Greetings, BBN!
The SEC regular season is complete. Florida, Alabama, Arkansas, and Vanderbilt clinched the double-byes, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Georgia, and Missouri snagged the singles, and everybody else will be battling on Wednesday.
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Conference expansion has made the SEC Tournament bigger than ever before, and the first of 15 games tips off Wednesday at 12:30 PM ET when the Kentucky Wildcats take on LSU.
Let’s dive into the final SEC standings that are setting up this whole tournament:
SEC Basketball Standings
Notes:
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Vanderbilt gets to start their SEC Tournament in the quarterfinals for the first time since 2012, when they beat a 32-1 Kentucky team to win the whole thing. If they make the semifinals, it’ll actually be the second time in three years: in 2023, they knocked off LSU and then Kentucky to make the semis and flirt with an NCAA auto-bid. This year, they don’t need any such miracle run to be assured a spot in the Big Dance.
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If Kentucky defeats LSU in the tournament’s opening game, they’ll face Missouri in the first game of Thursday afternoon. If they also win that they’ll face Florida in the opening game of Friday afternoon. Most years, Kentucky seems to be stuck with the late-night tips, so playing the opening sessions is a nice change.
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Auburn must win against Mississippi State, or its season is over. Same story for Oklahoma. A loss for Texas to Ole Miss would be very ill-advised. Missouri can probably take a hit against Kentucky, but a win over the Wildcats could keep the Tigers from the First Four.
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Congratulations to Mike White and the Georgia Bulldogs. They’re NCAA Tournament locks, and this’ll be their second dance in a row after earning a 9-seed last year.
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Kentucky’s won 136 games in the SEC Tournament and lost 31. They have won 31 total SEC Tournament championships, of which the last one came in 2018.
