SEC tournament goes on in surreal atmosphere

ATLANTA - The SEC men's basketball tournament resumed play at 12:15 today in a scene that can only be described as surreal.

The Alexander Memorial Coliseum at Georgia Tech seats 9,000, but fewer than 1,000 were in the stands when Kentucky and Georgia tipped off in the quarterfinal game that was postponed from Friday night after a tornado ripped through downtown Atlanta and damaged dozens of buildings, including the Georgia Dome. As you can imagine, the majority were from the Big Blue nation.

At haltime, it feels like you're sitting at a high school basketball game that nobody really wanted to attend - including the teams. Kentucky is leading 25-22.

Because of the size of the Georgia Tech arena, only friends and family of the players, coaches and staff, and credentialed media are allowed to attend the games.

Hundreds of fans were seen around Atlanta packing their bags and heading home from local hotels. And as bizarre as it is, the games go on.

No. 1 seed Tennessee will play Arkansas tonight at 6 and the Georgia-Kentucky winner will play Mississippi State tonight at approximately 8:30. The games will be televised live on Ch. 38 (Raycom), FSN Sports and in South Florida on Sun Sports.

The championship game has been moved ahead two hours to 3 p.m. on Sunday. The SEC based its revised format on the fact that the championship game has to be completed before the NCAA Tournament selection show because the SEC champion is an automatic qualifier.