Big news out of Atlanta for Lady Bulldog fans today: The WNBA’s Atlanta Dream franchise has just announced that Kelly and Coco Miller (pictured), two of the most exciting and popular players to ever don the red-and-black, have each signed two-year deals with the team. That’s right, Kelly and Coco will be playing just down the road in Philips Arena. And, as you’ll read in this quote from the Dream’s press release, Kelly’s already looking forward to seeing some Fastbreakers in the crowd: “I’m so excited to be playing for Atlanta. Coco and I have dreamed about playing on the same team again and are so grateful for this opportunity. I loved my years at the University of Georgia and have a lot of great memories there. I’m sure I’ll see many familiar faces at our games.”

We’ll have ticket and schedule information for the Atlanta Dream posted right here as the WNBA season draws a little closer. But adding Miller Twin Magic to a team that rose from the league basement to the playoffs in one year is more than enough reason for some early excitement. (Yes, Coco was already a Dream teamer last season…but it’s all about the Twin Magic!)

Click here to read the Atlanta Dream press release about the signing of the Miller twins.

Courtesy of the absolutely invaluable Roadside America website, you can click the link below for rates and reservations at hotels near Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona. You’ll get each hotel’s distance from the Arena, the most recent lodging rates, and reservation info. In addition, we’ve also provided a link to an online vacation guide for Tempe. Westward Ho, Fastbreakers!

Click here for information on hotels near Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe.

Click here for the Tempe online vacation guide.

The Lady Bulldogs are headed out West. To Tempe, Arizona, specifically. After being pegged as the number-five seed in the Sacramento Regional, the Lady Dawgs will face the twelfth-seeded Green Wave of Tulane this Saturday night (March 20) in opening-round NCAA Tournament action. Georgia and Tulane will tip-off sometime around 10:30 PM (Eastern), a half-hour after the evening’s first game between fourth-seeded Oklahoma State and the number-thirteen seed, Chattanooga. The winners of those two games will meet on Monday at a time yet-to-be-determined for a spot in the Sweet Sixteen and a trip to Sacramento. More details will posted here tomorrow…but here’s what Fastbreakers need to know right now at a glance:

NCAA TOURNAMENT (FIRST ROUND), MARCH 20, 2010

Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe, Arizona (All times Eastern)

#4 OKLAHOMA STATE VS. #13 CHATTANOOGA (8:11 PM)

#5 GEORGIA VS. #12 TULANE (around 10:30 PM)

BOTH GAMES CAN BE SEEN LIVE ON ESPN2

All-Session tickets for the Tempe Subregional are $35 for adults and $20 for fans 18-and-under. They can be ordered by phone at (480) 727-0000 or online by clicking the link below. If you need additional ticket information, just call the UGA Athletic Association ticket office at 1-877-542-1231.

Click here to order Tempe Subregional tickets online.

Tonight on ESPN (7:00 PM, Eastern), invitations to “The Big Dance” go out. Last year, the Lady Bulldogs were “on the bubble.” They watched the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Selection Show with fingers crossed, hoping for (and getting) an at-large bid. This season, with 20-plus victories and a winning record in SEC play on their resume, it’s not a matter of “if” they’ll be Dancing…just “where” and “when.” During the one-hour selection show tonight, we’ll learn who’s in, who’s out, and where everybody’s going for opening-round action in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Following the selection show, at 8:00 PM (Eastern), there will be a round table discussion of the tournament brackets among ESPN’s talking heads, each of whom will most likely declare that the whole thing is a waste of time and that the NCAA should go ahead and FedEX the national championship trophy to Connecticut. Well, if you’ve followed women’s college basketball for a while, you know that there is a long, glorious history of upsets for the ages in this tournament. Not for nothing do they call it March Madness. Let’s just play the games and see what happens, shall we?

We’ll post an update later on tonight with details on Georgia’s NCAA Tournament first-round destination and opponent. As the week goes on, we’ll add ticket information and links to hotels in the host city. Like we say around here every year, Fastbreakers: Let the Madness begin!

SEC Weekly, a magazine-style show recapping all of the week’s news from around the league, this week features a behind-the-scenes segment with our Lady Dawgs at last week’s SEC Tournament in Duluth. The show airs on ESPNU (check local listings for channel number) and you’ll have two chances to watch or record it this week. Here are the air times (all times Eastern):

Thursday, 3/11/2010 at 2:00 PM

Friday, 3/12/2010 at 6:30 PM

Click here for all the details on this week’s SEC Weekly show featuring the Lady Bulldogs.

You-Know-Who – 70, Kentucky – 62. Well, it was still worth the drive back down to Duluth for the outstanding atmosphere and the several runs Kentucky made to get back into the game and even pull a few points ahead at times. But, ultimately, this game felt like a foregone conclusion…a coronation, if you will…from the time the two combatants were determined in yesterday’s semifinal games. After trailing by six at halftime, Kentucky came out red hot in the second half and jumped out to a six-point lead of their own by the first TV timeout. During that timeout, Pat Summitt jawed at the referees for the duration while her assistants addressed the team. What happened next will be as familiar and unsurprising to longtime women’s basketball fans as day following night: Three consecutive Kentucky possessions…three consecutive ticky-tack foul calls. Yeah…we’ve all seen that movie before. On top of that, Kentucky’s Victoria Dunlap saw her shooting go cold after a red hot first half (mostly as a result of being relentlessly double-teamed). With no other Kentucky player stepping forward to take the offensive burden off Dunlap, You-Know-Who went on one of their patented late-game runs en route to their fourteenth SEC Tournament championship.

Still, this was a very entertaining tournament. The league came back to Duluth and put on another first-class show. Now the SEC Tournament is off to Nashville for the next two seasons before returning to Duluth in 2013 and 2014. See you there!

As for this blog, we’ll have the national polls and whatever news pops up in the Lady Bulldog Nation next week…but the next big event for our ladies is the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, airing one week from tomorrow (Monday, March 15). That’s when we’ll find out what kind of a seed a 23-8 record will get you and where/when the Lady Dawgs will be opening NCAA Tournament play. Hang on tight, Fastbreakers…nothing’s close to over yet this season.

Click here for the official SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament home page.

Here are some photos from the SEC Tournament championship game:

Tomorrow night, the second-seeded Kentucky Wildcats will meet the top-seeded Tennessee Lady Vols in the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament championship game. Tennessee, whose Tournament opponents have barely made them so much as work up a sweat this weekend, was an easy 68-49 winner over Vanderbilt and Kentucky punched their ticket to the championship game with a 76-65 victory over a scrappy and game Mississippi State squad. Tennessee and Kentucky played a couple of weeks ago in Knoxville, where the Lady Vols won by 16 points (81-65). But if the way Kentucky avenged an early SEC loss to Georgia at the Coliseum with a big win in Lexington is any indication, the ‘Cats  have put that loss behind them and they’ll come out ready to take the fight to Tennessee tomorrow.

Your friendly and hard-working Fastbreak Club blogger will be at the SEC championship game tomorrow night and a Kentucky/Tennessee recap (including exclusive photos) will be posted here either sometime late Sunday night or first thing Monday morning. If you’ve got Tournament ticket books, don your red-and-black and come on out. Kentucky and Tennessee should put on a fun show and a single game for the SEC Tournament championship is a legitimate, big-time sporting event. Here’s hoping we see you at The Arena at Gwinnett Center tomorrow night for the last session of what’s been, a Georgia loss notwithstanding, a wildly successful and highly entertaining SEC Tournament.

The SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship Game

Game 11 – #2 Kentucky vs. #1 Tennessee (6:30 PM, Eastern)

The SEC Tournament championship game can be seen live on ESPNU (check your local cable/satellite listings for channel number). If Kentucky knocks off Tennessee, you’ll be kicking yourself for not showing up. Solution? Show up. See you in Duluth tomorrow night!

Click here for the official SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament home page.

Lady Bulldogs vs. Lady Bulldogs, Part II: In the second half of a then-close game at the SEC Tournament last night, Mississippi State made a late run while Georgia suffered through yet another offensive dry spell at crunch time. The final result was a 67-52 win and a date with Kentucky tonight for State and short trip down Hwy. 316 back to Athens for our Lady Dawgs. No need to dwell on this one. You’ve got to have a short memory in March because now every upcoming game is the biggest game of the season. The Lady Bulldogs will find out where they’re going and who they’ll be playing in that game on March 15, the date of the NCAA Tournament Selection Show. Anyway…as tough as it may be to acknowledge it, life goes on and so does the SEC Tournament today in Duluth. Here a look at today’s Tournament semifinal games (all times Eastern):

Game 9 – #1 Tennessee vs. #5 Vanderbilt (3:30 PM)

Game 10 – #2 Kentucky vs. #4 Mississippi State (6:00 PM)

Both semifinal games can be seen live on ESPNU. If you’re a Lady Bulldog fan with Tournament ticket books, please consider attending and enjoying what looks to be a couple of entertaining semifinal match-ups. Kentucky is this season’s SEC “Cinderella” team and you know it’s always a fun atmosphere whenever Tennessee and Vandy hook up. Big crowds will go a long way toward making Duluth and The Arena at Gwinnett Center a regular stop for the SEC Tournament. Let’s make it happen.

Click here for the official Georgia/Mississippi State recap and a link to the stats and box score.

Click here for the official SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament home page.

Here are a few photos from last night at the SEC Tournament:

It’s mid-afternoon here in the Lady Bulldog Nation and just down Highway 316 a spell, Tennessee has already blown Ole Miss out of The Arena at Gwinnett Center by 20-plus points while Auburn and Kentucky are just getting started. Speaking of getting started, the Georgia/Mississippi State game tonight won’t get started until around 9:00 PM (Eastern), so you’ve still got plenty of time to line up a babysitter or, even better, throw the kiddies in the back seat and support our Lady Dawgs and the SEC Tournament live and in-person. Linked below, as promised last night, is the official Georgia/Alabama recap and full statistical rundown. Your friendly, hard-working Fastbreak Club blogger is actually getting ready to hop in the family truckster and head out for Duluth himself…since he’ll be dragging back in well after midnight tonight, there may not be a Georgia/Mississippi State recap and overall Tournament review posted here until Saturday morning. Here’s what you need to know about this evening’s session (all times shown are Eastern and the games can be seen live on Fox Sports South):

#5 Vanderbilt vs. #4 LSU (6:30 PM)

#6 GEORGIA vs. #3 Mississippi State (9:00 PM)

We’re still on the lookout for SEC Tournament photos! If you want to share your pics with your fellow Fastbreakers, just send them to m.holcomb@charter.net (in .JPG/.JPEG format, please).

Click here for the official Georgia/Alabama recap and a link to the stats and box score.

One down, three to go. A very hard-fought 73-66 win for the Lady Dawgs tonight over Alabama in opening-round SEC Tournament action. There will be no talk here tonight about the margin of victory or who beat who by how many points in the regular season. It’s March….the one and only objective now is Win Your Game And Move On. Period. The Lady Bulldogs won their game and now they move on. We’ll have a detailed recap in the morning…but how about Meredith Mitchell draining all those free throws at the end? One word: Clutch. And hats off to the Tide’s Ericka Russell, who played absolutely out of her mind and lit us up for 30 points.

Here’s a look at tomorrow’s SEC Tournament schedule:

Game 5 – #9 Ole Miss vs. #1 Tennessee (12:00 Noon)

Game 6 – #10 Auburn vs. #2 Kentucky (2:30 PM)

Game 7 – #5 Vanderbilt vs. #4 LSU (6:30 PM)

Game 8 – #6 GEORGIA vs. #3 Mississippi State (9:00 PM)

All of those games can be seen live on Fox Sports South…but please head on down to Duluth and cheer on our Lady Dawgs in person if it’s at all possible. Having the SEC Tournament in our own backyard is an honor and a privilege. Let’s show our support and make sure that the SEC decides to come back to Duluth on a regular basis.

Click here for the official SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament home page.