STF Conference Reports: SEC 2/14

Happy Valentine's Day folks. If you are looking for a heart to give your loved one, just travel down to Nashville and see Kevin Stallings. I'm sure he has UK's still-beating heart his Commodores tore out on his desk.

Do you have any idea how hard these wrap-ups are after your team is embarrassed like that? BTW, when I went to bed Tuesday night, there were still 5000+ UK fans on Catspause.com discussing Vandy's assault-with-a-deadly-basketball... I'm not sure what that says but whatever it is, it makes me chuckle.

Beatdowns of favorite teams aside, it was another entertaining week for the SEC; a conference so down, Joe Lunardi sees six teams making the Big Dance (more than the Big Ten and ACC). Anyway, on with the update:

Team of the Week - Mississippi State Bulldogs
The Bulldogs bounced back nicely after last week's slip-up. During the latest seven-day period, MSU swept the state of Alabama by beating Auburn and the state's college by a combined 26 points. Again, deciding the SEC West looks like it will be incredibly entertaining as Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Ole Miss try and claim the regular season title.

Honorable Mention - Arkansas, Vandy
After a suspect start to their SEC schedule, Vanderbilt has won four straight, capped by Tuesday's absolute homicide against the University of Kentucky. Not to be overlooked, John Pelphrey's team continues to shine while also winning four in a row. The Razorbacks are sitting pretty at 6-2 in the SEC. Can they continue this little tear over the remaining SEC games?

Worst Team of the Week - Teams that get beat by 40 points
This WAS going to go to LSU until UK showed up in Nashville. The ONLY silver lining to Tuesday's debacle? UK is still 6-3 in conference play, however, this could quickly fall below .500 if the Vandy game was a sign of things to come. In lighter news, at least they don't have to worry about going to the Big Dance... unless they win the SEC Tournament.

Player of the Week - Chris Lofton
Apparently, those early season snubs have angered the diminutive shooting guard from Maysville, Kentucky. So what does he do? Comes out and has his two best weeks of his senior season. In two wins last week (Florida, LSU), Lofton scored a total of 41 points and in his last seven games is shooting 34 for 67 from the 3-point arc.

The question is, will Mr. Lofton continue his torrid play or will someone knock him out of this spot next week?

Games to Watch:

(Sorry I didn't get this up in time for Wednesday's games)

2/16 - Kentucky at LSU
2/16 - Florida at Vanderbilt
2/16 - Tennessee at Georgia
2/16 - Arkansas at Mississippi State [ESPN] 4:00
2/16 - Auburn at Ole Miss
2/16 - Alabama at South Carolina
2/19 - Georgia at Kentucky [ESPN] 9:00
2/20 - LSU at Arkansas
2/20 - South Carolina at Florida