Quickies: NCAA Selection Sunday and SEC Championship Edition

Selection Sunday has finally arrived!

Today, we’ll learn the fate of the Kentucky Wildcats’ path in the NCAA Tournament. That will come about three hours after the Cats and Tennessee Volunteers clash in the SEC Championship.

Needless to say, it’s a jam-packed day for the Big Blue Nation!

Tweet(s) of the Day:

The UK Rifle team won the NCAA National Championship on Saturday. a major congrats goes out to coach Harry Mullins, who enjoyed every ounce of this incredible feat:

Your Quickies

UK Rifle Wins 2018 NCAA Championship - UK Athletics
For the second time in program history the Kentucky Wildcats are NCAA Champions in the sport of rifle. The Wildcats won the second national championship in program history, and first since 2011. Head coach Harry Mullins led UK to both wins.

Kentucky basketball back in SEC Tournament final once again | Lexington Herald Leader
After finishing in fourth place in the SEC’s regular season with a 10-8 record, Kentucky basketball is back in the SEC Tournament finals for a fifth straight year. This wasn’t supposed to happen, remember. Not when the deck was stacked against Calipari’s ridiculously young team, which rode the rocky waves of a stressful season to a 10-8 conference record and fourth-place finish.

UK's Wenyen Gabriel takes Alabama by surprise with huge performance - LCJ
A startled Alabama assistant approached Kentucky assistant Kenny Payne after the game, shocked by what Wenyen Gabriel did Saturday. "Who knew he knocks it out the park like that?" Kenny Payne said later in the locker room. "The kid played well. He shot it great, shot it with confidence. That's the biggest thing.

Transcript: John Calipari says four-game losing streak was ‘best thing that happened' | Lexington Herald Leader
"They’re growing up. The best thing that happened to my team, not me personally, was the four losses in a row," said Calipari. "Me, I was ready to jump off a bridge. But I knew and I told them, I’ve been through this before. They needed that. They needed to be told you’re not good enough, and you’re not going to do this by yourself. You’ve got to unpack your bags, and let’s get this together as a team and figure this stuff out."

Small Ball Leads BatCats To 11-6 Win Over Texas Tech | Kentucky Sports Radio
After taking the lead with power in the 5th, UK used small ball to blow past the third-ranked Red Raiders in the sixth and take the series.

PJ Washington's dunk highlight of recent improvement - LCJ
The PJ Washington "mean mug" is all the rage thanks to UK's freshman forward's show-stopping dunk and SEC Tournament success. “That’s his favorite face,” forward Kevin Knox said. “After every bucket he makes, and-one and anything like that, he’s always making the mean mug. But that’s his personality, that’s PJ for you. He’s a beast down low.”

Tennessee stayed hot, overwhelming Arkansas reach the SEC Tournament title game - SEC Country
The Vols are riding high coming into Sunday's clash with the Cats. Both teams have been scorching from distance, and their defenses are suffocating opponents at an alarming rate.

UConn fires Kevin Ollie after six seasons; Dan Hurley among possible candidates - CBSSports.com
Ollie led the Huskies to the 2014 national title but finished 14-18 this season. Rhode Island coach Dan Hurley is widely considered to be a possible target for UConn.

Georgia Bulldogs to part ways with Mark Fox - ESPN
Coach Mark Fox has been fired by Georgia, as the Bulldogs are set to miss the NCAA Tournament for a third straight season. Fox, 49, was hired in 2009 and took the Bulldogs to a pair of NCAA tournaments in nine seasons. Georgia went in 2011 and 2015, but the program failed to go further after that.

NCAA conference tournament schedule: Tracking March Madness 2018 automatic bids | NCAA.com
Here's the complete 2018 NCAA conference tournament basketball schedule and list of teams that have earned automatic bids to the 2018 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Bracketology: The bubble braces for an Atlantic 10 bid thief - SBNation.com
While top-seeded Rhode Island was able to survive its matchup with Saint Joseph’s, St. Bonaventure couldn’t stop Davidson in game two. That means the Wildcats could poach a bid at the very last moment.

Seven bracket tips that could help you win your NCAA Tournament pool | Lexington Herald Leader
According to a Morning Consult poll, 18 percent of Americans plan to fill out a NCAA men’s basketball tournament bracket. In Kentucky, it seems certain that number skews a bit higher. As Selection Sunday dawns, here are seven bracket tidbits that will (could, well, maybe) help you win your tourney pool:

Selection Sunday 2018: Time, dates, and how it works | NCAA.com
Selection Sunday 2018 begins at 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 11. The show streams live on NCAA.com and will be broadcast on TBS. TBS will also televise this year’s NCAA Final Four National Semifinals on Saturday, March 31, along with the National Championship on Monday, April 2.