Open Thread: SEC Tournament Quarterfinals

So, Vanderbilt’s basketball season might have ended yesterday, and... well, what else are you doing on your Friday afternoon, there’s no live stream for the tennis match at Kentucky, and bowling has the weekend off. You weirdos have nothing to do, so let’s all just watch the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament as we wait for baseball to start tonight.

Today’s action opens with 1-seed Alabama facing 9-seed Mississippi State, and you’d think that would be a terrible matchup, but Mississippi State has actually been competitive with the Tide twice this season and could give them a game. At the very least, well, what else were you doing at 11 AM on a Friday?

That’s followed by 4-seed Tennessee and 5-seed Florida, who actually played in Knoxville on Sunday with the Vols winning 65-54. Florida, though, absolutely whacked the Vols in Gainesville back on January 19; the final was 75-49 and Florida didn’t even have Scottie Lewis and Colin Castleton for that one. This might be the best game of the day.

The evening session opens at 6 PM with 2-seed Arkansas taking on 7-seed Missouri, the latter of whom absolutely tried its best to blow last night’s 73-70 win over Georgia. The Razorbacks and Tigers split two games in the regular season with each winning in the other’s gym.

The night ends with the SEC’s lone bubble team, 6-seed Ole Miss, looking to make its case for a tournament bid as they take on 3-seed LSU. LSU beat Ole Miss 75-61 in Oxford on January 9 in the teams’ only meeting during the regular season.

The afternoon games will both be televised on ESPN; the nightcap is on the SEC Network. Have fun.