1. Dylan Howard (Jr), Fla 23.1 1. Winfred Case (Jr), UK 10.0 1. Damon Terry (Jr), Geo 8.1
2. Count Williams (So), UA 21.0 2. Ricky Warwin (Sr), G 7.9 2. Amp Davis (Jr), LSU 8.0
3. Winfred Case (Jr), UK 20.8 3. Veltra Dawson (Sr), UT 7.8 3. Derrick Jackson (Sr), UT 6.3

LSU (#2 in MW): defeated Penn, Michigan State, VCU, SMU and Oklahoma to reach the National Championship

Kentucky (#3 in SE): defeated Southern, LaSalle and Houston, to reach the Elite 8, before losing to Maryland.

Tennessee (#5 in SE): lost to Maryland, 70-60, in 1^st Round.

Florida (#7 in W): lost to Oregon State in 1^st Round.

Alabama (#9 in E): defeated Providence, then lost to Georgetown.

• In the league’s first ever game, LSU beats Vanderbilt, 80-30.
• Tennessee beats LSU, 97-90 in Knoxville, in the league’s first head-to-head competition.
• In an epic SEC Tourney semi-final, LSU outlasts Florida, 96-94 in double overtime, when freshman Amp Davis hits two free throws with no time showing on the clock.
• In the first ever SEC Tournament Championship, Darren Guest scores 20 pts and Amp Davis 12, as LSU defeats Kentucky, 78-60.
• LSU surprises many by reaching the Final Four in Jon Kane’s first season. The freshman Amp Davis bursts onto the national scene by nearly winning the title single handedly. His 19 pts and 13 assists, however, are not enough to defeat Georgetown in the championship game. The Hoyas win, 78-70.

1. Count Williams (Jr), Bama 22.3 1. Winfred Case (Sr), UK 9.5 1. Damon Terry (Sr), Geo 7.0
2. Winfred Case (Sr), UK 19.5 2. Darius Clemons (Fr). LSU 8.4 2. Amp Davis (So), LSU 6.9
3. Dylan Howard (Sr), Fla 18.3 3. Gordon Houston (Sr), OM 7.2 3. Grady Green (Jr), Fla 5.3

LSU (#1 in MW): defeated Houston Baptist, Texas Tech, NC State, Syracuse and Georgia Tech to reach National

Kentucky (#4 in ME): defeated Oklahoma City and Ohio to reach Sweet 16. Lost to North Carolina.

Georgia (#6 in E): lost to St Joseph’s in 1^st Round.

Alabama (#6 in W): defeated New Mexico. Lost to Arizona State in 2^nd Round.

• In an embarassing non-conference defeat, Tennessee starts the season with a 60-59 loss to Clinch Valley State.
• Dr. Bob Maxfield takes over a struggling program at Ole Miss which had won just 2 games the year before. With a starting lineup of Gordon Houston, Jay Teagle, Mississippi Banks, Dujuan Walker and Herman Hill, the Rebels win 7 games in Maxfield’s first year. Backed by this surprising success, Dr. Bob is able to sign Marquis Miller and Hersey Hawkins, and the Ole Miss program is on it’s way.
• In a much anticipated personal matchup against Syracuse’s Pearl Washington, sophomore Amp Davis scores 55 points to lead LSU into the Final Four. Achieved against a near-constant double team, and interrupted momentarily by Mrs. Maxfield’s pot roast dinner, it remains one of the greatest individual performances in SEC history.
• Alabama was the preseason pick to win the league, but disappointed. Regardless, it’s 6’8 star, Count Williams, is the league’s best player and it’s first to declare for NBA hardship.

1. Sanford Brooks (Jr), Fla 20.0 1. Sanford Brooks (Jr), Fla 10.0 1. Amp Davis (Jr), LSU 7.8
2. Aubrey James (So), UK 19.0 2. Jerome Childs (Sr), G 7.2 2. Grady Green (Sr), Fla 5.8
3. Amp Davis (Jr), LSU 18.1 3. Henry Carr (Jr), UT 6.9 3. Ty Nealy (Sr), UK 5.2

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Penn and Navy, before 74-63 upset loss to Boston College in Sweet 16.

Kentucky (#5 in MW): defeated Rice and Houston to reach Sweet 16, before losing to Memphis State.

Georgia (#5 in W): lost to DePaul in 1^st Round.

• Tennessee debuts 6’0 playground legend Dredrick Irving, the league’s first bad boy, forever defining the character of the program and it’s coach. Irving scores 18 ppg to earn the SEC Outstanding Freshman Award.
• The SEC Tournament is most notable for the 2^nd Round upset of #2 seed Georgia by Bob Boyd’s Mississippi State Bulldogs, winners of just 4 conference games during the season.

6. Mississippi 9-9 > Tennessee

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Marist, Temple, Georgia Tech and Syracuse to reach the 3rd Final Four of Amp Davis’

Kentucky (#4 in W): defeated SMU; lost to Oklahoma in 2^nd Round.

Tennessee (#5 in E): defeated West Virginia; lost to Duke (69-60) in 2^nd Round.

Georgia (#5 in SE): defeated Richmond; lost to Alabama-Birmingham in 2^nd Round.

• It has taken three full years, but Vanderbilt finally wins it’s 1^st SEC game, a 50-45 victory over Mississippi State.
• Amp Davis’ senior year is spectacular: 21pts, 7.7 asts and 3.8 steals per game. He is named SEC and National Player-of-the-Year. LSU enters the SEC Tournament 32-0.
• Gary Caplan struggles through his first year as Auburn coach. He finishes 6-12, but upsets #2 Georgia in the conference tournament (the 2^nd straight year Georgia is shocked as the #2 seed). His biggest victory of the year comes, however, when he signs blue chip recruit Kevin Glenn.
• In a stunning semi-final upset, Tennessee beats LSU, 82-80. It would be LSU’s only loss in 40 games.
• After what remains the biggest victory in Coach Chuck Maxfield’s SEC career, the SEC Championship game is almost anticlimactic. Tennessee defeats Kentucky, 79-76, for it’s first SEC Championship. Otis Estes scores 26 pts in the final and is named Tournament MVP.
• In the final game of Amp Davis’ legendary career, LSU slams North Carolina, 91-63, for Jon Kane’s first NCAA Championship.

1. Auburn 11-7 Tennessee Auburn
2. Alabama 9-9 Auburn
3. Tennessee 9-9 > Auburn
4. Miss State 7-11 Kentucky (68-61)
5. Vanderbilt 6-12 Alabama Kentucky
6. Georgia 4-14 State/Fl a Miss State > LSU
7. Florida 3-15 LSU LSU

LSU (#2 in SE): defeated Farleigh Dickinson; lost to Clemson, 77-72, in 2^nd Round.

Mississippi (#4 in E): defeated Towson State; lost to Arkansas in 2^nd Round.

Auburn (#4 in W): defeated Arkansas Little Rock, Wyoming and Oregon State to reach Elite 8, before losing to

Kentucky (#7 in MW): lost to Iowa State in 1^st Round.

• Harris Maxfield signs with Auburn, becoming the first "human" player in the SEC.
• Tennessee junior Dredrick Irving scores 40 or more points in four games, and goes on to lead the league with a 22.5 ppg scoring average, but is not named to the all-conference team.
• In his 4^th season after taking over a 2-14 team, Bob Maxfield leads his Ole Miss Rebels to a 1^st place SEC finish.
• LSU has difficulty adjusting to life without Amp Davis. The Bayou Bengals lose 5 conference games and finish in 2^nd place, despite having 3 All-SEC players in their starting lineup.
• Vanderbilt, with seniors Rickey Crutcher and Lamont Skill, win 6 conference games, and another in the tournament. This sparks an NCAA investigation (through an envelope) which discloses no wrongdoings.

6. Florida 9-9 > LSU

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Boise State (by 65), Dayton, Bradley and Georgia Tech to reach the Final Four, where they

Ole Miss (#5 in MW): defeated Oklahoma City, then lost to Bradley in 2^nd Round.

Kentucky (#8 in W): defeated Oregon State and Houston to reach Sweet 16, before losing to Michigan.

Mississippi State (#10 in E): lost to Penn in 1^st Round.

6. Tennessee 10-8 > Kentucky

8. Florida 8-10 Tennessee Mississippi Kentucky

1. Dredrick Irving (Sr), Tenn 21.5 1. Ira Hayes (Sr), Kent 10.2 1. Ben Franklin (Jr), LSU 8.7

LSU (#3 in W): defeated Stanford, Virginia and Wyoming to reach Elite 8, before losing to North Carolina, 85-81.

Kentucky (#3 in SE): defeated Florida State, Creighton and Illinois to reach Elite 8, before losing to Maryland.

Ole Miss (#7 in E): lost to Notre Dame in 1^st Round.

Auburn (#10 in W): lost to Washington in 1^st Round.

• Dredrick Irving returns from injury and wins his 2^nd conference scoring championship.
• Florida obtains Igi Abu (from Mozambique) and Odessa Turner (transfer from Houston) through envelopes, and Eddie Bell out of junior college. This trio joins Neil Rivers, Gerald Rice, Huey Hinkle, LaFester Rhodes and Juanray Street to begin the greatest era in Gator basketball history. The first indication of this comes when Florida upsets LSU in the tournament’s 2^nd Round. It remains the only time a #8 seed has beaten a #1 seed in the SEC Tournament.
• High school recruit Izell Cleckley announces at a press conference that he has chosen The University of Tennessee because of its Speech Pathology program. A legend is born.
• In the first ever SEC Championship game without a human coach, Kentucky defeats Florida 63-59, behind 24 pts and 9 rebs by senior Ira Hayes. After a short stint in the Marines, the 6’9 Pima Indian would return to his Arizona reservation, where he is tortured by alcoholism and more than 50 drunken and disorderly arrests, until his death in 1985.

6. Kentucky 12-6 > Florida

8. Alabama 4-14 Kentucky Kentucky Florida

Tennessee (#2 in SE): defeated Bucknell and New Orleans to reach Sweet 16. Lost to Duke, 88-70.

Florida (#3 in MW): defeated Illinois State, Memphis State and Arkansas to reach the Elite 8. Lose to Kansas.

LSU (#4 in E): defeated Marist, Oklahoma and Iowa to reach Elite 8, before losing to UNLV, 82-63.

Ole Miss (#7 in W): lost to New Mexico State in 1^st Round.

Auburn (#9 in SE): lost to Florida State in 1^st Round.

• The conference welcomes the best freshman class in it’s history: Stevie Williams, Aaron Dare, Terry Daniels, Mark Gadis, Clayton Hobart and Sherman Stafford among them.
• Vanderbilt signs none of the elite recruits, but it’s freshman class of Oren Schaeffer, Jonas Miles and Wade Phillips would begin an era of unprecedented respectability in Nashville.
• Dino Zambini of Mississippi State hits a fullcourt, desperation heave at the buzzer to beat Ole Miss in a regular season stunner in Starkville.
• LSU again fails to win the conference or make the Final Four, and the program is well into the most difficult stretch of the KaneEra.
• Florida’s 7’7 Igi Abu, "The Freak from Mozambique," blocks 4.4 shots per game, which remains an SEC record.
• The SEC Tournament is held in New York City, with Tennessee the prohibitive favorite. The Volunteer Press, featuring Itchy Smith, Nigel Clay and Taveras Keeler, terrorizes opponents en route to a perfect 18-0 regular conference season.
• In the Tournament final, Norm Sloan surprises everybody by pressing Tennessee fullcourt. His backcourt of Neil Rivers and Gerald Rice solves The Volunteer Press, and Florida pulls off one of the great upsets in SEC history, 78-75.
• During the summer, Ole Miss coach Bob Maxfield marries the former Patricia Lanzetta, at a private ceremony in Hanover, NH. The Reverend Raynard Pope presides. Chuck Maxfield is Best Man. Dujuan Walker and Rootin’ Tootin’ Newton are among the ushers.

1. Stevie Williams (So), LSU 25.0 1. Mike Kerr (Sr), Kent 10.9 1. Neil Rivers (Sr), Fla 8.8

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Boise State; lost to Maryland, 96-94 in 2^nd Round.

Kentucky (#5 in E): defeated St Peters; lost to Villanova in 2^nd Round.

Alabama (#6 in W): defeated Wyoming; lost to California in 2^nd Round.

Florida (#6 in MW): defeated Creighton, Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Missouri to reach The Final Four,

• After a stellar career at Kentucky, and a short stint in the Marines, Ira Hayes dies of acute alcohol poisoning at the Gila Bend Indian Reservation in Arizona. He is the first SEC player to die. Georgia’s Marvin Rudd commits suicide later this same season, to become the second.
• Chris Ennis receives a (real) degree from The University of Tennessee.
• During his team’s summer tour of Africa, Ole Miss’ Chester Strand is enticed into patting a bush buck by JuCo troublemaker Travis Mays. Strand contracts African Sleeping Sickness, and sleeps for the next two years.

8. Auburn 3-9 Mississippi Kentucky Tennessee

1. Stevie Williams (Jr), LSU 30.1 1. Kendrick Short (Sr), LSU 12.5 1. Titus Wiley (So), Miss 7.7

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Lehigh, Arkansas, Louisville and Duke to reach The Final Four. Defeated Oklahoma,

Tennessee (#4 in E): defeated James Madison, 64-60. Lost to Pittsburg, 77-65, in 2^nd Round.

Kentucky (#5 in W): defeated Tulsa and UTEP to reach Sweet 16. Lost to UNLV, 80-79.

Ole Miss (#7 in MW): defeated UNC-Charlotte, 48-45. Lost to Iowa, 65-53, in 2^nd Round.

• Lance Haffner’s computer college basketball game is first used for regular season games. The conference schedule is shortened to 12 games to take advantage of the plethora of non-conference opponents.
• David Maxfield is born, and is playing center for Ole Miss within a month.
• Otis Holmes meets The Evil Woman, whose influence creates Vandy’s first, and thus far only, trouble maker.
• Florida’s LaFester Rhodes, a Mississippi native still angry at not having been offered a scholarship to Ole Miss three years earlier, states his case to Dr. Bob Maxfield: 51 points in a Florida victory over Mississippi.
• Showtime in Baton Rouge: LSU averages 115 ppg, and an estimated 20 dunks per game.

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Robert Morris and Pittsburg to reach Sweet 16, before losing to Memphis State, 99-87.

Ole Miss (#7 in MW): defeated Southern Illinois, then lost to Texas, 90-80.

Tennessee (#8 in E): lost to St John’s, 82-80, in 1^st Round.

• Gary Caplan resigns as coach of Auburn, after an 8-year stint in which he won 61 SEC games and received three NCAA Tournament bids. The highlight of his tenure was winning the 1981 SEC Championship.
• Paul Righi takes over coaching duties at Vandy. His "hands-off’ approach works, and he is named SEC Coach of the Year. His son, John, transfers from Tennessee to play for his Dad.
• Willie Cutts becomes the first non-LSU player to make the cover of Sports Ilustrated, pictured in handcuffs stepping into a police cruiser, with the caption: "What’s Wrong with College Basketball."
• Alabama standout Aaron Dare announces he is homosexual (not that there’s anything wrong with it).
• It is a regular season of unparalleled offensive statistics, particularly those produced by LSU, which scores 100 pts in 27 of 31 regular season games, and averages ___ ppg for the season. LSU beats Ole Miss 154-143, South Alabama 157-150, Loyola Marymount 159-151 and Michigan 152-149.
• Leodis Lee enjoys the most spectacular freshman season in SEC history. He records a triple double at DePaul, (the 2^nd in SEC history), dominates Ole Miss for 44 pts and 20 rebs in another, and averages 19.7 pts and 11.6 rebs for the year.
• Not to be outdone by his upstart teammate, Stevie Williams averages a league record 31 ppg, and is named conference MOP for the 2^nd consecutive year.
• Vandy, with seniors Jonas Miles, Oren Schaefer and Wade Phillips, as well as junior Otis Holmes, surprises Tennessee and Ole Miss to reach the SEC Tournament Final. The Commodores give LSU a game, holding them to a season low 85 pts, but succumb in the end, 85-73.
• In the NCAA Tournament, LSU continues its trend of losing to the eventual National Champion, this time, Memphis State.

6. Kentucky 5-7 > Mississippi

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Robert Morris, Temple, Seton Hall and Illinois to reach The Final Four. Defeated UNLV,

Auburn (#3 in W): defeated California, then lost to UTEP, 104-100.

Ole Miss (#4 in E): defeated LaSalle, NC State and Georgetown (Elite 8), before 90-85 OT loss to Memphis State.

Alabama (#5 in MW): defeated New Mexico, then lost to Michigan, 91-88.

• The KaneDome is built, as the new home of LSU basketball. It seats 29,995, and also contains The KaneDome Visitors Center, a shrine to LSU basketball which will become, after T World, the state’s top tourist attraction.
• Needing a die roll of just ‘2 or more’ to pass the SAT, and having saved two Energy Rolls, Tennessee Coach Chuck Maxfield rolls three consecutive 1’s, and prize recruit Willie Moss must sit out as a Prop 48.
• Vanderbilt senior Otis Holmes, now heavily under the influence of The Evil Woman, secretly receives gifts from an agent. Only years later is it revealed that Coach Paul Righi knew about the relationship, but kept it secret so as not to risk the eligibility of his star player.
• In an SEC Tournament semifinal victory over Alabama, LSU sophomore Leodis Lee scores 71 points, the most points ever scored in a conference game.
• Ole Miss (Titus Wiley, Anthony Epps, David Maxfield, Tremel Murphy, Boo Banks, Hakim Shahid, Leland Tolan and Byron Earl) shocks LSU in the final, 86-80, giving Dr Bob Maxfield his first SEC Championship.
• In late January, after LSU’s 4^th loss, Jon Kane inserts 5’3 T McKinley into the starting lineup. To this point in his career, the diminutive senior has been nothing more than a novelty Kane could bring off the bench late in a blowout victory. But the team gels around the tiny ballhawk, and LSU is transformed. Lead by T, The Bayou Bengals battle their way to the Final Four. T McKinley is instantly a national treasure.
• The national semifinal is a classic. After a Sean Dobbins’ charge, UNLV’s David Butler shoots a 1-and-1 with 6 seconds left and his team down 1. He misses the front end, and LSU survives. After coaches Kane and Maxfield go to Tony’s Pizza for a Final Four feast, they return to 69 RidgeAve for the title game against Missouri. LSU explodes to a 41-21 lead, and then holds off a late Missouri run for the National Championship. Within months, every toddler in America is eating T Cereal as he watches the T McKinley Cartoon Hour.

6. Georgia 5-7 > Tennessee

1. Juvon McGarry (So), LSU 25.0 1. Tedman Brown (Jr), Aub 9.2 1. Juda Parks (Sr), Aub 8.6

LSU (#2 in MW): defeated Princeton, Minnesota, UCLA and Missouri to reach the Final Four. Gained the final by

Tennessee (#4 in W): defeated California, then lost to Arizona, 81-68.

Auburn (#3 in SE): defeated Drake, UAB and Louisville to reach Elite 8, before losing to Georgetown, 77-66.

Ole Miss (#6 in E): defeated Xavier, 90-67; then lost to Syracuse, 79-70.

• The SEC celebrates its 10^th Anniversary. The All-Decade Team consists of Amp Davis, Dujuan Walker, Terry Daniels, Cameron Brown and Stevie Williams. Amp is named the Player of the Decade, Bubba Moore is named Dupere of the Decade, and The Almighty Dupere is named Man of the Decade.
• Senior Kenny Ford nearly quits the Auburn team to devote full time to the clarinet, but is convinced to stay.
• Ole Miss rookie Darren McDuffie is diagnosed with AIDS (although Bob Maxfield reports it is leukemia). His life is saved by The KaneFoundation, but his basketball career is over.
• Micheal Huger is signed as LSU’s next great PG, and is called "the Jackie Robinson of college basketball." Alabama’s Cletis Clark is hailed as "the best non-LSU freshman in 10 years," but it is Mississippi’s Jerome McDuffie who, after all is said and done, is named the SEC’s Most Outstanding Freshman.
• Johnny Cat Jones regains academic eligibility and reestablishes himself as the best defender in the league. His incredible 5.3 steals per game remain an SEC (and NCAA) record.
• After losing their first three conference games, the Tennessee Volunteers win their last seven to finish 8-4, and then sweep through the conference tournament for Chuck Maxfield’s 2^nd SEC Championship.
• In the SEC final, Tennessee’s press overwhelms Ole Miss. Johnny Cat Jones, Willie Moss and Curtis Bostick each collect 5 steals in a 99-91 victory. Moss comes off the bench to score 17 of his 18 pts in the 2^nd half.
• A new computer game, XOR, is used for the first time, in the NCAA Tournament.
• LSU cruises through the NCAA Tournament, and beats Georgetown for the title, 105-93. No player was capable of taking greater advantage of XOR’s quirks than Juvon McGarry, the 6’3 pogo stick who averaged nearly 30 ppg in carrying LSU to the title. LSU becomes the first school since UCLA in the 70’s to win back-to-back NCAA Championships.

6. Tennessee 6-5 > Mississippi

1. Juvon McGarry (Jr), LSU 26.0 1. Hakim Shahid (Sr), Miss 10.1 1. Rickey Stephens (Sr), Bama 6.9

LSU (#2 in E): lost to Holy Cross in 1^st Round, 99-91

Ole Miss (#2 in SE): defeated George Mason, East Tennessee State and Kansas (57-56) to reach The Elite 8, before

Arkansas (#4 in E): defeated St Peters; then upset by Providence in 2^nd Round.

Auburn (#5 in W): defeated Pepperdine, then lost to Loyola Marymount in 2^nd Round.

Georgia (#9 in SE): lost to Xavier in 1^st Round.

• As a wave of conference realignment sweeps the nation, Arkansas and South Carolina join the SEC. Despite rumors to the contrary, Ole Miss does not leave the SEC to join the Ivy League.
• At LSU, Jon Kane brings in his best freshman class ever: Corlis Williamson, Woodrow Wright, Artie Green, Victorlus Payne and Ricky Irvin.
• All conference games are played on the computer (XOR) for the first time. Centers dominate the boards; 2G’s take all the shots, stats must be adjusted.
• For Chuck Maxfield, the timing of the switch couldn’t be worse: Willie Moss, Sedric Veazey and Johnny Cat Jones (again academically eligible) all would have had steals above 34 in the dice game.
• 1990 is a low point for the struggling program at Kentucky, whose roster is dominated by JuCo’s and TM’ers.

6. Alabama 12-8 > LSU

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Robert Morris, Wake Forest, Georgetown and Indiana to reach their 8^th Final Four.

Arkansas (#2 in MW): defeated Creighton, Iowa, Texas and Kansas to reach The Final Four, before losing to Duke.

Vanderbilt (#5 in MW): defeated Dayton, 87-55, before losing to Kansas, 90-86, in 2^nd Round.

Mississippi State (#7 in E): defeated George Washington, before losing to Purdue in 2^nd Round.

Auburn (#9 in W): lost to Washington in 1^st Round.

• Jon Kane is elected Governor of Louisiana as a write-in candidate, and reluctantly accepts.

6. Arkansas 12-10 > Miss State

1. Claudius Johnson (Sr), State 20.1 1. Claudius Johnson (Sr), State 11.7 1. Frenchy Sanders (Fr), Ark 6.8

LSU (#2 in SE): defeated Ball State, Syracuse, Duke and Marquette to advance to Final Four. Defeated Michigan,

Mississippi State (#3 in E): defeated Drexel, Virginia and Ohio State to reach The Elite 8, before losing to Seton Hall.
Georgia (#7 in W): defeated BYU, then lost to Stanford in 2^nd Round.

Ole Miss (#8 in SE): lost to Wake Forest in 1^st Round, 77-62.

• Cactus League Basketball replaces XOR as the league’s new computer program.

NORTH DIVISION SOUTH DIVISION Kentucky Mississippi

3. Georgia 10-6 3. Vanderbilt 8-8 > Tennessee

Tennessee (#4 in SE): defeated Illinois State; lost to BYU in 2^nd Round, 77-74, in 2OT.

Ole Miss (#4 in E): defeated Butler and Villanova to advance to Sweet 16, before losing to Temple.

LSU (#5 in MW): defeated Xavier, then lost to Kansas, 80-66, in 2^nd Round.

Alabama (#6 in W): lost to Utah State in 1^st Round.

• On a fateful day of summer envelopes known as "Black Saturday," Frenchy Sanders and Edwin Beechey are injured seriously (Sanders would never recover quickness after his ACL tear), Johnny Hodges enters drug rehab, and Junius Dawson is arrested for DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. Dawson is pardoned by Governor Kane, makes himself available for the NBA Draft, and is selected 4^th. But NBA players are locked out, and because Dawson did not sign with an agent, Jon Kane conditionally allows him back onto the LSU team. He cannot meet the GPA conditions, is suspended after the 8^th game, and turns pro after the season.
• With three coaches living in North Carolina, and three in New England, the SEC splits into North and South Divisions and plays an unbalanced schedule for the first time.
• Ole Miss, having graduated Jerome McDuffie, is picked to finish 10^th in the league. But senior Bradley Maxfield and sophomore Governor Williams more than pick up the slack. Ole Miss finishes 12-4, best in the SEC.
• Horace Morrison’s final home game at Vanderbilt is a memorable one: 39 pts in a win over hated Tennessee, with a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime, and another at the OT buzzer to win it, 86-85.
• Lead by Speedy Williams, a 25 year-old freshman with more ears (1) than teeth, the tattooed Fernandus "Snake" Vinson and tournament MVP Octavius Neptune, Tennessee upsets Ole Miss and LSU to win

NORTH DIVISION SOUTH DIVISION Kentucky Kentucky

3. Auburn 11-5 3. Vanderbilt 9-7 > Alabama

Alabama (#2 in SE): lost to East Tennessee State in 1^st Round.

LSU (#2 in MW): defeated Ball State, SMU, Duke and Marquette to reach the Final Four. Lost to Purdue, 81-60.

Tennessee (#4 in SE): defeated NE Louisiana and UTChatanooga to advance to 2^nd Round. Lost to Utah,

Ole Miss (#5 in W): defeated Southern, Temple, Michigan, Houston and Utah to advance to the NCAA

Auburn (#6 in E): defeated Holy Cross and Penn to reach Sweet 16. Lost to Nebraska.

Vanderbilt (#8 in MW): defeated Xavier. Lost to Indiana in 2^nd Round.

• In Pamplona, Spain, during his team’s summer exhibition tour of that country, Ole Miss senior Robodaldo Duartes convinces four teammates to join him in the Running of the Bulls. Ben Edney and Chateau Piper are trampled, their careers ended. Garvin Holder is gored but not seriously hurt. Duartes leaves his spleen in Pamplona, but returns triumphantly to Oxford, and rejoins the team in January.
• David Maxfield replaces Hugh Durham as coach at Georgia. He is left with little talent, but immediately signs Bobby Righi, and builds his first team around PG Eddie Schwartzkopf and freshmen Robbie McGowan.
• Kentucky hires Bob Boyd from Mississippi State. He promises to reclaim SEC dominance over LSU.
• Stanford beats Ole Miss to win the first Covered Bridge Classic and Astrophysics Symposium.
• Arkansas’ Frenchy Sanders returns after a medical redshirt year, still among the best, even at 80%.
• The SEC returns to cards and dice for the first time in 4 years, for the SEC Tournament, played at 65 Ridge Ave. In the 1^st Round, Kentucky shocks LSU, justifying Bob Boyd’s hiring. In the final, Alabama stops upstart Vanderbilt in a classic which comes down to the last possessions. Trevor Teachey buries an off-balance jumper to seal the 68-62 victory. Shabazz McGrew earns Tournament MOP with 18 pts, 7 asts and 5 steals.
• Four SEC teams advance to the Sweet 16. Two late technicals by Coach Chuck Maxfield result in four Utah free throws in a crushing 1-point Tennessee loss in the Sweet 16. Governor Williams carries Ole Miss to their first Final Four, and then to a national semifinal victory over Utah. LSU advances to the Final Four but succumbs to Purdue and it’s All American, Glenn Robinson. In an incredible final, during which CBS repeatedly cuts to live shots from a Pamplona bar where Spaniards cheer on Robo Duartes, Ole Miss roars back from a 21 point

NORTH DIVISION SOUTH DIVISION Kentucky LSU

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Florida International, BYU, Villanova, and North Carolina to reach The Final Four. Lost to

Vanderbilt (#2 in E): defeated Murray State and Missouri to reach Sweet 16. Lost to Maryland, 70-62.

Georgia (#5 in MW): defeated Drexel, Oklahoma and Kansas to reach Elite 8. Lost to Wake Forest, 79-65.

Alabama (7 in MW): lost to Iowa State in 1^st Round.

Arkansas (#7 in SE): lost to Temple in 1^st Round.

Tennessee (#9 in W): lost to Tulane in 1^st Round.

Ole Miss (#10 in W): defeated Syracuse and Purdue to reach Sweet 16. Lost to Oklahoma State, 91-74.

• Gary Caplan returns for his 3^rd stint as an SEC coach, his 2^nd at Alabama.
• David Fair responds to new scandals at Tennessee with his 2^nd PR campaign: "Basketball is for Youth, but Education is for a Lifetime." The renewed popularity garners Coach Maxfield a contract extension.

NORTH DIVISION SOUTH DIVISION Kentucky LSU

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Liberty, Michigan, Georgia Tech, Cincinnati and UConn to reach National Championship

South Carolina (#5 in MW): defeated Texas Tech, then lost to Oklahoma.

Georgia (#6 in E): defeated Princeton and Texas to reach Elite 8. Lost to Kansas.

Ole Miss (#7 in W): lost to Fresno State in 1^st round.

• Louisianans vote to suspend all elections, establishing Jon Kane as Governor for Life. Kane immediately commissions construction of The Governor’s Palace, a project which will take 4 years and cost hundreds of lives, including those of Vanderbilt sophomore Glenn Sedoris.
• In another desperate effort to save his job, Coach Chuck Maxfield, in conjuction with David Fair, announces his Contract with Tennessee, which promises a return to national prominence "while maintaining the same high ethical standards one has come to expect from the Tennessee program."
• The SEC uses Strat-O-Matic’s Computer College Basketball game for the first time.
• Charles Maxfield, Jr starts at PG for Vanderbilt, becoming the first SEC player to start prenatally.
• Underclassmen dominate the All-Conference team and statistical leaders. No underclassman makes more of an impact than South Carolina freshman Jonathan Mbalathini, a team handball player from the African nation of Lesotha, who averages 17.6 pts, 5.9 rebs and 3.4 blocks per game in leading the Gamecocks to their first winning season in the SEC.
• Defending SEC MOP Ron Hobby tears his ACL in a December game and misses the remainder of the season.
• At the SEC Tournament Tipoff Banquet, a scuffle breaks out at the salad bar. Moments later, as coaches look on in horror, Tennesee’s Scooby Skipper holds a gun to the head of LSU superstar Vanilla King, but does not fire. The next afternoon, Skipper is released on bail and dresses for tournament game against Ole Miss but does not play. Skipper is eventually jailed for using the Governor’s name in vain in a Louisiana court room.
• The SEC Tournament goes according to form. #1 LSU beats #2 USC in the final.
• LSU falls one game short of another NCAA Championship. The huge Kansas frontline is the difference.
• The Professor brings several Volunteer players on a post-season trip to Las Vegas casinos. This triggers an NCAA investigation, which will eventually result in a 2-year probation for the Tennessee program.

NORTH DIVISION SOUTH DIVISION Tennessee LSU

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated UT Chatanooga, Texas, Georgia Tech and Cincinnati to reach The Final Four. Defeated

Ole Miss (#6 in E): defeated So Alabama; lost to UConn, 75-68.

Georgia (#7 in W): defeated Michigan and UCLA to reach Sweet 16; lost to Georgetown, 94-73.

Arkansas (# 9 in MW): beat NC Charlotte, and then lost to Virginia, 99-75.

• KaneHouse is built as a home to LSU basketball players and immediately comes under criticism for its opulence. Players enjoy luxurious suites, swimming pools, a virtual reality game room and personal servants (cleverly labeled as "managers").
• LSU completes the only perfect season (39-0) in SEC history. The Bengals are tested, however, in the SEC Tournament. The always clutch Vernon Toomer comes through, with 38 pts in a semifinal victory over Ole miss and 9-for-10 shooting in the finals. He hits 12-of-15 three-pointers for the tournament.
• South Carolina, despite a 15-7 SEC regular season, is stunningly denied an NCAA Tournament bid.
• In the NCAA Tournament, LSU cruises easily into the title game, where they meet unexpected resistance from unheralded and lightly regarded Virginia. With seconds remaining, the game is tied and appears destined for overtime, when senior Tom Kane dazzles the Cavaliers with a no-look, lob pass that Vernon Toomer catches and slams in at the buzzer. This most dramatic ending ensures LSU’s perfect season.
• Three former Alabama standouts, all playing in the NBA (Shabazz McGrew, Harvey Thompson and Malcolm Mackey) are killed in a one-car, late night accident in Los Angeles. It is later learned that the three had been sent out as a diversion to distract Clarence Hood and other paparazzi photographers from the trail of LSU reserve/playboy Harley Owen. It is suspected that Hood’s car may have clipped Mackey’s Ferrari to trigger the fatal crash.
• Ole Miss signs Sherrod Mack, a 300 pound low post 2G who will torture opponents, and his coach, for 4 years.
• During a recruiting dinner, Kentucky’s Bob Boyd must perform the Heimlich maneuver on coveted recruit Elliott Beck. He is successful, and the grateful Beck commits on the spot.

NORTH DIVISION SOUTH DIVISION Alabama LSU

3. Georgia 15-7 3. Tennessee 11-11 > Kentucky

Kentucky

1. Wesley Chase (UK), Jr 21.8 1. Vanilla King (Sr), LSU 10.8 1. Arthur Marks (So), LSU 12.2

LSU (#1 in W): defeated Loyola Marymount, Fresno State, Stanford and Arizona to reach The Final Four. Defeated

Kentucky (#1 in SE): defeated MIT, Tenn-Chattanooga, Texas and Michigan to reach the Final Four. Lost to

Ole Miss (# 3 in MW): defeated College of Charleston, before losing to Tulsa, 87-77, in 2^nd Round.

Georgia (# 6 in E): defeated Temple, before losing to Georgia Tech in 2^nd Round.

Arkansas (#7 in W): lost to Princeton in 1^st round.

• Scooby Skipper spends the year in a Louisiana prison. Even Sherrod Mack gets caught up in the Free Scooby Movement, and loses 80 lbs in a hunger strike.
• Ole Miss completes one of the great upsets in league history. Dr. Bob double teams Vanilla King off of Arthur Marks, and shocks LSU in Oxford, ending LSU’s 56 game win streak (and their 43 game conference streak).
• After an amazing series of near-tragedies threaten his players throughout the 2^nd half of the season, Florida Coach Carlton Cooper dies by electrocution in a Gainesville hotel kiddie pool. Former coach Norm Sloan returns to become Florida’s 6^th coach in 10 years.
• Skipper is released from prison after a 2-year jail sentence. He is freed on the eve of SEC Tournament, returns under the alias of Ron James, and leads Tennessee to a 1^st Round upset of Ole Miss.
• The great UK-LSU rivalry is born with a Kentucky upset in SEC Tournament final, as Wesley Chase scores 43.
• 2 SEC teams in final 4. Jon Kane’s hope for a rematch with Kentucky foiled by UK’s upset to UConn. LSU barely avoids upset to UConn as Vernon Toomer nails a 3 with under a minute to go to nail the 98-94 victory.
• RaySean Tooley, a Top 5 national recruit, shocks the nation by announcing for Tennessee (for reasons no one needs to know about).

6. Mississippi 11-11 > LSU

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated SW Missouri State, Princeton, Georgia Tech and North Carolina to reach The Final Four.

Kentucky (#1 in MW): defeated Pepperdine, UMass, Maryland and UCLA to reach the Final 4. Lose to Stanford.

Georgia (#4 in W): defeated New Orleans, then lost to UNLV (81-69) in 2^nd Round.

Tennessee (#9 in E): lost to Tulsa (77-65) in 1^st Round.

• Tennessee’s Scooby Skipper suffers severe burns over his chest, hands and face, when a KanePark bench collapes and a freebase cocaine explosion ensues.
• The Kentucky-LSU rivalry continues. They are ranked #1 and #2 nationally all year.
• In the greatest of all SEC Finals to date, LSU outslugs rival Kentucky, 120-109, in a dazzling game of dunks, dazzlers and 3-pointers, that has other SEC coaches in awe.
• LSU and Kentucky again advance to the Final Four, but again, UK is knocked out before a title game rematch. Juanicus Turner scores 37 in defeat of Duke, and then LSU easily handles Stanford for the title.
• After the season, Tennessee coach Chuck "The Professor" Maxfield is duped into appearing on The Jerry Springer Show, where former players make charges ranging from payoffs to academic fraud. Within a month, The Professor receives a letter of inquiry from the NCAA.
• During a summer trip which includes a tournament in Sicily, an SEC All-Star team is ambushed by a Scalzitti Crime Family hit squad intent on killing Mississippi State sophomore Carmine Zambini. They succeed, but in the process, also kill Louis Pumphrey, Galen Navarro, Chris Ballard, Coach Richard Williams and bus driver Ken Bruce, and injure several others. The Scalzitti Massacre is the worst tragedy in SEC history.
• LSU’s chances of a 4^th consecutive NCAA title are shattered one fateful summer day, when Jon Kane loses all four of his PG’s. Agent Roosevelt Reese convinces Arthur Marks and Juanicus Turner to turn pro early. Terrance Yancey is injured in the Scalzitti Massacre, and Weasil Mingus is hit by a car while picking up roadkill for Nino’s Country Cookin’.

5. Tennessee 13-9 Ole Miss 6. Florida 11-11 > Kentucky

1. Jared Bowie (Jr), Geo 28.4 1. Wiley Cardine (Fr), Miss 10.7 1. Darren Wimstadt (Sr), Geo 9.6

Kentucky (#1 in SE): defeated Loyola Mmt, then upset by UMass in 2^nd Round.

Georgia (#1 in W): defeated Montana State, then upset by Stanford (90-71) in 2^nd Round.

Ole Miss (#5 in E): lost to Old Dominion (78-74) in 1^st Round.

LSU (#5 in MW): defeated George Washington, then lost to Kansas (84-74) in 2^nd Round.

• LSU, starting with the lowest expectations in Jon Kane’s career, surprises everyone by starting the SEC season 11-0, but then is swept on the trip to Lebanon and never recovers, 7-7 the rest of the way, and bowing out of the SEC Tourney in the 1^st Round at the hands of Norm Sloan’s Florida. Kenny Herrell is Jon Kane’s starting PG.
• Freshman Wiley Cardine makes quite an impact at Ole Miss. The mulit-thumbed rookie is the league’s best defender and rebounder.
• In a terrific final played in Kennebunport, Maine, Georgia makes a furious 2^nd half rally to challenge Kentucky, but succumbs in the end.
• The NCAA’s are a disaster for the SEC. Despite two #1 seeds, no SEC team advances even to the Sweet 16.
• LSU’s 19 game NCAA Tournament win streak is snapped by old nemesis Kansas, the last team to beat LSU in a NCAA Tournament, in 1996. Only Kansas has beaten LSU in the LSU tournament since 1995!
• A spurned lover, Jacques Dion, exacts revenge on Georgia in the NCAA’s 2^nd Round. With Chelsea Clinton cheering on Louis Bell, Dion scores 37 to lead Stanford to a shocking upset of #1 seed Georgia.
• Harley Owen marries the Dutchess Sarah Ferguson, in London, in the greatest social event in SEC history. The marriage is annulled before the weekend is over, as Harley flees to Las Vegas with Carmen Electra.
• A festive wedding reception climazes when Scooby Skiiper shows up, uninvited He shoots … and t McKinley before being killed by a bullet from the gun of Mark Shroeder (Ole Miss, ’78).
• With rumors rampant that his scholarship is being revoked bny Jon Kane, Kenny Herrell again bamboozles the Governor, this time by exaggerating his relationship with, and influence on, prize recruit Leland Albright.
• David Fair releases the results of an exhaustive internal investigation at Tennessee, but most expect the NCAA to deal harshly with the Volunteer program.

5. Florida 15-7 Alabama 6. Vanderbilt 12-10 > Alabama

1. Marlin McCree (Jr), LSU 24.6 1. Napalm Washington (Jr), Geo 10.8 1. Anwar Stewart (Sr), Tenn 7.4

LSU (#1 in SE): defeated Alabama State and Maryland to reach Sweet 16. Lost to Stanford.

Georgia (#3 in MW) defeated Pepperdine; lost to North Carolina in 2^nd round.

Alabama (#4 in W): defeated New Orleans, Louisville and Arizona to reach Elite 8. Lost to Georgia Tech.

Ole Miss (#5 in MW): lost to Santa Clara in 1^st round.

Florida (#10 in E): lost to Utah in 1^st round.

• Arkansas fires Nolan Richardson before the season and replaces him with Fred "Buzzer" White.
• Bradley Maxfield takes over at Alabama. His young backcourt of Avis Black and Charles Thomas, a transfer from Minnesota, take the elague by storm.
• Ole Miss is the preseason favorite, until sophomore Wiley Cardine is declared academically ineligible, and key reserve Adam hudzik goes down with a wrist injury.
• With probation looming, the Tennessee program suffers additional .., as Scooby Skipper is killed during a shootout at the Owen-Ferguson wedding in London, and Genghis Conway is jailed for drug trafficking.
• Marlin McCree, for two years a moody enigma at LSU, matures into the league’s dominant superstar. He leads his Bayou Bengals, picked 5^th in the preseason polls, to a 21-1, 1^st place conference finish.
• LSU, Georgia, Alabama and Ole Miss are clearly the league’s best teams, but due to time constraints, never play head-to-head prior to the tournament.
• Having gone 0-for-18 from the foul line the previous year, Ole Miss’ Sure’As’Shootin’ Newton makes all 14 of his FT attempts.
• The SEC’s 25^th Extravaganza is held in Lexington, Kentucky. The tournament, anniversary celebration, recruiting and improvements dominate a long weekend.
• The tournament’s first round sees Vanderbilt blitz Mississippi, and Tennessee stun top-seeded LSU in one of the league’s great all-time upsets, 77-75.
• The semifinals go according to form, and in the championship game, pitting the league’s youngest coaches, Alabama freshman Avis Black dazzles Georgia – 15 assists in a 93-75 final.
• The SEC again disappoints in the NCAA Tournament. LSU, Georgia and Ole Miss lose to lower seeds. Alabama carries the conference flag into the Elite 8 after an upset of #1 seed Arizona.