nevada – hey! Maybe there’s hope. Southern Illinois. Ouch – that one hurts.

At this point, I’d settle for getting kicked in the gut and watch the 1996 Syracuse game if it would get Georgia in the vault.

Moving on, Year2 over at TSK is right on when he offers this site as a model for what should be expected from the SEC Digital Network. The content on the SEC site is light years beyond where it was a year ago, but they could still take some cues from the NCAA about content and navigation for such an extensive video archive.

Worse is the SEC’s official iPhone app. The paid app ($1.99) from S2S Mobile is virtually useless. Most sports are left off, and what information there is incomplete or dated. Want scores and game stats? You’re much better off with the free ESPN app. The app’s main selling point is video highlights. The most recent video available through the app right now is from Georgia’s basketball win over Vanderbilt over two weeks ago. A fan of baseball, gymnastics, or women’s basketball? You get nothing at all. I expected this kind of fumbling approach to digital media while the conference was getting things together last summer, but the app has been out since September with no signs of improvement. I feel like the paperboy in Better Off Dead – I want my two dollars.