December 4 SEC Basketball Schedule, TV Times, Odds, and Picks

What Happened Last Night

• UCF 65, Alabama 62: In a master stroke of irony, on the day that UCF’s undefeated football team was left out of the College Football Playoff, they got Bama. And beat Bama. In basketball, anyway. Donta Hall had a career-high 20 points on 9-of-9 shooting to go along with 4 rebounds and 4 blocks, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a 3-for-13 performance from three as UCF took this game in the last minute.
• Kansas State 84, Vanderbilt 79: Kansas State controlled this game, but Vanderbilt rallied back to tie the game with 71 with four minutes left — but Vanderbilt couldn’t overcome a stellar shooting performance from K-State in spite of a strong rebounding performance. Jeff Roberson paced the Commodores with 22 points and 10 boards.
• Auburn 79, George Mason 63: Auburn scored the game’s first 16 points and led by as much as 25-3, but Mason clawed its way back to tie the game with 15 minutes left. The final score is a bit deceptive, as this was a four-point game with four minutes to go before Mason went ice cold to close the game out. Mustapha Heron had 19 points and 8 rebounds to lead the Tigers.
• Tennessee 76, Georgia Tech 70: Lamonte Turner tied his career high with 24 points off the bench to lead Tennessee by Georgia Tech in a key non-conference road game. Georgia Tech just lost to Grambling on Friday, but still, this was a road win over an ACC team. That (along with Tennessee’s performance to date) was enough to get the Vols into the AP top 25 for the first time since December 20, 2010.
• Mississippi State 61, Dayton 59: This was nearly a disaster for the Bulldogs. Mississippi State led by 21 points early in the second half, but Dayton clawed back to tie the game at 59 in the final minute before a buzzer-beating layup by Quinndary Weatherspoon gave them the game to improve to 7-0 this season. Tyson Carter led the Bulldogs with 20 points.

Tonight’s Game

Only one game tonight, and it’s both a good one and a rivalry game. The Florida Gators host the Florida State Seminoles at 9 p.m. ET; the game will be televised on ESPN2 and can be streamed on the WatchESPN app.

This game might be more intriguing than the football game was this year: the Gators are 5-1 and ranked in the top 5, while the Seminoles are unranked but 6-0 on the season. Amazingly, both teams have more wins than their football counterparts did when the two met in their rivalry game last Saturday.

Bad Gambling Advice

Yesterday: 4-1 ATS; Season to Date: 24-21 ATS

Florida State (+9.5) at Florida: This feels like a lot of points for a pretty good Florida State team to be grabbing. I’ll take the points and along with it the risk that the Gators turn this into a laugher, which is very possible, but the smart play between these two is on a close one.