DULUTH, Ga. — With only a few hundred other souls in the Gwinnett Arena sat the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks shortly before noon Thursday, not long before the SEC Tournament resumed.
Late Wednesday night, they held an eight-point lead over Ole Miss with two minutes two play in a preliminary round game, but wilted down the stretch and fell 63-62.
Coach Tom Collen said he brought his players back to the tourney venue to let the experience settle in a little while before the team charter flight later in the afternoon.
“I’m really not trying to beat anybody up,” he said, admitting to having beaten himself after he got back to his hotel room, recounting those final fateful plays and breakdowns.
The biggest play happened with just under a minute to play, when Arkansas freshman Jasmine Jackson couldn’t corral a loose ball that slipped off her fingers and out of bounds. The 14th-seeded Rebels converted the possession into the game-winning points.
Even though Arkansas isn’t NCAA-bound, getting a win in March, especially in conference tournaments, is like like gold. A win means you get to play another day, to gain, or keep, priceless momentum.
Ole Miss basked in some momentary joy after finishing dead-last in an SEC regular season that may be as rugged top-to-bottom as ever. That Georgia-Vandy, the first game on Thursday’s schedule, was an 8-9 game here, indicates how much these teams have beaten up on one another.
Georgia prevailed 53-43 over a depleted, undersized Vanderbilt team that has won just two of its last 11 games.
The pain on the faces of Vanderbilt players Jasmine Lister and Christina Foggie and coach Melanie Balcomb were evident.
“[Georgia] owned this victory, they did a great job,” Balcomb said. “They were more physical, more aggressive. We’ve been on a stretch where we’ve been behind and we haven’t been finishing games.”
All but the Tennessee loss were very close calls, and during the skid Vandy lost one of its main contributors, Heather Bowe, for violation of an undisclosed university policy.
It’s also the kind of slide that makes a team vulnerable in the selection room. Vandy finished tied with Georgia at 7-9 in SEC and has a couple of valuable wins, over Tennessee and Texas A & M at home. Which has caused another coach some agony.
“That game [a 71-69 win by Vandy in Nashville on Feb. 2] cost me a No. 1 seed,” Aggies coach Gary Blair winced.
Instead, defending SEC tourney champion A & M is the No. 3 seed here, and will play Friday against the Ole Miss-Auburn winner.
Blair, as usual, is casting a wider glance at what’s to come. An inveterate bracketologist, he figures his team for a No. 3 seed now hopes the committee agrees. As for which regional the Aggies will get sent, Blair winces even more sharply. He’s not the only coach hoping it won’t be with either UConn or Notre Dame.
At this point, the SEC figures to get seven teams in the NCAAs, possibly eight. That’s not an unusual number, but unlike another era, the league doesn’t have multiple, legitimate Final Four contenders.
Regular season champion South Carolina and Tennessee look the most capable of getting to Nashville, and several more could, with the right bracket, get to the Sweet 16.
Florida avoided some bubble agony by holding off Mississippi State 71-67 Thursday, but not after squandering a 15-point lead. The Gators have most of the right numbers to get an NCAA invitation, and two wins over Kentucky. But they also have an RPI in the 60s.
They’ll get a third shot at Kentucky on Friday.
“I know this sounds crazy to say,” Collen said, “but I think we have 14 teams that can win at least a first round game in the NCAA Tournament.”
