COLUMBIA - The Southeastern Conference announced Monday it would hold its men's basketball conference in Nashville as scheduled, with a few adjustments made as precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The SEC will provide hand sanitizer at Bridgestone Arena entrances, concourses and meeting rooms, will disinfect locker rooms before and after teams use them and sanitize balls after practices and games and sanitize benches and cheerleader seating areas.
The tournament begins today, with Georgia and South Carolina playing at 6 p.m. and Arkansas and Mississippi playing at 8 p.m.
As other conferences, including the Ivy League, Mid-American Conference and Big West Conference, have cancelled tournaments or opted to hold them without fan attendance in accordance with regulations or recommendations set by state government health officials, the SEC confirmed Tuesday the tournament would be open to fans, but media would be restricted from accessing team locker rooms for postgame interviews.
A few miles away at Vanderbilt, the athletic department has opted to suspend all concessions sales and in-game promotions as a preventative measure, and the university Monday cancelled classes for the remainder of the week.
In response to the March 3 tornadoes that hit east Nashville, the community has encouraged fans making the trip to Nashville to bring non-perishables and canned food to donate, and to consider volunteering to help with cleanup and repair.
III
The Associated Press and SEC coaches both announced end-of-season honors Tuesday. Missouri and Texas A&M were the only two programs without any representation on the coaches team, and the Tigers, Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Tennessee were without honorees from the AP.
The conference coaches selected Kentucky's John Calipari as coach of the year and Wildcats' sophomore guard Immanuel Quickley as player of the year, while the AP named Texas A&M head coach Buzz Williams coach of the year and split player of the year between Arkansas' Mason Jones and Mississippi State's Reggie Perry.
The AP compiled five-member first and second teams as well as newcomer of the year, while the SEC coaches named a nine-member first team, an eight-member second team, an eight-member all-freshman team and a five-member all-defensive team. Georgia freshman Anthony Edwards was named freshman of the year by both groups.
Missouri junior guard Dru Smith led the Tigers in scoring (12.7 points per game), was eighth in the league in assists (121, 3.9 per game) and led the league in steals per game (2.1) and a steady presence throughout the season but did not receive a nod from either coaches or beat writers.
"You guys obviously saw the information that came out, it was very shocking," Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said Tuesday. "I didn't think (Smith) would be a first team guy, not because of his talent. If you're based on, if you're evaluating in the league, you say, 'OK, from top to bottom, the production of each individual guy, he's a first-team guy no question.' But obviously there are things that take place, so you have to be able to evaluate and see that and say, 'OK, this is a productive player.'"
Martin added he goes through the stats himself by hand with a pen and paper to break down who he will nominate to the coaches teams.
"I just think it's unfortunate for a guy that brings so much to the table, and there's not a player, when you look at the numbers he had, the value he had, across the board, so it's not a case of, OK, who won the most is up top, so you have guys on the second team that won three games. He deserved it. (Vanderbilt's) Saben Lee is a good player."
Missouri has had three first-team All-SEC honorees: Phil Pressey (2013), Jabari Brown (2014) and Kassius Robertson (2018).