Well, the dust has finally settled and the Southeastern Conference women's basketball tournament at North Little Rock, Arkansas' Alltel Arena will be underway in a matter of hours.

 

Some fairly random questions/observations/ downright speculation about that subject:

 

Vanderbilt was the preseason pick to win the tournament and that guess wasn't far off. They finished at 10-4, but will they be able to pose a credible threat to win the tournament if Hannah Tuomi is sidelined with stress fracture problems?

 

 

 

Auburn is the regular season champion at 12-2. They had a very favorable home schedule and made the most of it. Will they play as well at the neutral site? Congratulations, Player of the Year DeWanna Bonner! Baylor got beaten badly, last night, so you may be playing this tournament to lock up a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Make the most of it.

 

LSU has a young, young team that started out kind of rough and comes into this tournament as a #3 seed. They seem to be making pretty satisfactory progress and with a decent showing in this tournament, could get a decent NCAA seeding and make some noise. Another Final Four showing? Looks doubtful, but so did a 3rd place finish in the SEC, when the season started.

 

 

 

When's the last time Tennessee had to play on Opening Day Thursday of the tournament? Glad you asked. It was 1997, when they were also a #5 seed. They ended up losing 10 games, that season. But they ended the season by winning a national championship. I'm just sayin'.

 

Mississippi State and South Carolina have a rematch of a game that's just over a week old. The first half was dead even, but the Gamecocks hit a scoring drought and got beaten pretty good when all was said and done. Can they avoid a similar cold spell in the tournament? If so, this game would be your Upset Special, with #11 coming out on top.

 

Arkansas and Ole Miss are playing for the right to be Auburn's first victim. Good luck to both. Arkansas got on a nice hot streak, late in the season. Can they pick up that momentum again?

 

Which Georgia team is planning to show up? The one that beat Auburn? Or the one that lost to Detroit Mercy, scored 34 in a loss to Rutgers and suffered a historic 5 SEC losses in a row, this season? The first team could play deep into the NCAA tournament, while the second could be out in the first round to a Kentucky team that seems to have found it's groove. Georgia will probably have to win a couple in convincing fashion just to get into the NCAA tournament and they have the horses to do it. But will they?

 

But what we're all waiting to see: will Tennessee's Orange Horde descend on the venue, en masse, on Day One? If they do, this tournament will probably set some first day attendance records. That's what the SEC tournament organizers love about Tennessee. And that's something we'll know within several hours. Now I've got to sign off and get to the airport for my flight to Little Rock.

 

Hope to see you there!