Team; Rk; RPI; SOS
Florida; 3; .6696; 32
Kentucky; T-10; .6404; 35
Missouri; 45; .5884; 66
Tennessee; 58; .5753; 12
Arkansas; 65; .5690; 77
LSU; 69; .5651; 67
Ole Miss; 80; .5536; 72
Vanderbilt; 86; .5493; 79
Georgia; 88; .5473; 81
Alabama; 118; .5270; 3
Texas A&M; 119; .5262; 121
Auburn; 158; .5066; 95
South Carolina; 176; .4950; 56
Miss. State; 204; .4801; 169
With four games remaining in the regular season, Florida and Kentucky are guaranteed to be major players in the NCAA tournament. In fact, the Gators (25-2, 14-0 SEC) on Monday became the nation’s new No. 1 team.
But that’s where the good news ends for the SEC. Unless another team or two distinguish themselves between now and the finals of the SEC Tournament next month in Atlanta, they will be only two conference teams enjoying any madness in March.
Incredibly enough, Georgia is one of the next-tier teams that conference coaches were talking about on Monday. The Bulldogs (15-11, 9-5) not only are in sole possession of third place in the 14-team SEC, but they also have a two-game cushion over the league’s fourth-place teams.
And that’s where it gets really interesting. There is a seven-team tie for fourth in the SEC. One of them is Georgia’s opponent Tuesday night in Athens: Missouri (19-8, 7-7).
“It’s remarkable, really,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said of the glut in the middle of the pack. “There are a lot of us that are the same this year. We’re very similar. So how you play in key moments and how smart you are in certain times during games, the breaks you get, how the ball bounces, can make a big difference.”
Missouri, Arkansas (18-9), LSU (16-10), Ole Miss (16-11), Tennessee (16-11), Texas A&M (16-11) and Vanderbilt (15-11) are all currently tied for fourth at 7-7. And that fourth spot carries more than a little importance when it comes to the proceedings at the Georgia Dome on March 12.
The league’s top four finishers get a “double-bye” into quarterfinals of the tournament. The bottom four have play-in games on Wednesday and the No 5 through No. 10 seeds face off on Thursday.
That’s more of an inside-the-SEC issue. Outside the league, the conference has an image problem.
The perception outside the conference is that the SEC’s parity is evidence of mediocrity. SEC coaches are spending a lot of time lately arguing that’s not the case.
“It’s a tough league, as is evidenced by all those teams that have the same record that we have,” said Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings, who has a tall task with Florida visiting Nashville on Tuesday. “Everybody’s just sort of beating up on each other. We have a tough challenge, but hopefully it will be a great week for us.”
What has hurt the league as much as anything is how tough the two teams are at the top. No one has been able to knock off Florida, despite a couple of close calls. In the last week, both Ole Miss (75-71) and Auburn (71-66) gave the Gators a scare. And LSU appeared to have Kentucky beaten twice in Rupp Arena on Saturday only to fall in overtime 76-75.
Effectively, the SEC needed some of these upsets to be pulled off. And the second-tier group has had a difficult time distinguishing themselves, especially on the road. Tennessee has one of the SEC’s better overall resumes when it comes to out-of-conference wins and strength of schedule (13th nationally). But the Vols couldn’t close the deal with a late lead at Texas A&M last weekend and lost 68-65 in overtime.
“I’ll say this: The teams we’ve played up to this point are really, really good teams that I think, if the opportunity was given, could really do some special things in the (NCAA) tournament,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said Monday. “Obviously it’s going to play itself out, but when you look at the way Georgia has played, Ole Miss, LSU, Tennessee, Missouri, they’ve all played very well and there’s an opportunity to get a good number of teams in.
“But a lot is going to depend on how it shakes out these next two weeks and certainly in our conference tournament.”
The SEC is trying to give the selection committee something to think about. While the league has a poor national perception — it was rated sixth recently among the seven power conferences by kenpom.com — RPI numbers don’t support that. The SEC has nine teams ranked among the nation’s top 100 by in that index. That’s tied with the ACC and the Big Ten. Only the Pac-12 had more (10).
And conference coaches are starting to trot out the SEC’s record of postseason success. Conference teams have won six national championships since 1994. That’s the same as the ACC and two more than the next closest league.
Fox believes some of the perception is an anti-SEC bias among the national media.
“People are gonna pick on the SEC because they don’t like us, because we wear them out in football,” Fox said last week. “ … They’re tired of us whuppin’ them in football. They call us a football league, but what have we won? Four of the last eight basketball championships, something like that?
“This is a great athletic conference. This is a phenomenal athletic conference. The best athletic conference, I think. So people obviously take some shots at you when you’re at the top.”
Georgia isn’t doing the SEC any favors. Though it holds a high place in the league standings, its non-conference record (6-6), strength of schedule (81) and overall RPI (88) are lower than many of the teams chasing it. One of those teams is Missouri, which the Bulldogs beat on the road to open the conference season. The Tigers will be desperate to even the score.
“At this point in the season, every team should be playing that way,” Fox said. “That’s how the game should be played. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody and we should have the same mentality.”
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