SEC tournament: Texas A&M, Arkansas coaches like feel in Tampa
TAMPA — Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams doesn’t have much history in Tampa. Before arriving for the SEC tournament, his only experience coaching here was when his Marquette teams played at USF during the Bulls’ Big East days.
“I didn’t know what this arena was,” Williams said Friday.
But after two games (and two wins) Williams is a fan of having the SEC move the tournament away from Nashville for at least this year.
“I like it,” Williams said. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that or not, or if Nashville and Tampa are in, you know, some sort of issue there… But I thought Florida’s home game yesterday was a great environment, and I thought Auburn’s home game today was a great environment.”
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said he and his team have enjoyed the warm weather and spent time on the water during some downtime.
“I think it’s awesome,” Musselman said.
Tampa last hosted the event in 2009. It will return to Nashville next year and will be there through at least the 2029-30 season, with the option to extend it through 2035.
The announced attendance for Friday’s first session was 16,094.
Woo, Pigs
Fourth-seeded Arkansas had three players score in double figures to cruise to a 79-67 win over LSU. Au’Diese Toney led the Razorbacks with 22 points. JD Notae had 19 points, and Chris Lykes added 18 off the bench.
Toney seemed to upset the Tigers and their coach, Will Wade, when he threw down a breakaway dunk with two seconds left.
Toney said he simply played until the final buzzer. Wade said he was unbothered.
“You can’t let it bother you when they whip your (butt) three times,” said Wade, whose Tigers were 0-3 against the Razorbacks this season.
Four-pack of 3s
Tennessee forward Josiah-Jordan James, lately the Vols’ hottest 3-point shooter, single-handedly shifted the momentum of an otherwise tight quarterfinal encounter with Mississippi State early in the second half.
A 6-foot-6 junior, James (game-high 16 points) hit four consecutive 3-pointers in a span of three minutes, 22 seconds to push his team’s lead from two to 11 en route to a 72-59 triumph. In his last four contests, James is shooting 55 percent (11 of 20) from long range.
“Yeah, I was a little cold (in the first half),” said James, who missed his only 3-pointer of the opening half. “I got stretched during halftime, but those are shots that I practice, and so I just trust my work, trust my teammates, and credit to them.”
The win might have been as costly as it was convincing. Freshman guard Kennedy Chandler, who led the team in scoring (13.7 ppg), assists (4.6) and steals (64) in the regular season, limped off twice with an apparent right ankle injury and was limited to 10 minutes in the second half.
“You are always concerned about it because in this time of year, all you can do is try to rest them,” coach Rick Barnes said.
“We’ve got the best medical staff, we’ve got the best trainer in the business, best performance coach. They’ll work all night with those guys and make sure that anything and everything that can be done, they’ll do it.”
Two tenures end in Tampa
Three days into the tournament, two conference coaches have been ousted shortly after their respective teams’ exits from the bracket.
The latest is Missouri’s Cuonzo Martin, whose dismissal after a 12-21 season first was reported Friday by CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein. Georgia reportedly began measures to part with fourth-year coach Tom Crean a day after his team’s 86-51 loss Wednesday to Vanderbilt.
In the wake of his team’s 76-68 loss Thursday to LSU, Martin said he was “peace” with whatever transpired in his future. Barnes, preceded by Martin in Knoxville, said Friday he was “disappointed” in the news.
“I can tell you this, I’ve got two adopted black grandchildren, and I called him one day and said, ‘Help me through this,’” Barnes added.
“’Tell me what I need to know as a grandfather. My daughter was having some issues that she wanted an answer to, and Cuonzo’s wife talked with my daughter, and so I look at him in a whole different light.
“I know this, if I were an (athletic director) somewhere, he would be the first guy I would want to go get because I know him, and I know where his heart is in terms of the game of basketball.”
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