[E4] KENTUCKY (20-10, 9-7 SEC)
vs. [W5] Alabama (20-10, 7-9 SEC)
2007 SEC TOURNAMENT
Thursday, March 8 ? 1:00 p.m. ET
Atlanta, Ga. ? Georgia Dome
TV:
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The two schools with the most historical success in the SEC Tournament square off in the first game of this year?s event when Kentucky, seeded fourth in the Eastern Division, clashes with Alabama, seeded fifth in the West.
Kentucky owns a 109-19 (.852) record in the conference tournament and has claimed 25 titles, five more than the rest of the league combined. Alabama is second to UK both in tournament wins (55) and titles (six).
Alabama won the regular-season meeting between the two, claiming a 72-61 victory in Tuscaloosa on Feb. 20.
UK and Bama have met 12 times previously in the SEC Tournament, with the Cats owning a 10-2 record. The two squared off last year in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament in Nashville with the Wildcats coming out on top 68-61.
PRACTICE SESSION QUOTES – MARCH 7
Head Coach Tubby Smith and Players
THE MODERATOR: We’re ready to go with Kentucky. We’ll ask Coach Smith and then take some questions. Coach?
TUBBY SMITH: Well, we’re happy to be here. Certainly you don’t want to be playing on the first day, but you’re glad to be participating in such a prestigious tournament. This tournament is one that we’ve had success in the past. We feel very confident and feel prepared as we come into this venue. It’s always a good venue to play in here at the Dome. Alabama will be a formidable opponent. So we’re looking forward to it.
THE MODERATOR: Okay, let’s go to the student athletes. Wu (Obrzut), your thoughts on the tournament, please.
LUKASZ OBRZUT: As Coach said, we feel good about coming here and playing our best. It’s not good to play the first day, but we have to, and we’re going to take one game at a time, and we’re going to move on from there.
BOBBY PERRY: Definitely, it’s an honor to be participating in my fourth SEC tournament. As for Wu and Sheray, the seniors, it is truly a blessing to be a part of this. And we feel we can be part of something special this week. Just very happy that we’re here.
THE MODERATOR: Okay, we’ll take questions for Coach or either of the players.
Q. Tubby, everybody says the SEC is one of the best conferences in the country, yet you see these projections about the SEC possibly only having four teams in the NCAA Tournament. What do you make of that?
TUBBY SMITH: I don’t know whose projecting it. We’ve had one of the strongest, if not the strongest RPI, you know. It’s one thing to project it, but I know I guess when the committee gets together, that’s the deal. You just hope that that’s not influencing the decision makers, because I believe we have at least six or seven teams that are you know, when you have teams that, we have seven teams with everybody has a winning record in our league. When you look at the East, certainly we’ve got five teams that could possibly be in it, and then the West has, you know, two or three teams that are capable of playing in it.
There is so much balance in this league, and people beat up on each other, but I don’t think that’s a reason to keep, you know, probably the best conference in America from having as many teams as possible in the NCAA Tournament.
Q. Tubby, I wondered what happened this year the East and the West? Whether you have any opinion on the possibility, though I know it hasn’t been discussed a lot, of a 1 through 12 seeding of teams, 1 through 12 for the tournament?
TUBBY SMITH: That’s something that I’m sure will be discussed. Looking at the, I guess, how it ended up in the Eastern Division with teams with only well, in the Western Division with only two teams 8 8 in their conference. We had five of our six teams in the East. I’m sure it will be addressed at the level it needs to be addressed at.
I don’t know what it means to seed them, but it probably would be beneficial to evaluate and see if that’s possible, if it would be beneficial to do it that way.
Q. Bobby, I’m wondering if can you address it, Kentucky’s used to coming in here, I’ve heard it called “Catlanta,” and all of those things, the domination you guys have had in the SEC Tournament. Is there any different feeling this year since you didn’t get the first round bye? Are you just as confident as you always are coming into the SEC Tournament?
BOBBY PERRY: This year has, you know, been a tough year for us obviously in the league, but it’s no different from any other year. You know, the teams in the past they’ve come here and realized that they had work to do, and it was going to be a tough task to get through the tournament, And we feel the same way. We feel very capable and I’m very confident that we can achieve what teams in the past have.
Q. This is for Coach: Mark Gottfried was here a moment ago and revealed that Jermareo Davidson had a back problem, I wondered if you were aware of that. And just the match ups you’ve had with Davidson in the past, what you’ve seen from that?
TUBBY SMITH: Well, he’s an outstanding player, and he would be and you want every player to be at 100%, you want every athlete, not only on our team, and on any other, these kids work extremely hard. They make a lot of sacrifice, and it’s a long season. Hopefully his back will be healthy and ready to play tomorrow.
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