In this, the “dead” week between the end of the SEC tourney and the official beginning of “March Madness”, allow me to take the opportunity to post a few thoughts on this year’s SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament in North Little Rock, AR. 

 

*Although I have attended 17 SEC women’s basketball tourneys in the past 23 years, this was my first trip to North Little Rock, and I was quietly impressed with the easy accessibility of a small but decent group of restaurants around the arena and those just a quick trolley ride across the river in the River Market and surrounding downtown area. Particular highlights were the Starving Artist’s Café and Gregeen’s Irish Pub in the Argenta area.

 

 

 

*Props go out to the facilities staff at ALLTEL Arena.  When the Big Orange Nation very nearly vacated the premises on Sunday after their Lady Vols’ semifinal defeat at the hands of Auburn, ushers did not have a problem with folks moving down to empty seats closer to the arena floor. Not only was this better for the fans and the teams playing, but it also didn’t look quite as bad as having so many empty seats on national television…

 

*Is it just me, or did this year’s tourney very nearly get hijacked by an inordinate number of player control fouls? One would have thought Dee Kantner and her merry band of officials were doing their part to stimulate the economy, they yelled “CHARGE” so many times during this tournament.  And nope, it’s not just me saying it… the rumbles in the stands turned to a dull roar by the second day, and by the third day, even some of the coaches were commenting about it.  The normally unflappable Van Chancellor had this to say after LSU’s semifinal loss to Vanderbilt: “The thing I can't get over, I watched the Tennessee/Auburn game, and I'm not saying it's bad, but the officials have grown in love with the offensive foul. It ain't but one offensive foul after another! If I was paying good money to watch a game, I would want to see a little offense…”  Well stated, Van. We here at secwb.com couldn’t agree more, and anyone who kept count of the number of charges/player control fouls called during the 11 games of this tourney, please send us an e-mail; we’d love to know the final tally.

 

 

*Prior to the UT/Auburn semifinal matchup, both Pat Head Summitt and Holly Warlick were observed giving Nell Fortner a big “thumbs up” for her choice of attire for the game: Nell was wearing a bright orange jacket with navy blue buttons.

 

*LSU coach Van Chancellor continued his long-standing tradition of passing out candy when entering the arena, including to opposing coaches. Too bad it didn’t seem to improve the mood of Mississippi State’s Sharon Fanning. Fanning was so enraged by the perceived poor officiating, she stormed onto the court during MSU’s quarterfinal loss to LSU, garnering the first technical I’ve witnessed her receive since her days coaching at Kentucky.

 

*Heard in the crowd: with both Carol Ross and Carolyn Peck there doing commentary (Ross for CSS, Peck for ESPN), someone commented: “It’s nice to see former Florida coaches have such good jobs awaiting them after they leave The Swamp.”

 

*The ever-entertaining Andy Landers had this to say on his decision to take Ashley Houts out of Georgia’s game against Kentucky for a whopping one minute: “I made a bad decision. I went soft for about 30 seconds. And I don't do that very much. The reason I took her out was obviously, you know, going to play tomorrow, give her rest, but the reason I put her right back in is I didn't think through that decision. I let my heart get in the way of my brain.”

 

 

*It was great getting to see old friends I see only once a year, including fellow secwb.com writer Marilyn Mcmanus.

 

*Although it hasn’t yet been officially announced, rumor has it that next year’s tourney will be moving back to the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, GA.

 

*Marilyn and I would both like to give a big “shout out” and offer our sincerest gratitude to Kristen with the SEC media relations/official stats office. Kristen kept us well supplied with everything we needed and it made our job so much easier! Thanks a lot, Kristen!