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Mississippi State's Romero Osby dunks over the DePaul defense during the second half. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

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LAST NIGHT

Mississippi State thumped DePaul 76-45 in the first of two SEC/Big East Invitational games in Tampa. Five different Bulldogs went into double digits, led by Ravern Johnson's 14. Jarvis Varnado had 12 points, 14 boards, and a pair of blocks for the Starkville contingent. MSU held DePaul to a miserable 28% shooting night, including just 18% in the first half. It was a nice and easy win and all, but DePaul did go winless in Big East play last year.

In the second half of the double header, No. 11 Florida made a nice effort of it but fell to No. 6 Syracuse 85-73. Kenny Boynton had 20 points and seven assists to lead the Gators, and Chandler Parsons had 19 off the bench. The Gators' defense, which has otherwise been great this year, could not come through as the Orange scored easily the most of anyone against UF this season and shot 52.5% from the field. Syracuse led comfortably for most of the game, but Florida did make a run to take the lead with about 10 minutes to go. From there though, the Orange pulled away.

That means the SEC/Big East Invitational ended with a 2-2 tie. The conferences split the match ups of ranked teams, with Kentucky knocking off UConn and Syracuse beating Florida. The mismatches went as expected, with St. Johns taking care of Georgia and Mississippi State blowing out DePaul.

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Kentucky's John Wall.

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LAST NIGHT

It was another nail biting finish for No. 4 Kentucky as the Wildcats downed No. 12 UConn 64-61. The player of the game once again was John Wall, whose 25 points accounted for a hair short of 40% of his team's output. DeMarcus Cousins had a double-double with 10 and 10, while Patrick Patterson had 16 for UK. The game at the end turned into a duel between Wall and UConn's Kemba Walker, but Wall prevailed while scoring 12 of his team's last 15 points down the stretch. A Sea of Blue has the usual detailed postgame rundown.

It was not as nice a night for Georgia as the Bulldogs fell to St. John's 66-56. Trey Thompkins poured in 19 points to go along with his seven rebounds for UGA, while Travis Leslie contributed 14 points. Subpar shooting did in the Bulldogs as they shot 36% from the field and 66.7% from the line, while the Red Storm shot 49% on field goals and 81.8% from the charity stripe. Georgia did a good job at hanging in there in the first half, winding up down just three at the half.

These two games were the first two in the 2009 SEC/Big East Invitational, and they made a doubleheader in Madison Square Garden. Tonight will see the other two games of this year's event, as Mississippi State takes on DePaul and Florida battles Syracuse in Tampa.

TUESDAY

A sluggish effort against a spirited Illini squad spelled doom for Vanderbilt to the tune of 79-68. Four Commodores scored at least 11 points, but A.J. Ogilvy didn't have his best night in scoring just eight points and having three turnovers to go with his three boards. The Vandy defense wasn't exactly suffocating, as Illinois shot a hair under 60% on the game including a blistering 53.3% from downtown. The Illini jumped out to a 9-0 lead to start the game, and Vandy could never overcome it. Anchor of Gold is understandably upset with the outcome.

Right now in the tech world, the hot thing seems to be tablet computing. This ranges from e-readers like the Kindle or Nook, to Internet appliances like the Crunchpad/JooJoo, to the long-rumored, never seen, yet fully functional iPad from Apple (which supposedly has been scrapped and restarted several times because, in the alleged words of Steve Jobs, the only thing it's good for is browsing the Internet while sitting on the toilet).

With the theorized tablet revolution coming, publishers are beginning to prepare content for the format. Witness what Sports Illustrated is showing off as the potential future of the magazine format:

It certainly looks interesting to me, and it has all of the requisite eye candy effects and iPhone-like finger gestures. I'm not sure that I would choose this over browsing sports web sites, but then I don't subscribe to any magazines as it is.

So what do you think? Is this a compelling new way to read your sports? Would this keep you subscribing to SI (or your mag of choice) if/when the dead tree format goes away?

by Dave Martin - AP

Auburn's Lucas Hargrove, top, celebrates with teammates after Auburn defeated Virginia 68-67. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

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While we've been obsessing over the end of football season, there has been basketball going on. That may come as a shock to those of you who aren't Kentucky or Vanderbilt fans, but don't worry. Here's a compilation of some of the best wins in the conference over the last two weeks. Rankings reflect the current AP poll.

LAST NIGHT

The SEC picked up a win over the ACC as Auburn edged out Virginia 68-67. DeWayne Reed led the AU attack with 18 points and seven assists, while Lucas Hargrove came within a Tiger's whisker of a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds. Brandon Knox was the surprise contributor with 11 points and six boards off the bench for Auburn, and his tip in of a missed Reed layup with 1.4 seconds to go was the winning bucket. The Tigers are 5-4 on the season.

DECEMBER 5

No. 4 Kentucky picked up a big one with a long overdue win against No. 11 North Carolina 68-66. John Wall, a Tar Heel fan while growing up in Raleigh who UNC never offered a scholarship to, scored 16 points including the decisive free throws despite battling cramps. Patrick Patterson had the best overall night as he had 19 points and seven rebounds. Wall also led the team with seven assists. UK is now a perfect 8-0 on the season.

DECEMBER 2

A.J. Ogilvy had a great night with 25 points and six rebounds as Vanderbilt knocked off Missouri 89-83. Jeffery Taylor had a double-double for the Commodores with 18 points and 11 boards, while Andre Walker led everyone with 12 rebounds. The Tigers made a furious comeback in the second half, but Vandy was able to hold them off thanks in part to a 45-24 rebounding edge. VU is 6-1 on the season and is ranked No. 24 in the Coaches' Poll.

Mark Fox and Georgia picked up a win over an occasional tournament team when the Bulldogs took care of Saint Louis 64-56. Only five UGA men scored in the game, but all reached double digits. Dustin Ware led all scorers with 17 on the night, while Travis Leslie led all rebounders with nine. Fox's crew led comfortably for most of the game, but SLU made a strong comeback late in the second half. Faced with adversity, the Bulldogs held off the Billikens to make the final score look good again. Georgia is 4-3 on the season.

South Carolina also picked up a win over a program with regular tournament appearances by shutting down Western Kentucky 74-56. Five Gamecocks made it into double figures, led by Devan Downey with 15. Two of them, Ramon Galloway and Evaldas Baniulis, had 11 each off the bench to make up all 22 points of reserve scoring. South Carolina had a 21-4 run in the first half while WKU answered with an 11-5 run in the second half, but the Hilltoppers couldn't get closer than eight the rest of the way. South Carolina is 6-2 on the season.

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Top 25 here, comments after the jump.

1. Alabama
2. TCU
3. Texas
4. Cincinnati
5. Florida
6. Boise State
7. Oregon
8. Ohio State
9. Iowa
10. Georgia Tech
11. Virginia Tech
12. Penn State
13. Miami (FL)
14. LSU
15. Stanford
16. Arizona
    
17. Oregon State
18. Nebraska
19. Oklahoma State
20. Pittsburgh
21. BYU
22. West Virginia
23. Utah
24. Wisconsin
25. Central Michigan
    

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The Bowl Selection Day Open Thread posts at 5 p.m. ET on Sunday. Catch the specials on Fox and ESPN at 8 p.m. ET.

It's a slight bit confusing, but here's how this year's BCS process works.

AUTOMATIC BIDS

The champions of the six automatic qualifying conferences get into the deal. They are Georgia Tech, Texas, Cincinnati, Ohio State, Oregon, and Alabama. TCU also gets in automatically by being the highest ranked non-AQ conference champ that is in the top 12 of the BCS rankings. That leaves three at large spots open.

AT LARGE BIDS

The at large pool consists of any team ranked between 3 and 14 in the final BCS rankings. Each conference can only have two teams in the BCS though, so LSU and either Iowa or Penn State is out of luck.

The likely pool consists of Florida, Boise State, Iowa/Penn State, Virginia Tech, and BYU. BYU and VT are unlikely to get bids since the Cougars aren't in an AQ conference and the Hokies don't have a large traveling contingent. Plus, it would be tough (though not impossible) to take a two loss BYU or three loss VT team ahead of an undefeated Boise State team.

Thus Florida, Iowa/Penn State, and Boise State are almost certainly going to be the at large teams.

SELECTION ORDER

This is how the order goes this year. The selection order rotates each season, but this is the order for the January 2010 games. Even if the predictions are wrong, this is the sequence in which the bowls will make their picks.

CHOICES: Alabama vs. Texas

The national title game gets the top two teams in the rankings. This is the easy one. Moving on.

CHOICE: Florida

The Sugar Bowl has a tie-in with the SEC champ, and it will have lost that team as the BCS No. 1 to the national title game. Therefore, it gets to pick a replacement. It will pick Florida as a replacement because it loves getting SEC teams and UF always brings tons of fans.

As a side note, if there was a Big 12 team eligible as an at large, it would not be able to take it without the Fiesta Bowl's permission since the Fiesta has a Big 12 tie-in. This clause is not really relevant this year, but if Texas was to somehow end up No. 1 and the Fiesta got the first pick, it would not be able to take the Gators without the Sugar's permission.

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by John Bazemore - AP

Your 2009 SEC Champion.

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The better team by far won the game tonight. The conclusion is as authoritative as it is clear: Alabama is the champion of the SEC.

All this week I've tried to keep my reporter hat on and assess the two SEC Championship Game participants with a clear and level head. I know I didn't do a perfect job at it, but I did my best.

Today on the day of the game, I come to you simply as a fan. A fan of Florida, yes, but hopefully one that's simply living in the state of North Carolina and not the state of denial. If you don't want to read the account of my personal feelings on the game, which do not necessarily reflect the views of Team Speed Kills and make no pretense of being unbiased, don't click the jump.

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Stop the run without sacrificing play action coverage.

Florida can afford to spend some extra effort in stopping Alabama's running game thanks to having a clearly good pass defense. The trick though is to do that without allowing Alabama play action game to get going. Too little attention has been paid to Bama TE Colin Peek and how he's one of Greg McElroy's favorite targets after faking a hand off. He can do some damage.

Florida will probably go to man coverage when loading the box, which means a linebacker will likely have to recognize Peek on a pass route and cover him. Brandon Spikes will be in run support far more often than not, so how Ryan Stamper and Brandon Hicks cover Peek will be vital to stopping the Tide attack.

Be able to find someone other than Cooper and Hernandez on third down.

The scouting report is crystal clear at this point. On third down, Tim Tebow generally goes through three progressions: look for Riley Cooper, look for Aaron Hernandez, and then take off. Alabama knows this, and so do the Florida coaches through self scouting.

Last year, little used targets Carl Moore and David Nelson caught touchdown passes on third down. Nelson is back, and Deonte Thompson is pretty good too. Florida has to be willing to go to those guys on third down because it's unlikely that the excellent Bama secondary will leave Cooper and Hernandez open. The primary targets are primary targets for a reason, and they'll get their shares of the third down throws. However, those two alone won't be enough to defeat the Tide.

Win the fourth quarter again.

There is a reason why Florida is a dominant fourth quarter team. Tebow just doesn't wear down over the course of a game as you might expect, and everyone goes through Mickey Marotti's hellish yet extremely effective off season conditioning program. Not only that, but depth in key places like defensive line allow the coaches to rotate liberally and keep players fresh.

It's very unlikely either team will put this one away after 45 minutes. It almost certainly will come down to who wins the fourth quarter again, and UF would appear to have an advantage in that regard once more. They will need to do what they do best: finish stronger than the other guys. That's no small feat against Alabama, but it will need to be done.

More photos » by Dave Martin - AP

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Get Mark Ingram going.

Last year, Glen Coffee was the man for Alabama. He ground out 112 yards on 21 carries, including a beastly 18 yard touchdown run for the Tide's first score of the game. He was an important factor in Alabama being able to run its offense the way it wanted to run it and control the game for much of the third quarter.

Ingram played in last year's game too, but he had just 21 yards on eight carries (2.6 average). Obviously he's greatly improved over his freshman self, but something about Florida's defense stymied him last year. He must find what Coffee found, because another 16 carry/30 yard effort will put Bama in seriously bad shape.

Stop Florida's running backs.

Dan Mullen kind of stole my thunder on this one already, but it's true. Jeff Demps is a threat to take it 50 yards. Chris Rainey can juke guys out of their jocks. Emmanuel Moody is averaging over seven yards per carry. Florida's got some very dangerous options at tailback.

On option plays, it would behoove the Tide to focus on those guys. As tempting as it is to try to take a shot at the Golden Boy, the Golden Boy has a far lower average and median rush than the other guys do. Most of Tim Tebow's longest runs come on busted pass plays or designed runs disguised as pass plays, and there's not much you can do about that. However, make him be the ball carrier on the standard running plays. He'll get some yards, but he won't take it half way down the field.

Put pressure on Tebow in the pocket.

Many defenses get confused on what stopping Tim Tebow actually means. You can tell who are the ones that don't know because they celebrate wildly for stopping Tebow on a two or three yard rush. That's not stopping him though; it's just a side effect of having a big dude at quarterback run some option. It's a known issue with the UF offense, and the game plan is built knowing that will happen about seven or eight times a game.

Stopping Tebow is pressuring him, forcing him to make bad decisions, and getting him to turn it over. Throughout his whole career, his worst games have come when he's getting sacked repeatedly. The Florida offensive line has been shaky at times, and it even has an obvious vulnerable point in true freshman LT Xavier Nixon. Nixon has done well so far, but he's still a true freshman and he can and will be beat.