The Musketeers, watching the SEC championship on Sunday afternoon, naturally got caught up in pulling for the underdawg.

Some of the Xavier players watched the SEC title game before tuning into the NCAA selection show at coach Sean Miller’s house and found themselves favoring the Bulldogs.
“We were actually rooting for them,” senior guard Stanley Burrell said. “They were the underdog. Now we get to play them. It’s crazy.”

We’ll have a deeper look at Xavier later, but when you point to Sundiata Gaines as Georgia’s strength, the Musketeers are able to play the Drew Lavender trump card. Burrell, Lavender’s backcourt mate, is the A10’s defensive player of the year and might draw the assignment to guard Gaines.

Kirk Herbstreit: You shouldn’t be part of the national title discussion unless you win your conference.

Bobby Knight: Automatic bids to conference champions keep better and more deserving teams out of the NCAA Tournament.

Here are the details about Georgia’s next game:

The Dawgs have earned the #14 seed in the West regional and will open play against #3 seed Xavier at 12:20 p.m. on Thursday in Washington, DC.

#14 Georgia vs. #3 Xavier
Thursday, March 20, 12:20 p.m. EDT
Verizon Center, Washington, D.C.

Tickets to the general public are SOLD OUT, but of course Georgia will receive an allotment. Here’s how to get tickets:

Tickets will go on sale starting at 8:30 am Monday, March 17 online via georgiadogs.com or by calling 1-877-542-1231. All tickets ordered are subject to availability. Basketball Enhancement Fund donors will receiver priority on allocation of all orders. All tickets ordered will be picked up at will-call on Thursday, March 20th.

Just saying it plainly does the job: Georgia beat Arkansas to win the SEC men’s basketball Tournament, cutting down the nets on Georgia Tech’s home court after a tornado forced the tournament to relocate from the Georgia Dome.

Georgia’s basketball team – the same one that wrapped up a 4-12 regular season in conference – just won the SEC Tournament and is on the way to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002. There’s simply no historical perspective that applies. The Dawgs were the first #6 seed to even make the finals since conference expansion in 1992. It was Georgia’s first tournament championship since 1983.

Sundiata Gaines will no longer be remembered as a gritty, tough player and outstanding point guard. Oh, no – we’re way past that now. He is now a Georgia basketball legend. Leading this team to the tournament title – and calling the shot before the tournament started – is the stuff they write movies about. Georgia’s leader in minutes played looked broken and coasting on fumes midway through the second half of the championship. Somehow he found the legs to lead Georgia on an 11-2 run that provided just enough margin to hold off the Razorbacks when they looked poised to run past the exhausted Dawgs.

Make no mistake, this is the same team we saw all year, and now they’re champions and still playing. For some reason, for the first time in recent Georgia basketball history, Old Lady Luck was on Georgia’s pass list at the ticket window.

It’s almost impossible to comprehend what has happened to the Georgia basketball team in the last 24 hours.  I tempered my thoughts after the Ole Miss win Thursday night (which now seems like 3 months ago) by reminding myself that it was an overtime win over a so-so team just for the right to get to the SEC quarterfinals.  In other words, exciting finish, but…big deal.

That’s all out the window now. 

Naturally all of us expected Georgia to adjust to the tornado, Friday night’s cancellation, the relocation to Tech, the noon start time, two games in one day, and Sundiata Gaines fouling out twice.  All in a day’s work to knock off two 12-4 SEC teams within 10 hours.  As Billy Humphrey said after the day’s second win, a tornado is nothing next to what this team has been through this year. 

All of a sudden the team that couldn’t buy a break all season has them in abundance and is on the precipice of the unthinkable:  an SEC tournament championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.  A tournament that began as a death watch for the season and coaching staff has become one of the most memorable and unlikely runs by a Georgia team since, well, since a football team left for dead after Tennessee won seven straight to end its season.

Georgia has already made history by becoming the first #6 seed to play for the SEC title.  We might as well finish the story of stories off by winning the thing.

Fatigue is still very much a factor.  True, the Dawgs made it through the two-game gauntlet.  Whether adrenaline or just sheer will, they had enough to carry them at the end of the MSU game.  The night’s sleep and later start will help of course, but hopefully the team won’t wake up with their legs feeling like lead.

By the way, for Tim Brando and any Kentucky fans upset about a call or two…

Chuck Dowdle on WSB-TV, quoting Dennis Felton, reports that the SEC Tournament will move to Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum for the duration of the tournament. The AJC confirms. The Georgia-Kentucky quarterfinal will take place at noon on Saturday. Television coverage continues as usual.

There is no word yet on the semifinals, though we expect them to be played later on Saturday. Either Georgia or Kentucky is going to be at a big disadvantage in the semis.

Corey Butler has the right attitude:

“There’s a chance we could be playing two games in one day, which is kind of like the AAU circuit,” Georgia guard Corey Butler said.

“We could definitely pull it out, and we’d definitely be willing to play if it keeps us in the tournament.”

No word yet on ticket allocation, but this is going to be a huge mess. Check the news and get there early if you want to try to attend. Alexander Memorial seats almost 9,200 – almost a third of the Georgia Dome’s basketball configuration. There are probably 9,200 Kentucky fans per square mile in Atlanta this weekend.

I’m off to bed…I’m afraid that the view at sunrise isn’t going to be pleasant.

It has yet to be determined whether the Georgia Dome is able to host the remainder of the SEC Tournament. More severe weather is possible in Georgia on Saturday. Besides the state of the Dome itself, there’s still the question of asking tens of thousands of people to return to a possibly hazardous natural disaster scene downtown.

It seems unfathomable, but in an extreme situation, might the SEC decide to play the games elsewhere in metro Atlanta?

Philips Arena seems out. There is a concert scheduled for Saturday evening, and it’s right next door to the Dome. If there are concerns for public safety getting to the Dome, that would apply to Philips as well.

Gwinnett Arena is also booked on Saturday evening with an Arena League game.

Alexander Memorial Coliseum at Georgia Tech is yet another option, but is it available? Much of Tech’s athletic staff is either on spring break or at the ACC Tournament in Charlotte. I doubt they could prepare the arena.

It really does look as if it’s the Dome or nothing at this point. As Dennis Felton said in a telephone interview on WSB-TV, one could expect the NCAA Selection Committee to be pulled into the rescheduling discussion. The outcome of the SEC Tournament of course has major implications on NCAA seeding, and the Sunday evening selection show means that things in Atlanta must be settled unless the NCAA takes the unprecedented step of delaying the selection announcement.

I guess this is always an option.

Per Chuck Dowdle on WSB-TV, the Dawgs have made it back to the Marriott Marquis hotel. The team is still unaware of plans for Saturday. Coach Felton’s top priority, now that everyone is safely back to the hotel, is to get the team a good night’s rest. In a hotel right in the middle of downtown with emergency equipment swarming, I hope they can find some peace and quiet.

Mark Schlabach on ESPN speculated that it might be morning before any game times are announced. The fitness of the Dome to host the event still must be determined, and SEC officials are in meetings with the athletic directors to knock out plans. As I said earlier, it might take sunrise to learn the extent of the situation in the Dome/GWCC area. Local television has shown some incredible footage of flooding at the GWCC due to burst pipes. The World Congress Center looks to have taken more of a direct hit than the Dome.

Due to ongoing severe weather in downtown Atlanta, tonight’s last SEC quarterfinal between Georgia and Kentucky has been postponed.  The decision when to resume play will be made on Saturday by the SEC.  The SEC currently plans to play out the tournament, and either Kentucky or Georgia might have to play two games on Saturday.

One thing – when daylight comes and the real scope of the damage in the downtown area is revealed, will that affect the plan to resume play?  Other nearby areas from the World Congress Center to CNN Center to downtown hotels were hit much harder.  It’s possible that emergency response in the immediate area might affect access to the Dome tomorrow.

Let’s play two.

A severe thunderstorm, possibly tornadic, caused structural damage to the Georgia Dome and disrupted the Alabama-Mississippi State SEC quarterfinal in progress. Television cameras showed the structure swaying, and later shots showed holes in the side of the Dome as well as some siding ripped off of the building. Broken windows and downed utility poles and trees were evident downtown.

Fortunately there seemed to be no serious injuries in the Dome. There was also no shortage of Alabama fans to interview about hearing a freight train.

The storm caused a 60+ minute delay before play resumed, and Mississippi State hung on for the overtime win.

When we hoped that the Dawgs would play on Saturday, this isn’t what we meant.

Photo: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For the schadenfreude-inclined, the second-best news to come from the Georgia Dome last night was Florida’s early exit at the hands of Alabama. Florida trailed by as many as 28 before mounting a second-half comeback that came up short. Though Billy Donovan took responsibility for not having the team excited to play with an NCAA bid on the line, he placed a good deal of it on the young team.

“It’s in front of our guys, what it takes to win,” Donovan said. “For whatever reason, I haven’t brought it out in them. They’re not committed to it. But I’m not necessarily really that excited about these guys being sophomores, to be honest. I don’t think people change a whole lot, and I don’t think you’ve seen the basketball team change at all this year. So it’s hard for me to get overly thrilled or excited.”

Hey – sometimes it is on the players. That’s tough on the kids, but they do have some role in getting themselves up for a postseason run. I’m not going to blast Donovan for his comments, but it did give me a chuckle to see Mr. Orlando Magic talking about a “commitment issue.”

But I think we have a commitment issue, too, which bothers me as a coach because I just got done coaching a group the last two years that was so committed. And to be with this group, I don’t think just because they’re going to be another year older that all of a sudden, everything gets resolved. I don’t see that.

Our old friend Dink NeSmith has just been named to the Georgia Board of Regents as the 10th Congressional District’s representative.

A little corner of the Bulldog Nation woke up bleary-eyed this morning. The game couldn’t have finished any later if it were the Maui Classic or the Sugar Bowl.

Blame three hours of sleep, but I’m still a bit giddy over the win. Yes, I realize it probably shouldn’t have even gone to overtime. Georgia reminded us at times why they were the East’s #6 seed, and I feel fairly confident that Dennis Felton will have a sniper standing by to pick off any Georgia defender that gets near a perimeter shooter in the final seconds of tonight’s game. Yes, we’re celebrating an overtime win over an average bubble team in an SEC first round game. Kentucky fans must think that’s so adorable.

Butler-to-Bliss probably isn’t up there with Belue-to-Scott in terms of significance, but it’s all we have right now, so we’ll take it. It’s inevitable though that the win quickly turns to a discussion of Dennis Felton’s future. Already several writers have tried to read the tea leaves to determine what the outcome means for Felton.

As happy as I am with the win, look…it’s one win. The five years of Dennis Felton shouldn’t be reduced to the outcome of one night or even one tournament, win or lose. His future with the team, whatever it is, should be based on the whole of his five years in the position.

Like Paul Westerdawg, I’m a bit puzzled by the logic in the Banner-Herald’s endorsement of Dennis Felton this morning. I’m not saying that I disagree with the recommendation (more on that later), but, well, let’s start here…

Read this John Kaltefleiter column following a loss earlier this season to Kentucky in Athens. Felton’s "Stalin-like" approach? A season slipping towards "an embarrassing morass?"

There’s more.

Right now, Price is defeated. He projects the look of a freshman dreading the next two or three seasons with Felton. Of course, that’s if he doesn’t take the out route so many of Felton’s players have taken.

And finally…

Felton said he didn’t pay attention to Price’s zero playing time in the second half Saturday, which is like standing in the pouring rain and claiming to feel dry. But that’s been Felton’s way the last three seasons. He’s publicly ignored problems and hoped his stubbornness won out when it came to proving a point.

As usual, the rest of the team suffers the consequences.

Does that sound like a writer ready to endorse a "wait and see" approach? Yet Kaltefleiter is the one saying this morning that Felton should get another season. Read his reasoning again in the context of what he had to say back in February.

The thing is, Kaltefleiter identified what he deemed to be some pretty fundamental long-term issues with Felton’s coaching. Players – the ones who stick around – apparently look like they dread playing for the guy. By Kaltefleiter’s own admission, Felton’s approach for the "last three seasons" has been to "publicly (ignore) problems and (hope) his stubbornness won out when it came to proving a point" to the detriment of the rest of the team. That’s a pretty serious charge. If one buys that, how in the world can one think that one more year of the wrong approach will lead to different results?

Kaltefleiter places his faith, like so many of us do, in the arrival of another nice recruiting class next year and the offseason development of the current freshman class. Yet the issues with Felton he raised after the Kentucky game have nothing to do with the quality of talent on the team. The whole premise of the post-Kentucky column was that Felton’s stubbornness kept a more talented freshman on the bench and might have hurt Georgia’s chances Georgia in a very important game.

I appreciate the media avoiding the temptation to jump on the bandwagon to ride Felton out of town, I really do. Truth be told, the professional punditry has been pretty kind to the program. Even the critical pieces that dove into issues like attrition have generally been mild. Still, if Kaltefleiter and others see such grave flaws in Felton that go back at least three seasons, what difference is one more year going to make?

Meyer’s $3.25 million annual salary is just the tip of the iceberg according to the contract he signed last summer.

In addition to the $3.25 million annual salary he agreed to last June, Meyer would receive $3.75 million in retention bonuses until the deal expires after the 2012 season, according to a copy of the contract the Times-Union acquired through a public- records request made last summer and received Tuesday. There’s also a buyout clause that would pay Meyer $2 million for each year left on the deal if he were to be fired.

While it would be pretty expensive for Florida to part ways with Meyer, the commitment isn’t exactly reciprocal.

Also in the new contract is a clause that provides Meyer with a window of Dec. 1 to either Jan. 2 or until seven days after a Gators bowl game to take another job. If Meyer breaks his contract, he would owe UF $500,000. That’s up from $150,000 in his previous deal.

$500k to break a contract is an afterthought these days.