This was Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings during practice. Imagine his reaction now. (The Associated Press)It's not even dinner time on the first day of the NCAA Tournament, and half the SEC's representatives are gone. Florida, see ya in double overtime. Vanderbilt, good-bye on a buzzer-beater by Murray State. Vandy has gotten knocked out by a No. 13 seed for the second straight time it's been in the NCAA Tournament.

All that's left for the SEC are Kentucky and Tennessee. The SEC figures to take a serious hit again in its unit payout, which is based on the number of games a conference participates each year in the tournament.

 

Down goes Billy Donovan. (AP photo)Florida missed a shot to win at the end of regulation.

Florida botched a chance to win at the end of the first overtime

Florida lost to BYU 99-92 in double overtime.

So Billy Donovan's return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since cutting down the national championship nets in 2007 -- for the second straight season -- didn't last long, and the SEC's hoped-for return to Big Dance respectability didn't get off to a promising start.

Following in those shaky footsteps, Vanderbilt just lost to Murray State 66-65 on a jumper at the buzzer.

Unless Kentucky can make the run many of us expect, the SEC is in danger of posting a losing NCAA Tournament record as a conference for the third straight year.

In 2008, six SEC teams combined to go 4-6.

In 2009, three SEC teams combined to go 1-3.

By comparison, the league posted five straight .500 or better NCAA records from 2003-07.

In 2003: 6-6.

In 2004: 7-6.

In 2005: 5-5.

In 2006: 13-5.

In 2007: 11-4.

Look on the bright side, Mike Slive, and pull hard for Kentucky. If UK gets to the Final Four, the SEC will at least break even this year.

Things have been so bad, that would be an improvement.

 

 

Eye on the Outdoors: Turkey season success

(Press-Register/Jeff Dute)Bay Minette hunter Mack Clay shows off his turkey prize in the latest "Eye on the Outdoors" video report by Press-Register Outdoors Editor Jeff Dute.
The turkeys are gobbling in Monroe County near Frisco City, as Press-Register Outdoors Editor and hunting companion Mack Clay of Bay Minette learned while producing the latest "Eye on the Outdoors" video report.

The Mobile Auburn Club achieved the distinction of the All Auburn-All Orange Award at the recent Auburn Club Leadership Conference held on the Auburn University campus.

All Auburn-All Orange was presented to 12 clubs nationwide for exceeding all Auburn Club criteria, including establishing and raising funds for a scholarship endowment, effectively communicating with club members, the community, and the Auburn Alumni Association, holding successful events and meetings, and for meaningful service to the (club) area.

The Mobile Auburn Club is one of 98 clubs supported by the Auburn Alumni Association whose mission is to foster and strengthen the relationship between Auburn University and its alumni and friends; to preserve and promote the university's traditions, purposes, growth and alumni; and to keep alive the spirit of affection and reverence for our alma mater.

For information on the Mobile Auburn Club, visit: www.auburnclubs.org/group/mobileauburnclub.

Former Auburn star Chuck Person was the No. 1 draft choice for the Indiana Pacers. Will he be the top choice to replace Jeff Lebo? (Indiana Pacers)Auburn will take its time to find a new men's head basketball coach and there is a push inside and outside the program to hire a minority candidate. Should Athletics Director Jay Jacobs put a minority hire as his top priority?

What about former Auburn star Chuck Person, now an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers? Will his name recognition, NBA resume and AU ties outweigh his lack of college coaching experience?

Birmingham News columnists Kevin Scarbinsky and Ray Melick and reporter Jon Solomon say in this week's sports podcast that Person would be a good choice, but he's not the only choice.

Also, with March Madness under way Scarbinsky, Melick and Solomon agree there's not much hope for a Cinderella past the opening weekend this year.

What teams will make the Final Four and what possible upsets are lurking in the bracket?

Give a listen to this week's podcast to see what the News' experts say.

 

 

[Click here to download the March 18, 2010, Birmingham News Sports podcast.]

 

BYU's Jimmer Fredette reacts during the Cougars' double-overtime win over Florida. (The Associated Press)Dear NCAA:

This is why you don't mess with the tournament. This is why you don't dare expand next year for the sake of money at the expense of quality.

Three games, three thrillers, two overtime games. And we're only three games into this perfect-as-it-is, three-week tournament.

Old Dominion 51, Notre Dame 50.

BYU 99, Florida 92 in double overtime.

Villanova 73, Robert Morris 70 in overtime.

Florida had two chances to win, at the end of regulation and the first overtime. Notre Dame had a shot to tie in the final seconds. Robert Morris led most of the game, kept fighting until the very end and nearly became the fifth No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2.

A 2 won't beat a 15 in a 96-team tournament. With 96 teams, Notre Dame, Florida and Villanova all would have had fresh legs entering this game after first-round byes.

NCAA: Watch your games these next three weeks and act accordingly. You've got a great product already. But if this is the last 65-team tournament, at least we might be treated to a classic.

Sincerely,

College Basketball Fans

Old Dominion forward Keyon Carter, left, and Notre Dame's Carleton Scott scramble for a loose ball. (The Associated Press)NEW ORLEANS -- Carleton Scott's 3-pointer rattled out in the closing seconds, and 11th-seeded Old Dominion delivered the first upset of the NCAA Tournament when it stunned sixth-seeded Notre Dame 51-50 on Thursday in the South Regional.

The Fighting Irish rushed the ball up the court as the clock wound down, but Scott's attempt to tie the game didn't fall and Luke Harangody's putback at the buzzer wasn't enough.

Frank Hassell scored 15 points to lead Old Dominion (27-8), which held Harangody to only four points -- and scoreless until the final minute.

Ben Hansbrough scored 17 points to lead the Irish (23-12).

Saketh MyneniKassi PriceSenior tennis standout Saketh Myneni and senior gymnast Kassi Price are Alabama's nominees for the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Postgraduate Scholarship.

The scholarships, presented since 1986, go to the Southeastern Conference's top male and female scholar-athletes. The winners of the $10,000 scholarships will be announced on April 6.

Myneni, a native of Andhra Pradesh, India, has a 3.79 grade-point average and is majoring in finance and economics. He has played primarily at the No. 1 position for the Crimson Tide for the past three seasons and was a first-team All-SEC selection last season.

Senior gymnast Kassi Price has been nominated by the University of Alabama for the H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar-Athlete Postgraduate Scholarship the Southeastern Conference office announced Thursday.

Price, a Plantation, Fla., native, has a 4.0 grade-point average and is majoring in marketing and advertising.

A two-time uneven bars All-American, Price has been ranked as high as No. 1 in the nation in the all-around. She helped lead the Crimson Tide to the SEC title and a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships in 2009. An NCAA regional champion on the uneven bars and balance beam in 2008, Price has won 34 individual titles in her career.

Louis Dale, shown last spring before an NCAA tournament game, wants one more big win for his college career. "It would be great for our legacy to win an NCAA Tournament game. That's the one thing we haven't done yet, and it's our last opportunity." (AP Photo) Louis Dale's Cornell University resume is almost complete.

The Birmingham native is a three-time All-Ivy League point guard, including Ivy League Player of the Year as a sophomore, and an honorable mention All-America.

He is the all-time assists leader at Cornell, the only player in Cornell history with 1,300 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists, and 100 steals, and he ranks among the school's top 10 all-time in scoring, assists, 3-pointers, 3-point percentage and free-throw percentage.

This spring he'll graduate with a degree in policy management and analysis.

His senior class is already the winningest in school history (86-32), with three straight Ivy League titles and three straight NCAA Tournament appearances.

But there is something missing for Dale.

"It would be great for our legacy to win an NCAA Tournament game," said the former Altamont School player, who is averaging 11.9 points, 4.9 assists, and 2.9 rebounds per game. "That's the one thing we haven't done yet, and it's our last opportunity."

Cornell (27-4, 13-1 Ivy League) earned a No. 12 seed and will open the NCAA Tournament in Jack­sonville, Fla., against No. 5 seed Temple (29-5, 14-2 Atlantic 10) on Friday.

This marks the fifth time the Big Red has qualified for the NCAA Tournament, three times with Dale lead­ing the team from the point guard position. Cornell lost to Stanford in 2008, 77-53, and last year lost to Mis­souri, 78-59. "That game against Stan­ford was not even close," Dale said. "But last year, against Missouri, we were only down two or three at halftime."

Cornell was a No. 14 seed those years. It's a 12 this year, "so maybe that gives us a better matchup," Dale said.

Cornell will attempt to become the first Ivy League team to win an NCAA Tour­nament game since Prince­ton in 1998.

Whatever happens, Dale did get a measure of "brag­ging rights" when Cornell came to Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama 71-67 in the first game of the season.

Dale scored 13 points, with five assists and four re­bounds.

"Obviously, it was special, because it was in Alabama," said Dale, who played high school basketball and ran track at Altamont. "My fam­ily was there, a lot of my friends. Some of the guys on the Alabama team I know, having played against them.

"It's a game that was set up to give me a chance to play close to home, and I'm grateful for that."

Closer to Cornell, which is in Ithaca, N.Y., Dale spent the past two summers in New York City working for Goldman Sachs, the invest­ment and banking firm that was very much in the public eye during the Wall Street fi­nancial crash in 2008.

"Let's just say I got a dif­ferent perspective from be­ing on the inside," Dale said. "It was a great experience."

It is the kind of work Dale hopes to do someday, when his basketball career ends.

"I do want to keep playing basketball," he said. "I want to pursue a professional ca­reer as far as I can."

But first, there is this last shot at an NCAA Tourna­ment win. When Dale was a fresh­man at Cornell, he went around asking students if anybody went to basketball games.

"They said, 'Are you jok­ing? Nobody goes because the team isn't any good. The only sport to go to here is hockey.' " That has changed in Dale's four years. Cornell has become a basketball school.

"Now we have our own fans," he said. "And that's been good to see."

E-MAIL: rmelick@bhamnews.com

Villanova players run through drills in Providence, R.I., on Wednesday in preparation for their game against Robert Morris on Thursday. (The Associated Press)

Birmingham News columnist Kevin Scarbinsky's NCAA Tournament bracket is published in Thursday's paper for all to see. Compare his choices to yours and join in a live chat with Kevin here today at 10 a.m.

Tip-off will be just an hour away when the chat starts, so bring your March Madness questions here for Kevin to answer.

 

Former Hewitt-Trussville standout Justin Tubbs, who started his college basketball career at Alabama, suits up for East Tennessee State tonight in the NCAA Tournament. (Special to The Birmingham News)Justin Tubbs' current college basketball team plays tonight in the NCAA Tournament. His for­mer team did not make it to the NCAA Tournament. In fact, Ala­bama was not even invited to the National Invitation Tournament.

How about that?

"I can't lie. It feels good," said Tubbs, an East Tennessee State junior guard and a former He­witt-Trussville High School standout.

"It feels real good."

The Buccaneers (20-14) are the No. 16 seed in the East Regional. They will meet top-seeded and second-ranked Kentucky (32-2) at 6:15 p.m. CDT today in New Or­leans.

"I'm really excited about this opportunity to play on this kind of national stage," Tubbs said. "Everyone in the world's going to be watching."

The 6-foot-3 shooting guard has averaged 12.0 points per game.

He had to sit out last sea­son after transferring from the University of Alabama, where he played as a fresh­man (3.2 ppg in 9.2 minutes per game) and sophomore (3.1 ppg in 7.3 minutes per game). He was a 2008 Aca­demic All-Southeastern Conference selection. Tubbs signed with Alabama over Auburn, South Carolina, Mi­ami, UAB, East Tennessee State "and a bunch of mid­-majors," he said.

"At the time, I was in love with the University of Ala­bama," he said. "Ronald Steele was one of my favor­ite players."

And one of his best friends, then-Huffman High School star Demetrius Jemi­son, signed with Alabama.

But after two seasons at Alabama, Tubbs decided to transfer.

"I felt like I could do more," he said. "I looked for a school that would allow me to play a bigger role."

He chose East Tennessee State over Miami, Western Kentucky "and a few more mid-majors."

"I really got a good feel for the (ETSU) coaching staff," Tubbs said, particularly Will Bailey, an assistant coach and former UAB player.

"And the head coach was being real the whole time. Some coaches just say what you want to hear."

The head coach is Murry Bartow. Tubbs said he is too young to remember Bartow as UAB's head coach (1996-2002).

East Tennessee State fin­ished in fifth place in the At­lantic Sun Conference, but it was one game behind four teams that tied for first place. One highlight of the Bucs' season was a 94-85 victory in November at Ar­kansas. They defeated Mercer in the Atlantic Sun Tournament championship game. Tubbs was named to the all-tournament team.

Tubbs is regarded as the Bucs' best lockdown de­fender. Tonight, he will match up against Kentucky freshman guard John Wall, the SEC's player of the year.

"It'll be a real test," Tubbs said, "but I try not to get too much into who I'm playing. I'm going to play hard whether I'm playing against Kentucky or Kennesaw State."

View full sizeAP PhotoBirmingham native Eric Bledsoe and the rest of the Kentucky Wildcats are ready for the Big Dance. Are you?We're just about two hours away from the official start of March Madness, and you have until 11 a.m. central time to submit your bracket in the al.com NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge.

With over 1,000 entries so far, you'll have a chance to compete against the rest of the state, and your favorite sports writers. We have brackets from Kevin Scarbinsky, Mark McCarter, Evan Woodbery, Doug Segrest, Jon Solomon, Charles Goldberg, Josh Bean and even me if that does anything for you (it shouldn't).

Sign up for the contest and you can pit your bracket skills against all these guys and more. If you're really good, and really lucky, you might even win a cool $10,000 for your trouble.

Speaking of McCarter, he'll be running a 12-hour marathon live chat session during today's games. It's a feat never before attempted at al.com, but I imagine he has all the performance-enhancing drugs (Red Bull and Buffalo wings) he'll need to pull it off.

So fill out a bracket, keep Mark company in his live chat and keep checking al.com on the most wonderful (basketball) days of the year.

Slope on No. 1 green - and others - will be softened in Hoover Country Club makeover. (The Birmingham News / Mark Almond)Hoover Country Club was scheduled to close Dec. 31, 2008 for a full-scale course renovation, but the club's Board of Governors decided to postpone the makeover for a year due to economic concerns.

As of March 1, the club finally closed, with work starting on taking down trees that are part of the overall plan.

Course architect Bill Bergin has been retained to reconstruct many facets of the course. The layout will remain essentially unchanged, but three lakes will be built for better water supply, playability and aesthetics. One will be next to Nos. 2 and 6, a second close to the seventh green, and a third by the 18th green and 13th fairway.

Nos. 10 and 18 will be shortened, while Nos. 7 and 13 will be lengthened.

Also, the greens, tees and bunkers will all be redone, as well as adding new irrigation, drainage, cart paths, an expanded practice facility and a short game facility. Many fairways will be recontoured.

Many golfers will have had their own thoughts about the severely sloping greens on Nos. 1, 10, 15 and 17. These slopes will be softened significantly.

Bob Pinson of Course Crafters will do the construction and shaping work. The plan is that the course will reopen in October.

Club president Stephen Porterfield said it will be a $3 million-plus project.

He said that if the work had gone ahead on the original schedule, it would have cost over $400,000 more. Labor and materials now cost less, he said.

A mitigation project on Patton Creek that runs across the course will not move ahead at the same time as the course renovation. But it is a possibility in the future, he said.

Remarkable finish

Coach Woodie Eubanks and his Samford men's golf team recently tied for first place with Vanderbilt in the Bulldogs' home tournament at Limestone Springs near Anniston.

The first-place tie will go down has one of the program's top performances. The Bulldogs trailed the Commodores by 20 shots heading into the final round, but shot 282 to make up the difference. A three-hole playoff could not determine a winner so they were declared co-champions.

Oneonta native and Samford freshman Casey O'Toole shot rounds of 73-65-66--204 to win the individual title by seven shots. He was joined on the SU team by fellow freshmen Bill Nabors, Drew Aimone and Gabe Hyde and junior Martin Bunt.

Birmingham native and former Spain Park standout Trey DelGreco led Vandy with rounds of 70-71-71 to finish third in the individuall race.

Ian Thompson's golf column appears every Thursday in The Birmingham News. E-mail him at golfsth@aol.com.

Bobby Rahal will drive a Lotus in the Legends race that is much like this 1968 Lotus in the Barber Motorsports Museum. (The Birmingham News / Doug Demmons)Bobby Rahal didn’t want his son to become a race car driver. The three-time CART champion and 1986 Indy 500 winner resisted letting him have a go-kart.

"But there was never any doubt about what he wanted to do," Rahal said Wednesday during a stop at Barber Motorsports Park to promote his Legends of Motorsports Series race in May.

As a youngster, Graham Rahal would accompany his dad to dinners with sponsors and sit quietly, soaking it all in — just as Bobby Rahal did when he traveled with his own father in the 1950s to race at the airport course in Courtland.

Nonetheless, Graham Rahal had some serious convincing to do.

"It took a lot of effort, because with my dad," Graham said, "it was like he knew firsthand how dangerous it was. And my mom did. And really the only way I could get him to let me go go-karting was my brother and I came up with this plan that we were going to go go-karting together and it was something we were going to do together and the family experience type of thing.

"Well, my brother after basically the first event decided that racing was not for him," he said. ¶
But by then the die was cast. Graham struck a deal with his dad that he could race if he kept his grades up.

Graham went on to become one of the rising stars of the Izod IndyCar Series. He’ll be at Barber for the April 11 Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, driving for Sarah Fisher’s team in a two-race deal that includes the March 28 race at St. Petersburg, which he won last year. in 2008.

His dad will be racing at Barber too — driving a Lotus in the feature race of the Legends of Motorsports event, a new racing series co-founded by Bobby Rahal that will feature vintage cars from the¤’60s and¤’70s.

The Lotus that Rahal will drive is a car that he sold to a man in California in 1973. Rahal said he tracked the guy down and he still had the car — virtually untouched and stored in a barn all these years. Rahal bought it back and restored it.

So, will there be a friendly competition to see who finishes higher at Barber, father or son?

"Unfortunately, I think he has it a little easier than I do," Graham said of his dad’s competition. "He’ll try to tell me it’s tough. But the thing is that my dad, he’s just awesome and we were talking about this the other day, talking about (Formula One champion) Michael Schumacher. They both love racing, and my dad, the series he’s put together, I think he selfishly put it together so he could go racing all the time."

Graham is still looking for a full-time Indy ride this year, a situation that has many Indy fans upset as they see numerous foreign drivers securing rides in the series.

Bobby Rahal said part of the problem is that Indy teams don’t have enough relationships of their own with sponsors, so they depend on drivers to bring their own sponsors.

Graham Rahal said there just aren’t as many skilled open-wheel American drivers as there are in other countries.

"I was talking to someone the other day .¤.¤. asking them why didn’t they have very many American drivers," Graham said. "Simply put, ‘We’ve tested a lot of American drivers and none have been able to do the job properly.’

"And it’s sad to say, but that’s been the case and I think that people sometimes have the approach that it should just be given to you if you have good results and stuff," he said. "Right now the Europeans, the Brazilian drivers, first of all, the results are there. Second of all, they have a lot of support."

The Legends Series is expected to bring 180 cars to Barber to compete May 21-23 in nine classes with the Lotus race being the marquee event.

The grand marshal for the Lotus race is scheduled to be racing legend Mario Andretti.

That’s assuming his grandson, Marco Andretti, makes it into the field for the Indy 500 on Saturday, May 22. If Marco has to wait until Bump Day on May 23 to qualify for the Indy 500, Mario may have to skip the Barber race to be in Indianapolis.

But either way, the world’s best-known driver will be at Barber for a fundraising event on May 22.

The Thursday before the race weekend will feature a parade of cars from competitors and local car clubs from the track, down U.S. 78 to Montevallo Road to Mountain Brook Village, where a street festival is planned. Or, as Mountain Brook Mayor Terry Oden put it, "We’re going to make it a soiree."

Asked if the Mountain Brook police will go easy on race cars zipping through the city, Oden joked, "That’s the way we anticipate making our budget this year.

MIKE KITTRELL/Staff PhotographerGonzales Austin of Miami prepares to serve during a USTA Spring National 18s match on Wednesday at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center in Mobile.What a difference a year has made in the career of budding tennis star Gonzales Austin.

Austin, a native of Miami, claimed the USTA 16s Summer Championship in Kalamazoo, Mich., as a No. 8 seed in 2009 and is the top seed in this week's USTA Spring Nationals 18s at the Copeland-Cox Tennis Center.

He's undefeated in Mobile after Wednesday's 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win over Nick Papac of Fresno, Calif.

"Last summer, I didn't feel that I was at their (the 18s players') level. I didn't have the confidence that I do now," Austin said. "Now I feel like I'm getting up to the level of the guys that used to beat me in the lower age division.

"At Kalamazoo, I had more of a defensive style and tried to stay in the point. I ran around a lot more on the court. Now I'm trying to focus on moving into the court and finishing points off at the net and not having such long points. I also feel like I can go into a match and hang with the best of them. Right now I feel as if I'm playing pretty well. If I keep this up, I think I can have a great season."

Austin, 17, credits his father with introducing him to tennis.

"My dad immigrated to the United States from Haiti when he was 13 and he picked up tennis, which is pretty weird because living in New York City, you'd normally pick up basketball," he said.

While most of his father's family has since moved to the United States, Austin said they were affected by the recent devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti.

"We had one great aunt that still lives in Haiti," Austin said. "She's 97 years old and was under her house. But despite the rubble, she was OK. She got out unscathed."