Saturday, March 15, 1:30 p.m.

ATLANTA — Southeastern Conference Associate Commissioner Charles Bloom just clarified the admission policy for the league’s alternate site tournament games at Georgia Tech.

Bloom said each student-athlete has a list of six names of friends or family who were allowed in Alexander Memorial Coliseum, and each school’s “official travel party” was also granted access. In addition, Bloom said each school was allowed to print an additional 400 tickets to distribute as it wished.

Kentucky and Georgia are currently playing in the second half of the tournament’s last quarterfinal game, and the winner will play Mississippi State at approximately 8:30 p.m. in the day’s second semifinal.

Tennessee and Arkansas will play 6 p.m. in the first semifinal.

Bloom said Sunday’s championship game at Georgia Tech should start at 3:30 p.m.

We’re back... at Georgia Tech

Saturday, March 15, noon

ATLANTA — Well, as the public address announcer just said, “Welcome to Alexander Memorial Coliseum, the alternate site for the 2008 Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament.”

Indeed.

Welcome.

We’re here, and we’re alive. What more can you ask for?

Kentucky and Georgia players are going through pre-game warm-ups here in the Thrillerdome — a sub-10,000 seat arena that is different in every way from the Georgia Dome, and not just because it’s fit for the public after last night’s nasty weather.

Like I said last night, I’m no meteorologist, but what tore through downtown Atlanta sure felt like a tornado. It was loud. It was scary. The metal washer Tim Brando displayed on television last night — the one that came screaming down from somewhere in the roof’s support structure — smacked down on the press table, about 2 feet from my head.

And judging by what I saw walking about the CNN Center, Phillips Arena and Centennial Park last night, and from aerial views taken all over metro Atlanta, we in the Georgia Dome were some of the luckier people.

The few fans filing in here had their names on lists outside the arena. I’ll echo what University of Tennessee and SEC officials have said to fans — if you don’t have a ticket, don’t bother coming down here the rest of the weekend. I’ll be stunned if you’re able to get in here.

Let’s see what happens the rest of the day.

You never know what might happen next.

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