SEC Basketball Mailbag: Tournament sleepers, league improvement and more

By
Blake Lovell
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This week’s special pre-tournament SEC mailbag features several intriguing questions on potential tournament winners, the league’s improvement as a whole, and Auburn’s case for an NIT bid.

Let’s dive right in.

This tournament feels wide open for the most part. I don’t think that any of the bottom four seeds can make the championship, but the top 10 seeds have all shown signs of being able to beat anyone in the country when they’re at their best.

The three teams I’d pinpoint as the potential winners outside the top two would be Arkansas, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

The Razorbacks have won six of seven entering the tournament, and I love the numerous scoring threats that they have. I also love the way their side of the bracket sets up.

While South Carolina has certainly struggled over the past month, a team that can defend and force turnovers the way that it does is always dangerous in a tournament setting.

And as for Vanderbilt, it has a tough road in having to beat Texas A&M and Florida for a third time, but the Commodores are playing as well as anyone in the SEC right now. If I had to power rank SEC teams today with regular season records thrown out, I’d put Vandy at No. 3 behind Kentucky and Florida.

However, Bryce Drew’s team does indeed match up with one of my two sleeper teams: Texas A&M.

The Aggies have played much better basketball since that 68-54 home loss to Vandy on January 31, and their frontcourt of Tyler Davis and Robert Williams is as good as any in the country.

My other sleeper team is Auburn. That’s a scary choice considering how poorly the Tigers have played on the defensive end of the floor at times, but again, this is a very talented team.

And considering the consistency issues for the teams in their path to the semifinals (Ole Miss and Arkansas), Auburn could make things interesting.

The league is definitely better than it was a year ago. It’s easy for people to look at the regular season standings, see the fifth-best team with eight losses, and assume that it’s because it’s a bad conference with average teams.

I don’t agree with that.

As I’ve said many times throughout the year, those on the outside need to look around at the quality of players and coaches in the SEC. Both have taken a large step forward.

The coaching is as good as it has ever been from top to bottom, and the amount of young talent in the conference would rival many conferences around the country.

I know that many get tired of hearing “youth” as an excuse for not winning 20+ games and making the NCAA tournament with ease, but facts are facts. This conference was ranked 32nd out of 32 conferences in KenPom’s experience rating this season. Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi State, LSU, Missouri, Texas A&M, and Tennessee were all ranked 235 or lower, which is half the league.

Improvement was made in the SEC this season. But next year should be the leap that’ll catch the attention of the national media and fans.

The NIT can be hard to predict due to potential ramifications of mid-major regular season champions not winning their conference tournaments.

So, as always, if you’re a power conference fan wanting to see you’re team in a postseason not named the CBI or CIT, root for the top teams to win their tournament.

If I’m Auburn, I don’t feel confident about an NIT bid unless I win two games this week.

Beating Missouri does absolutely nothing for the Tigers RPI-wise (Auburn is at 94 right now), but beating Ole Miss – who is 69 in the RPI – would give Bruce Pearl’s team a boost.

Wins over Missouri and Ole Miss should be enough, but you just never know with all the other factors in play.