Auburn-Georgia men @ SECs

I'm here at the Ga. Dome, getting ready for the epic AU-UGA battle.

I'm again seated alongside Press-Register magnate Neal McCready, who would like to say: "Hello." He's wordy.

Birmingham News ace Charles Goldberg is to my right. It's intimidating to be sandwiched by two superstars like these two. Apologies to Pokey Chatman.

GEORGIA 80, AUBURN 65
(Season ends for the Tigers)

KEYS TO THE GAME
Auburn had 21 turnovers. Bad.
Rasheem Barrett: 2 for 13. Bad.
Georgia C Takais Brown: 19 points and 13 rebounds. Good.
Auburn responded poorly to UGA's zone defense. As if they had never seen a zone defense, in fact.

GAME COVERAGE
UGA, 67-56 (4:53, 2nd): I'm going to work on my story now. This one is over. More badness from the Tigers. Everything has to work smoothly for this team to win, and it's sooooo not moving along smoothly right now. I'll re-cap things before I leave the Georgia Dome. Have a nice evening.

UGA, 60-45 (10:35, 2nd): Eh. I'm still watching. Doesn't look like Auburn will stop UGA long enough to accomplish anything positive. So this oughta do it. Only 10 minutes left in the Tigers' season. If you're going to strike out, and it's pretty clear Auburn is doing that, then go ahead and take some swings.

UGA, 55-41 (12:50, 2nd): I'm about to give up on the blog and start writing my story for Friday's newspaper. I'll give it three more minutes. Gaines just took an elbow to the head while going for a rebound. He looks dazed. If he's out, maybe Auburn can gain some ground here. UGA still is scoring on the tips and put-backs.

UGA, 51-36 (15:37, 2nd): Not going well for Auburn. They quit rebounding. UGA has three second-chance baskets this half. Also, Lebo drew a technical earlier. It was weird because Lebo didn't really say much afterward. Coaches often fly off the handle immediately after a technical call, perhaps in an effort to make the team feel like The Man is sticking it to them. Not Lebo. He just stood there, muted, with one of those weird looks of his. I don't get it.

IMPORTANT STATISTICAL TRENDS:
Auburn is shooting 50%, but has taken only 26 shots. UGA is 44%, but has taken 34 shots.
Auburn has 12 turnovers. UGA has 6.
Both teams have 17 rebounds.
UGA G Levi Stukes scored 14 early points. He finished the half with 14.

UGA, 41-31 (halftime): Auburn cut the deficit to four points, then watched Georgia score five points almost immediately. The problem here is Georgia PG Sundiata Gaines is playing at a high level, passing flawlessly and drawing fouls. He has 8 assists already. Auburn must find someone to annoy him. Reed has three fouls. Coach Jeff Lebo was playing Miaway, a defensive player, earlier in the game. Until UGA's ball distribution gets interrupted, UGA won't stop scoring.

UGA, 33-23 (3:52, 1st): Auburn is playing sloppily on offense right now ... already has 10 turnovers. Barrett keeps shooting and hitting nothing. Prowell and Barber have two fouls apiece. It's a bad situation for the Tigers right now. F Josh Dollard is playing. He has 7 points and 9 rebounds right now.

UGA, 29-23 (7:59, 1st): Lewis is off the floor in favor of ... G Archie Miaway? Weird substitutions. Gs DeWayne Reed and Rasheem Barrett don't look ready to play. F Quan Prowell sure does. He's max assertive right now, which is surprising. He's usually not that kind of player. Auburn is getting the inside baskets when it's patient with the ball rotations. They need to stick with that until UGA adjusts. I don't think UGA will.

UGA, 25-19 (10:12, 1st): G Kelvin Lewis is a liability tonight. Also, Auburn might want to start guarding G Levi Stukes. He's already 4 of 6 from three-point range. 14 points.

AU, 13-10 (15:16, 1st): Auburn totally owned UGA early with some full-court traps. AU led by seven points early. Then the Bulldogs adjusted. The teams still are jittery. They ususally are in this atmosphere.

Auburn update, 3/5

Hey everyone. I'll get right to it.

*I saw that Tommy Tuberville is featured on the front page of ESPN's college football page right now. It's a piece by Ivan Maisel (Mobile native) about spring football. I'm sure ESPN will change the art on this at some point soon ... so check it out while you can.

*Awful loss at Ole Miss on Saturday afternoon. It's hard to watch a group of guys work that hard for 39 minutes, then watch them bottom out so suddenly. It's interesting to me how differently players react to meltdowns. G Frank Tolbert nearly was in tears. F Josh Dollard was stoic. F Quan Prowell, known around these parts as "Gravy Train", was his usual self.

Auburn finished 4th in the West, and will play Georgia (East #5) at the SEC Tournament on Thursday night around 7:30. Times at the Georgia Dome are relative. I think Auburn will beat the Bulldogs. Florida awaits in the quarterfinals, which isn't winnable game for the Tigers. Auburn doesn't have those kinds of players.

*An even worse loss for the women against South Carolina in the women's tournament. I've been thinking about that program during the past few days and I'm just not sure how committed Nell Fortner is to this endeavor. She's walking that line between coach and personality -- she's an in-demand television analyst -- and I think that's affecting the team. Look, a team with Whitney Boddie (the star) and DeWanna Bonner and KeKe Carrier and Sherell Hobbs should have more than six conference wins. That's just how it is. It's weird to me that there seems to be a surplus of quality coaches around the SEC. It's a haven for quality women's basketball. Yet here's Auburn, a healthy program, making only cursory headway in its struggle to move into the upper class.

I decided to rank the league's coaches, which you can see below. If Florida and Arkansas make shrewd hires in the coming weeks, Fortner might fall deeper than 9th.

I'll admit my bias up front: I love Melanie Balcomb.

1.) Pat Summitt, Tennessee -- The best. Period.
2.) Melanie Balcomb, Vanderbilt -- Top-rate strategist, recruits well. Not as well as UT, but VU has players. She has a reputation for being a mean person. Just win, baby.
3.) Pokey Chatman, LSU -- Really nice person, optimistic, approaches the game with a more fluid approach. She doesn't just do things to do them. She'll let her teams play. I like that.
4.) Andy Landers, Georgia -- His highly aggressive actions on the court turn me off big time, but he wins a lot of games. And he always has a lot of players.
5.) Mickie DeMoss, Kentucky -- Doesn't have great players, yet UK has been competitive under DeMoss so far. I'd like to see what she can do with some top-rate talent.
6.) Carol Ross, Ole Miss -- Probably the nicest coach in the league. Turned a bad team into a 4th-place finisher very quickly. Her teams give consistent effort, which mimics the coach's personality.
7.) Susan Walvius, South Carolina -- She's been there 10 years! She was the SEC Coach of the Year in 2002. Went 0-fer in the league two years later, fielded a decent team this year. They're OK with that at USC, and I am as well.
8.) Sharon Fanning, MSU -- Average coach. She was average at UK before being average at MSU. She'll come upon some awesome players at time -- Tan White comes to mind from a few years ago -- and finish mid-pack. That's what you get with Fanning.
9.) Nell Fortner, Auburn -- She can recruit. The meltdowns Auburn showed in home losses to Kentucky, Arkansas (which prefaced the Razorbacks' nine-game losing streak) and Georgia were coaching problems.
10.) Susie Gardner, Arkansas -- Recently stepped down after a hellacious season. Still beat Auburn. Not a lot of talent on that roster.
11.) Carolyn Peck, Florida -- Recently stepped down after a 1-win conference season. Seemed like an OK strategist. There is almost no talent in that program right now.
12.) Stephany Smith, Alabama -- I'm kind of amazed that she hasn't been fired. They went 0-fer this year in the league. I want to say nice things about Smith because I think she's a good person who cares about her kids, but there is a total dearth of talent at Alabama right now. Navonda Moore is all they have. Even without talent, some teams can look good. Alabama doesn't. Just looks like a mess on the court.