SEC report

Anderson for coach of the year?

Arkansas coach Mike Anderson smiles after the Razorbacks' win over Georgia Saturday, March 4, 2017, in Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Did Mike Anderson make a move to earn SEC coach of the year consideration based on the Arkansas Razorbacks' 6-1 record down the stretch and No. 3 seed in this week's SEC Tournament?

The answer will be revealed today, when the coaches' all-SEC team is announced by the league office.

Anderson would seemingly be in a group of coaches in the running for the honor, along with Kentucky's John Calipari, South Carolina's Frank Martin, Florida's Mike White and Bryce Drew, Vanderbilt's first-year coach.

Anderson's Razorbacks earned the No. 3 seed for this week's SEC Tournament with an 85-67 victory over Georgia on Saturday, coupled with South Carolina's 75-70 loss at Ole Miss. The Gamecocks were tied with Arkansas for third place in the SEC but wound up with the No. 4 seed as a result of their 83-76 home loss to the Razorbacks on Feb. 15.

The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, finished two spots higher than predicted in the preseason media poll. Calipari's Wildcats went 16-2 to win the conference, confirming their No. 1 choice in the preseason.

Martin's Gamecocks are four spots higher than their preseason rank, but South Carolina has a 3-5 mark since Feb. 7 after a 5-0 SEC start.

Florida, picked to finish second by members of the media, landed at No. 2 with a 14-4 mark.

Vanderbilt overcame a 3-5 start in SEC play with a 5-1 finish under Drew.

Who's MVP?

Votes for SEC most valuable player are likely to be split between the Kentucky guard duo of Malik Monk and De'Aaron Fox, South Carolina guard Sindarius Thornwell, and possibly Georgia guard J.J. Frazier or Georgia forward Yante Maten.

The SEC office will announce the All SEC first- and second-teams today, as well as an all-freshman team, an all-defensive team, coach of the year, player of the year, scholar-athlete of the year, sixth man of the year and freshman of the year.

Monk, a Lepanto native and Bentonville High School graduate, is in the running for both SEC player of the year and freshman of the year. He is tied for the SEC scoring average lead with Thornwell at 21.2 points per game. He would be the fourth freshman to ever lead the conference in scoring.

Frazier and Maten both average 18.7 points per game.

Fox leads the SEC with 5.0 assists per game and he ranks eighth in scoring (15.5).

In and out

Virtually all NCAA Tournament projections list four SEC teams -- Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas and South Carolina -- in the field, while the various "bracketologists" are mixed on Vanderbilt's inclusion.

ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi lists Kentucky as a No. 2 seed, Florida as a 4, South Carolina as an 8, Arkansas as a 9 and Vanderbilt as an 11 in a play-in game against Wake Forest in his latest projection.

Arkansas is mentioned as high as a 7 seed and as low as an 11 seed among the many bracket projections.

CBSSports.com's Jerry Palm has Vanderbilt among his first four teams out, and has Kentucky as a 2 seed, Florida as a 4, South Carolina as an 8 and Arkansas as a 10.

"They're all fully aware of it," Vandy Coach Bryce Drew said of players and the team's bubble status. "We talked about it last week. Our main focus is on controlling the things we can control, and that's having a good eek of practice and preparing for our game on Thursday."

Home and away

SEC home teams had a 6-1 record on the final day of the regular season, with Kentucky's victory at Texas A&M standing as the lone road victory. The strong finish by home teams created a little late separation in what had been a close battle all conference season.

SEC road teams finished with a 54-72 record, a .428 winning percentage that ranked as the second-best victory total -- behind 59 in 2015 -- in conference play in the past 20 years.

Kentucky finished as the SEC's best road team with a 7-2 record, while Arkansas and Florida were 6-3. Alabama, South Carolina and Vanderbilt all finished with winning road records at 5-4. Missouri was the only SEC team to go 0-9 in league road games.

Kentucky was the only SEC team to post a 9-0 home record. Florida was close, with a 68-66 loss to Vanderbilt its only blemish at the O'Connell Center. South Carolina went 7-2 at Colonial Life Center, with losses to Alabama (90-86 in 4 OT) and Arkansas (83-76).

Arkansas and Ole Miss went 6-3 at home, while Alabama, Georgia Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Texas A&M were 5-4. LSU had the worst home record at 1-8.

One down

Missouri pulled the trigger on firing Coach Kim Anderson on Sunday, announcing he would be replaced after the Tigers' are eliminated from the postseason.

Anderson, speaking on Monday's SEC coaches teleconference, said he was informed of the decision Feb. 24, the day before a road trip to Ole Miss.

"Obviously this is a performance-based business, and at the end of the day we didn't win enough games," Anderson said. "But I do think from the time I got here until today that we've done a good job of stabilizing the program."

The leading candidates to replace Anderson, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, are Indiana's Tom Crean, California's Cuonzo Martin, a native of East St. Louis, Baylor's Scott Drew, Southern California's Andy Enfield, Saint Louis' Travis Ford and Butler's Chris Holtmann.

There could be other SEC coaches headed out the door, with the most speculation centering on LSU's Johnny Jones.

Top players

Vanderbilt's Luke Kornet and Kentucky's Bam Adebayo were recognized as the SEC players of the week by the league office Monday.

Kornet, a 7-1 senior, was player of week after averaging 22.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in games against Kentucky and Florida, including a career-high tying 24 points in a victory over the Gators.

Adebayo, a 6-10 forward, was chosen as freshman of the week after averaging 14.5 points and 7.0 rebounds in victories over Vanderbilt and Texas A&M.

Ready respect

Mississippi State assistant coach Ernie Zeigler, filling in for Ben Howland for Monday's SEC coaches teleconference, said he and the Bulldogs coaching staff have loved the role that guard I.J. Ready of Little Rock, the team's lone senior, has played during Howland's second year.

"I really have much love and respect for I.J. because he's been a huge part of this transition for us and trying to build a winning culture and championship culture," Zeigler said. "Quite honestly, we have a ways to go to reach that, but he has really embraced Coach Howland and what we're trying to do.

"I.J. Ready is tough as nails and we're hoping we can extend his career here as we go into Nashville [for the SEC Tournament]."

Three times

Five of the first six games at the SEC Tournament are guaranteed to be third-time match-ups this season between the teams, starting with Wednesday's games pitting Mississippi State vs. LSU and Auburn vs. Missouri. Mississippi State swept the Tigers and Auburn swept Missouri.

Alabama, which will face the Mississippi State-LSU winner Thursday, swept both of those teams in the regular season. Vanderbilt, which plays Texas A&M at 6 p.m. on Thursday, swept the Aggies. Ole Miss, which takes on the Auburn-Missouri winner, swept both of those teams.

The lone game on the first two nights which will not be a three-time pairing is Tennessee vs. Georgia. The Bulldogs won the lone meeting 76-75 in Knoxville, Tenn., on Feb. 11, behind 29 points by J.J. Frazier.

Maten update

Georgia Coach Mark Fox bristled when asked at Walton Arena in Fayetteville on Saturday after the Bulldogs' 85-67 loss to Arkansas whether star forward Yante Maten would be ready for the postseason, but he softened his response Monday.

"He has not practiced," Fox said. "He has gotten to the point of shooting, and he's scheduled to meet with the team doctor before we head to Nashville."

Maten has missed the past five games after suffering a severe knee sprain Feb. 18 early in an 82-77 loss to Kentucky.

"I don't know if I could put odds on it," Fox said. "Maybe 50-50, and it's probably unfair for me to even guess. ... I'm confident if we advanced to the following week, we would be able to play him."

Burnett in question

Ole Miss guard Deandre Burnett missed Saturday's 75-70 victory with an undisclosed injury and his status for the Rebels' SEC Tournament opener Thursday against Auburn or Missouri will be a game time decision, according to Ole Miss assistant coach Bill Armstrong, who filled in for Coach Andy Kennedy on Monday's SEC coaches teleconference.

Sports on 03/07/2017