Jerry Tipton on UK basketball

Forward Tyler Smith considered entering this year’s NBA draft. But he announced on Thursday that he would return to Tennessee for another season.

Here’s the start of a report by The Associated Press:

The 21-year-old, 6-7 sophomore from Pulaski said his college experience has been “everything it is supposed to be” and that he’s wanted to play in the NBA “for as long as I can remember.”
<*J>But after weighing his options with his mom and coach Bruce Pearl, he’d made up his mind.
<*J>“I have come to the conclusion that I want to be a Volunteer next year,” he said Thursday, just seconds into a news conference on his future.
<*J>Smith, who averaged 13.5 points a game and led the 31-win Volunteers in rebounds and assists last season, is coming back for his junior year.
<*J>With at least 38 underclassmen declaring for the NBA draft in June, remaining in school rather than leaving may be bigger news. It certainly is for Pearl, who said, “I believe with all my heart he made the right decision.”

With former UK player Travis Ford taking himself out of the running for the LSU job, who does LSU turn to in its search for a coach?

Four coaches appear in the running:

– Butch Pierre, who took over as interim coach when LSU fired John Brady in early February. Pierre turned heads by leading LSU to a victory over Florida, and then won four straight against Ole Miss, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama).

– Ole Miss Coach Andy Kennedy. Kennedy breathed new life into the Ole Miss program. He’s won more than 20 games in each of his two seasons in Oxford. That’s happened only a few times in school history (1937 and 1938; 1997 and 1998 and 1999; 2001 and 2002).

– Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey. He’s been rumored as a candidate for jobs for several years.

– Southern Illinois Coach Chris Lowery. He’s young, African-American and, by all accounts, dynamic. That would fit the bill of a coach who can excite fans, which former LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman set as a quality he saw as a necessity.

The SEC announced on Tuesday it’s plan for paying refunds for unused SEC Tournament tickets.

Basically, a fan can get a refund if the ticket was bought at the SEC office, from a SEC member school or the Georgia Dome.

Here are the addresses to mail unused tickets and a letter asking for a refund:

Alabama Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

201 Coliseum Drive

Tuscaloosa, AL 35487

Arkansas Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

1295 S. Razorback Road, Suite B

Fayetteville, AR 72701-7870

Auburn Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

PO Box 351

Auburn, AL 36831-0351

Florida Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

PO Box 14485

Gainesville, FL 32611

Georgia Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

PO Box 1472

Athens, GA 30603-1472

Kentucky Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

A113 Joe Craft Center

338 Lexington Avenue

Lexington, KY 40506-0604

LSU Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

PO Box 25095

Baton Rouge, LA 70894-5095

Ole Miss Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

PO Box 247

University, MS 38677

Mississippi State Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

PO Box 5327

Mississippi State, MS 39762

South Carolina Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

Colonial Center

801 Lincoln Street

Columbia, SC 29208

Tennessee Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

PO Box 47

Knoxville, TN 37901-0047

Vanderbilt Athletic Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

PO Box 129001

Nashville, TN 37212

SEC Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

PO Box 661574

Birmingham, AL 35266

Georgia Dome Ticket Office

Attn: SEC Ticket Refund

One Georgia Dome Drive

Atlanta, GA 30313-1591

Kentucky did not place a player on the all-Southeastern Conference team, which The Associated Press announced on Monday. The team is voted upon by a media panel (which did not include me).

Ramel Bradley and Patrick Patterson all made the second team. Joe Crawford made the Honorable Mention list.

Bruce Pearl of Tennessee was the Coach of the Year. Nick Calathes of Florida was the Newcomer of the year.

Here’s the teams:

FIRST TEAM
u-Shan Foster, Vanderbilt, F, 6-6, Sr.
u-Jamont Gordon, Mississippi State, G-F, 6-4, Jr.
Richard Hendrix, Alabama, F, 6-8, Jr.
Chris Lofton, Tennessee, G, 6-2, Sr.
Tyler Smith, Tennessee, F, 6-7, So.
Devan Downey, South Carolina, G, 5-9, So.<
SECOND TEAM
Charles Rhodes, Mississippi State, F, 6-8, Sr.
Patrick Patterson, Kentucky, F, 6-9, Fr.
Ramel Bradley, Kentucky, G, 6-2, Sr.
Marcus Thornton, LSU, G, 6-4, Jr.
Nick Calathes, Florida, G-F, 6-6, Fr.
Sonny Weems, Arkansas, F, 6-6, Sr.
Dwayne Curtis, Mississippi, C, 6-8, Sr.<
HONORABLE MENTION=
Joe Crawford, Kentucky, G, 6-5, Sr.; Sundiata Gaines, Georgia, G, 6-1, Sr.; A.J. Ogilvy, Vanderbilt, C, 6-10, Fr.; Anthony Randolph, LSU, F, 6-10, Fr.; JaJuan Smith, Tennessee, G, 6-2, Sr.; Jarvis Varnado, Mississippi State, C, 6-9, So.<
PLAYER OF THE YEAR _ Shan Foster, Vanderbilt
COACH OF THE YEAR _ Bruce Pearl, Tennessee

Friday night’s tornado will give the SEC Tournament a new look. Here are a few leftover notes from the early-morning announcement Saturday of a change of venue: From the Georgia Dome to Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum.

– Record low attendance is all but assured. The existing record for low attendance is the 8,047 that attended the opening session of the 1996 SEC Tournament in New Orleans. Since Georgia Tech’s on-campus arena seats only 9,119, that record seems destined for the dust pan.

In a news release, the SEC said, “Out of respect for public safety demands that are required in the aftermath of Friday’s storms, access to the remaining games of the championship will be limited to student-athletes’ family members, cheerleaders, bands and other credentialed individuals.”

– Georgia Coach Dennis Felton made no secret of his desire to avoid two games in one day.

“Obviously, it’s not very fair to play two games in one day,” he said before saying such a scenario would cause “incredible stress.”

That’s just what the SEC did. It called for Kentucky to play Georgia at noon Saturday in a makeup for the 9:45 p.m. Friday night game postponed by the storm.

The Kentucky-Georgia winner will play Mississippi State at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

Felton called for a one-day delay in the tournament, which would include a championship game on Monday. That’s the day after Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament.

Tom O’Connor, the chairman of the Selection Committee, told SEC officials that its tournament had to end before the Selection Show on Sunday evening, the SEC said.

– SEC officials met with personnel from the Georgia Dome, UK, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi State, Raycon and CBS in deciding what to do. The meeting lasted about five hours.

Afterward, SEC Associate Commissioner Charles Bloom noted the cooperative spirit. That clashed with Felton voicing objections to two games in one day. There was also media speculation that UK Coach Billy Gillispie objected to the strain of two games in the same day.