Georgia left home as SEC tournament begins

NEW ORLEANS - Georgia was supposed to be at the Superdome on Wednesday, getting in one last practice before the Southeastern Conference tournament. <br> <br> Instead, a couple of players were in court not on the court. Others were protesting in front of the president&#39;s house. <br> <br> The No. 21 Bulldogs pulled out of the SEC tournament on Monday, the school deciding to bar its team from the postseason after confirming allegations of academic malfeasance. The stunning move reduced the field to 11 teams and forced league officials to hastily rearrange the brackets. <br> <br> Instead of four games Thursday, there will only be three. Tennessee, which was supposed to play in the opening round, found itself with an unexpected bye. The conference was left with a tarnished tournament. <br> <br> ``Georgia is one of the premier teams in the league and in the country,&#39;&#39; South Carolina coach Dave Odom said. ``It wouldn&#39;t be truthful to say that doesn&#39;t take away from the tournament.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Two Georgia starters, Ezra Williams and Steve Thomas, sued in Athens for the right to play in the conference and NCAA tournaments. But a state judge quickly denied their request for a temporary restraining order. <br> <br> Meanwhile, some 300 students including players Jarvis Hayes, Jonas Hayes and Damien Wilkins protested at the home of Georgia president Michael Adams. <br> <br> ``I should have been in my room packing for the trip&#39;&#39; to New Orleans, said Jarvis Hayes, the Bulldogs&#39; leading scorer. ``They&#39;re telling us we played 27 games for nothing. That&#39;s the most difficult thing to swallow.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Adams and athletic director Vince Dooley made the decision to bar the Bulldogs from the postseason, angering players who weren&#39;t involved in the bogus class taught by coach Jim Harrick&#39;s son. <br> <br> The Bulldogs were supposed to meet Arkansas in the opening round of the SEC tournament. Now, the Razorbacks are getting ready for a different opponent. <br> <br> ``We found out Monday at the end of practice that we&#39;d be playing LSU,&#39;&#39; Arkansas coach Stan Heath said. ``Right away, we said, &#39;Hey, this is what we&#39;re doing. Let&#39;s prepare for it.&#39; It&#39;s doesn&#39;t really matter who we&#39;re playing.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> While coach after coach expressed sympathy for the Georgia players and their suspended coach, a couple expressed dissenting views. <br> <br> LSU&#39;s John Brady said having Georgia in the tournament would have been disruptive for the other teams. Vanderbilt&#39;s Kevin Stallings called the allegations another black eye for a conference that has run afoul of the NCAA on countless occasions. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s a sad commentary on the state of the league,&#39;&#39; Stallings said. ``If the allegations at Georgia are true ... we deserve the adage that&#39;s attached to it.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Brady had to cope with NCAA sanctions for violations that occurred before he came to LSU. He seemed a bit relieved that Georgia decided not to come to New Orleans. <br> <br> ``It would have been a distraction for our team,&#39;&#39; Brady said. ``We&#39;ve been through all that. We played a whole year not knowing if we could get to go to the NCAA tournament. It was two days before the tournament when they said, &#39;Oh, yeah, you can go.&#39;&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Kentucky coach Tubby Smith was more sympathetic. He coached at Georgia for two seasons, leading the Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament two years in a row. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s a sad time for the Georgia folks I know, for the Harricks,&#39;&#39; Smith said. ``My heart goes out to those kids, too, not getting a chance to play. They worked so hard for so many years. The dream is to play in the NCAA, to go to the SEC tournament.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> With Georgia out of the tournament, other story lines came to the forefront: Can Kentucky keep its winning streak alive? Can schools on the bubble improve their NCAA credentials before the selections are made Sunday? <br> <br> The second-ranked Wildcats arrived in New Orleans with a 20-game winning streak. They breezed through conference play with a 16-0 record. And they&#39;ve always loved the SEC tournament, winning it eight of the last 11 years. <br> <br> Overall, Kentucky has won the league tourney 23 times more than all the other schools combined. <br> <br> ``Of course, their 16-0 SEC record makes them the favorite,&#39;&#39; Mississippi coach Rob Barnes said. ``They&#39;re the team everyone has to be shooting at. But we all think we can win it.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> On Thursday, Ole Miss (13-14, 4-12 SEC) opens the tournament against South Carolina (12-15, 5-11), followed by Arkansas (9-18, 4-12) vs. LSU (19-9, 8-8) and Vanderbilt (10-17, 3-11) vs. Alabama (17-10, 7-9). <br> <br> Kentucky, Florida, Mississippi State, Auburn and Tennessee received byes to the second round Friday. <br> <br> Alabama, ranked No. 1 earlier in the season, may get squeezed out of the NCAA tournament unless it wins at least one game in New Orleans. Coach Mark Gottfried is already doing a bit of politicking. <br> <br> ``Bubble this, bubble that,&#39;&#39; he said. ``When I look at our RPI, look at our strength of schedule, I&#39;m not sure why we&#39;re even discussing it.&#39;&#39;