SEC Hoops: Delayed Court Storms and Stupid Senior Day Ceremonies
Hello, friends. Welcome to the SEC, where it just means more fines. But that’s not all. The SEC is also home to some of the silliest Senior Day celebrations in all of college basketball.
Let’s start with the story that Matt Jones opened with on today’s Kentucky Sports Radio. Igor Milicic embarrassed himself by short-arming a 6-foot shot to send the game into overtime. Ole Miss secured a 78-76 win over the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers.
Athletic departments around the country used to love writing checks to the SEC when their teams celebrated a big win. Thanks to the impending revenue sharing, money’s getting tighter. They’re trying to penny-pinch by stopping these costly celebrations where the money goes directly to their opponent’s coffers. It created a sterile scene on Saturday when A&M recorded the program’s first-ever win over a top-ranked team.
The Ole Miss PA announcer screamed at fans to stop, all while players implored them to run onto the court. A few dozen broke through the barricade. Then, once the Volunteers were escorted from the floor, the rest of the students got in on the fun.
Matt posed the question to the panel, “Should Ole Miss be fined, even though there were only 30 or so students on the court?” The answer is yes, thanks to precedent set by Kentucky.
Hosting No. 14 Mississippi State, Kentucky broke a 7-7 tie by scoring 21 unanswered in the second half. Benny Snell had 165 yards and four touchdowns on a rainy night at Kroger Field. After the game, a few students decided to celebrate on the field. You wouldn’t call it a field storm because it was so unremarkable, but it was enough to tag Kentucky with a $100,000 fine.
The new SEC policy is cutting back on the court-storms. While it’s making it safer for the players, it’s also removing some of the heart from the game by taking away the emotional buzzer-beating celebrations.
Don’t Do Senior Day After the Game
It’s risky to save a Senior Day celebration for the postgame, especially when you’re hosting the No. 5 team in the country. Florida did not dominate Alabama, but the Crimson Tide were never really in it for the final ten minutes of the game, ultimately falling 99-94 for their second straight loss.
Nates Oats wanted to postpone the Senior Day celebration for the postgame to avoid a pregame distraction. “[Please] don’t empty out no matter what the final outcome is.” Alabama fans did not listen. Instead, Mark Sears got the saddest Senior Night. It was a terrible way to send off one of the program’s best.
Tom Crean once cut down the nets at a postgame Senior Day after Indiana lost at Assembly Hall. Louisville is waiting until after the Stanford game to honor their seniors. What could go wrong?
Texas A&M was fortunate that Buzz Williams’ team was at its best against Auburn. Even though I am vehemently against hanging up jerseys for players who just finished playing, let alone one whose season is not over, it created a cool moment on Tuesday for Wade Taylor IV, who is only nine points away from becoming the program’s all-time leading scorer.
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