Strange: SEC chock full of surprises

Kentucky's easy win at Tennessee rattled the SEC East basketball race. There are more early surprises in the West.

Remember how hot Arkansas was a week ago? Was anyone jumping on Mississippi State's bandwagon a week ago?

The Razorbacks were 12-1 and coming off wins over top-10 foes Oklahoma and Texas. That was then. Now, they're 0-2 in the SEC.

They lost at home to Mississippi State and it wasn't close. Then they lost at injury-riddled Ole Miss for the 12th time in the past 13 years.

"SEC play, it's another notch up,'' coach John Pelphrey said Thursday. "Everybody's got great familiarity, with scouting and game-planning.

"It won't get any easier Saturday.''

Nope. Pelphrey returns to the O-Dome in Gainesville, where he was an assistant for six years to Billy Donovan. Oh-and-3 is the bet here.

Mississippi State's 70-56 romp in Fayetteville was even more surprising than Kentucky's win in Knoxville.

Rick Stansbury's Bulldogs are basically playing with four guards flanked around shot-blocking fiend Jarvis Varnado. They shoot a lot of 3-pointers and hit a respectable 38 percent of them.

"I would imagine Rick is having an incredible amount of fun coaching that team,'' Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said.

State has a young Vandy team coming to Starkville on Saturday so 3-0 is within reach.

If anything is within reach, Varnado will swat it. His 90 blocks thus far more than double SEC runner-up Perry Stevenson's 39.

"He's going to get another six or seven or eight altered shots (a game),'' said Stansbury, "and I'm sure all the coaches are talking about it. There's an effect on some mindsets.''

Varnado has blocked more shots than all but three SEC teams. UT has 57.

Career Nights: At least seven players have notched career-high scoring games against Tennessee this year.

Here's the rundown: Jodie Meeks, Kentucky (54); Wes Matthews, Marquette (30); Alex Renfroe, Belmont (30); Sherron Collins, Kansas (26); Matt Bouldin, Gonzaga (26, tied career high); Sergio Olmos, Temple (19); Steven Gray, Gonzaga (19).

Dionte Christmas of Temple rang up the Vols for 35, two short of his career high.

All the above except Olmos are perimeter players.

"We've got to fix it,'' coach Bruce Pearl said. "(Not improving) is not an option at this point.''

They're Not Free: Auburn let one get away Wednesday when Florida escaped with a 68-65 road win. The Tigers were 10-of-21 at the free-throw stripe, which is bad even for them.

On the year, Auburn is shooting a dismal 59.2 percent.

"I call him the Green Man,'' said coach Jeff Lebo. "The Green Man comes out and gets in your head. Sometimes you've got to have something else in your head to counterbalance the Green Man and get him out of there.''

Still, Auburn didn't take the booby prize for the worst night in the league. South Carolina was 8-of-22 (36.4 percent) at LSU.

Brick Alert: It's been an awful week for 3-point shooting in the league. Tennessee set the tone Tuesday by going 6-of-23 (26.1 percent) against Kentucky. But the Vols were far from worst.

Florida was 5-of-23 (21.7 percent), Auburn 5-of-27 (18.5 percent). LSU was 2-of-7 (28.6 percent). Arkansas was 3-of-15 (20 percent), Georgia 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) and Vanderbilt 2-of-16 (12.5 percent).

Maybe they should move the line back to 19-9, although the extra foot didn't bother Meeks.

Last Word: Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy, when asked if he ever fantasizes about what his team would be like had he not lost three of his top four guards (Chris Warren, Eniel Polynice, Trevor Gaskins) to year-ending injuries:

"I have to block that out in order to maintain my sanity. We've got to play the hand we're dealt.''

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strangem@knoxnews.com.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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