The Sunday Blog comes at you early Monday morning because of some technical difficulties. Whatever infected ESPN2’s broadcast of the Florida-Arkansas game got into my computer Sunday.
1. That was an impressive performance by a tough team in Fayetteville. Arkansas is not a great team by any means, but as Jimmy Dykes pointed out the Hogs play like a top 10 team at home. And for a battered UF team to go in there and get the win, well, this team is doing what the football team said it would do when injuries hit but didn’t. It will be especially interesting to see where Dorian Finney-Smith goes from here. He was a beast on Saturday.
2. Next up is Georgia, which is the surprise of the conference at 2-0. You probably know about the emotional win last week for Mark Fox, who has the hottest seat of any SEC coach. The Dogs beat Missouri on the road five days after Ray Fox, the father of the head coach, passed away. Fox let his emotions spill on the bench at the end of the overtime win. Georgia followed up with a win over Alabama. Georgia is still only 1-5 away from home this season.
3. That Alabama loss made me wonder about the future of our old friend Anthony Grant. He’s in his fifth year at Alabama and has only one NCAA appearance. This year’s team, 7-8 and 0-2, doesn’t look like it will make it two. He just can’t seem to get the right mix of players in there. At the same time, his Alabama teams have won 20 games or more each of the last three seasons.
4. It will be an interesting week for Kentucky with a game at Arkansas Tuesday and then Tennessee at home Saturday. The Wildcats have been almost under the radar nationally the last few weeks. I’m also curious to see how Arkansas responds to its first home loss in 25 games. This was a huge four-day stretch for Arkansas basketball and to go 0-2 would be a killer.
