Today it became official that Darrin Horn left Western Kentucky for South Carolina. His personal website, sums it up.

In a press conference -- delayed until the afternoon because the weather prevented the plane South Carolina chartered to fly in Horn and his family from leaving Columbia on time -- Horn not only said the standard things about winning the SEC, he talked about South Carolina getting nationally relevant. He also gave Clemson fans bulletin board material about recruiting.

"We are going to put a fence around the state of South Carolina, and the best players in South Carolina are going to be recruited to play at the University of South Carolina," Horn said.

Horn had a base salary of $157,000 at Western Kentucky, but the South Carolina deal starts his base at $800,000. His incentives are primarily for winning that could add another $335,000 -- $25,000 for a first round win and increasing each round up to $250,000 for a national championship.

Interestingly, the other incentive is for getting the fans to commit. The Gamecocks had 9322 season ticket holders this past season. He gets another $50,000 for every 1000 more season ticket holders. South Carolina's arena has a capacity of about 18,000.

It isn't clear whether South Carolina is paying Horn's buyout with Western Kentucky, or if Horn is responsible (like John Beilein leaving West Virginia to Michigan). The South Carolina AD, however, did acknowledge that they will likely have to honor the other term of Horn's Western Kentucky contract -- play two home-and-home games with the Hilltoppers over the next 4 years.

Western Kentucky had to know that getting to the Sweet 16, would also mean that it would elevate their coach to "hot" status. Sure Darrin Horn is an alum of Western Kentucky, but when you balance that against a bigger paycheck and opportunity to coach in a major conference it really isn't going to stop many.

Western Kentucky Athletic Director Wood Selig said in a telephone interview Saturday night that [South Carolina Athletic Director Eric] Hyman had contacted him "to let me know they wanted to talk with Darrin."

"It wasn't like he was seeking permission. It was like, 'We intend to talk to Darrin,' " said Selig, adding Hyman didn't "leave a number to call back."

Selig said he talked to Horn, who told his boss he was interested in talking with Hyman, who declined comment through a spokesman.

"It would not surprise me that Darrin is in Columbia right now. I would suspect they probably flew plane up to him and they're having conversations right now about the job there at South Carolina," Selig said.

At Western Kentucky, Horn makes about $157,000 per year with a $200,000 buyout. A new coach at a major conference school generally makes at least $600,000 per year.

Deep ties to his state and school don't seem that strong when contrasted against the paycheck and the opportunity. If South Carolina decides Horn is who they want, it's hard to see him saying no.

There's still a lot of college hoops to be played this season but I'm going to be bold and make my first prediction for the 2008-09 season: Anthony Grant will be coaching in the Southeastern Conference. I'm not really sticking my neck out, here. Grant, fresh off VCU's upset of Duke in the NCAA Tournament, was all set to take over Florida last year before Billy Donovan reversed course and left the Orlando Magic high and dry.

Now, with the Rams two games up in the CAA and looking to make more March noise, Grant is an even stronger candidate for a big-time job. As it happens, two SEC programs will be looking for a coach. LSU and South Carolina are both interested in Grant, according to various reports, and for good reason. His two years at VCU have been nothing but successful and 10 years as an assistant to Donovan prepared him for life in the SEC.

Grant won't talk about next steps right now and, quite frankly, he wouldn't be the coach he is if he allowed his focus to turn to another school and another season. Grant passed on head jobs while at Florida to wait for the right one, but this is a different situation. He can't do much better at VCU than he has the past two seasons and a poor year or two will take away some of his shine. You have to strike while the iron is hot and none is hotter than Grant right now.

The SEC East race is heating up and you'll never guess who's out in front.

Yep, it's that team again: the Florida Gators lead the division and are now 2nd overall in the SEC behind Mississippi State. I'll bet a dollar you wouldn't have predicted that back in December.

The Gators improved to 4-1 on Wednesday night when they logged another crucial SEC road win. This time it was in Columbia, beating South Carolina 73-71, coming back yet again from a big second half deficit. The Gators' MVP in this contest was Marreese Speights, who followed up his powerful performance against Kentucky with a big-time 22 point, 14 rebound game. Speights was a sizzling 10-13 from the field. Nick Calathes, a strong candidate for SEC freshman of the year honors, put up an additional 21 points despite an off shooting night.

South Carolina played a gutty game and led most of the way, but seemed to tire in the game's final moments. Guard Devan Downey was unconscious, scoring 24 points from everywhere on the floor but couldn't make the big shots in the final seconds that the 'Cocks needed to win. South Carolina's record (9-9 overall, 1-3 SEC) suggests they're not a very good team, but they were in this game until the very end and had opportunities to beat the high-flying Gators. Prediction: South Carolina will win some upsets this year. They're a pretty solid squad right now.

I believe you'll see the Gators ranked in the Top 25 next Sunday, which is incidentally the same day they take on 13th-ranked Vanderbilt. If Florida wins that game, look for there to be talk of the Gators being a serious contender to win the SEC this season and take a 5 or 6 seed into the NCAA tournament.

There's a feeling of finality about this season for certain coaches whose teams have long struggled in the conference. A feeling so pervasive that certain natives -- er, fans -- have begun dancing around the fire chanting and singing ceremonial tribal chants.

The hottest seat of them all was reserved for South Carolina's David Odom until he announced his retirement on Friday. Odom never had an SEC record better than 8-8 and was 37-61 against conference opponents.

Mark Gottfried, Alabama

The hottest seat at present has to be reserved for Alabama's Mark Gottfried. The Tide were once again picked in the preseason as one of the more talented teams in the league. With stars like Alonzo Gee, Richard Hendrix and Ronald Steele on the roster, Bama seemed like they could be poised to make a run for an SEC title. Unfortunately, Ronald Steele's knees are still getting the best of him and he's been forced to watch his teammates play from the bench. Despite losing Steele (again), the Tide are still talented enough to win plenty of games. Right? Wrong. Alabama is 11-7 overall and more importantly, 0-3 in the SEC. Even the most stolid of Bama hoops blogs, the Alabama Basketball blog, is starting to post questions about Coach Mark Gottfried's salary.

Andy Katz just broke into ESPN's coverage of the Tennessee-Vandy game to announce that South Carolina head coach David Odom is retiring at the end of the season.

According to Katz, Odom will hold a press conference on Friday to announce his decision.

After years of mediocrity, It was a do-or-die year for Odom, and with a 9-8 overall and 1-2 conference record to start the season, it was starting to look like the latter. Apparently, the venerable old coach has chosen to go out on his own terms.

And so an era of greatness... uh... an era of good basketball... um, an era comes to a close for fans of Gamecock hoops. Jeez, that was uncalled for, wasn't it? Hey, you don't read FanHouse because we're classy. Now, back to your regularly scheduled podcast.

Vanderbilt and UMass can both put up points in a hurry and they didn't disappoint in Nashville yesterday. Shan Foster hit eight threes to become Vandy's all-time leader in made longballs and the Commodores improved to 15-0 in a 97-88 home win. While the Minutemen couldn't continue the A-10's upset string they did cast some doubts about the long-term fitness of VU.

Ricky Harris, Chris Lowe and Gary Forbes had their way with the Commodore defense and scored 25, 22 and 22 points, respectively. Their drives to the lane were unimpeded and their threes thrown up without a hand in the face, two things the Commodores desperately need to change if they hope to contend for SEC honors. Give Kevin Stallings credit, though, he realized that the one chance he had, with UMass up nine in the second half, was shifting to a zone that forced them to shoot from deep. Harris was 5-of-10 from three but his mates were 3-of-14 and Vandy ran away behind Foster's dead-eye shooting.

It wasn't like the Minutemen weren't guarding him. He was hitting with hands in his face and still finished with 32 points. The defense was keying on him, to its detriment, as A.J. Ogilvy was open inside all day, drawing fouls and finishing with 25 of his own. UMass hung with a good team but their lack of stopping power is going to cost them in A-10 play.

Elsewhere on the mid major hardcourts:

Year seven of the Dave Odom era at South Carolina was supposed to be a breakthrough season. Two big transfers in Devan Downey from Cinci and Zam Fredrick II of Georgia Tech were eligible. The Gamecocks were supposed to be a better team and at a minimum get to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004.

Instead, this team looks a lot like a team that will battle to get into the NIT. The Gamecocks fell to 5-5 after a home loss to Baylor, 92-84. South Carolina scheduled well for their non-con to demonstrate whether they were a NCAA Tournament team, not a NIT. Setting games against a bunch of other teams in the same situation. Unfortunately, South Carolina has been on the short end of the outcomes in 5 of the 6 games. Losing to NC State, George Mason, Clemson, Southern Cal and Baylor. Their lone win came against Providence (and they nearly blew that one).

The record and failing to do much to distinguish themselves in the non-conference schedule means that South Carolina has to pin all of their hopes on being one of the better teams in the SEC. That may not be the worst strategy, given the state of the SEC this season, but it leaves the margin of error slimmer than ever.

Dave Odom's coaching seat, may very well be the warmest in the SEC. Alabama has been wrecked by key injuries, Georgia has had players booted for being lazy students, Auburn is still in rebuilding, and LSU is completely distracted by that BCS Championship game to care.

If you blinked, you may have missed the inaugural Big East/SEC Invitational. It's really just a micro-conference challenge. Only 4 teams from each conference a year play (and it's mercifully only contracted to run for four years at this point). ESPN handled all aspects of the "Invitational," right down to getting Pizza Hut as the title sponsor. So, while they consulted with the conferences, they had a huge say in the teams selected.

The field was announced last year. The Big East had Georgetown, West Virginia, Villanova and Providence to face Alabama, Auburn, LSU and South Carolina of the SEC. Two of the Big East teams were in the NCAA last year and a third won the NIT. The four SEC teams were not even participants in the NIT. All four of the Big East participants were .500 or better in conference, while all four of the SEC teams were below the break-even point. Essentially, the SEC was set-up to fail.

This one has been in the works for a while, but it's finally been announced. The Big East and SEC will play a limited challenge series over the next several years. I'm sorry, they are calling it an Invitational. It will be a four game rotation for the next four years.

The games will take place on December 5-6. On December 5, two games will be played at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham Alabama. The two games will be: West Virginia-Auburn and Georgetown-Alabama. On December 6, the games will be at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That will have South Carolina-Providence and LSU-Villanova. The games will be aired on ESPN2 and ESPN.

"This Invitational will showcase two of the premier conferences in college basketball," said Pete Derzis, senior vice president and general manager of ESPN Regional Television. "Both conferences compete at the highest level, as evidenced by their recent appearances in the Final Four, and we are pleased to feature them on two consecutive nights on our networks."

Of course, only 2 of the Big East teams selected for next year were in the NCAA Tournament and none of the SEC schools even made the NIT.

How do the teams get picked each year? Well, that gets left to ESPN "in consultation" with the conferences. Considering ESPN will be handling the "Big East/SEC Invitational's organization, operation, sponsorship, marketing efforts and more," I'm guessing the consultations pretty much follow whatever ESPN tells the conferences to do.