West shaky for NCAA

With two weekends remaining in the Southeastern Conference men's basketball regular season, two primary questions remain in the West Division.

Who will win it?

Does it matter?

Mississippi State is 8-5 in the division, followed by Arkansas at 7-6 and Ole Miss at 6-7, and all three have work to do to become more appealing to the NCAA tournament selection committee. For Mississippi State and Ole Miss, that may mean sweeping their final three league contests, while the only hope for Arkansas is winning the SEC tournament.

"I don't know if 8-8 or 9-7 or 10-6 gets you in," MSU coach Rick Stansbury said. "Who knows? The one thing I've learned over the years is just win enough games and you'll get in. It's different every year. There seems to be no consistency, that's for sure."

Stansbury's Bulldogs have earned NCAA bids six of the past eight years and are 20-8 overall, but their nonconference slate contains losses to Rider and Western Kentucky. They defeated DePaul and UCLA, as have a lot of teams this season.

Senior forward Jarvis Varnado gives MSU some marquee value as the NCAA's top all-time shot blocker, but the Bulldogs were 58th Thursday in the Ratings Percentage Index.

Two spots back in the RPI was Ole Miss, which is 18-9 overall and compiled a solid early-season worksheet. The Rebels defeated No. 6 Kansas State, and their two nonconference losses were to No. 7 Villanova and No. 8 West Virginia.

"It is truly a collective body of work, and there are things you have to control throughout the course of your nonleague scheduling so that the league portion of your schedule has the significance that you hope for," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. "We put ourselves in the position to control our own destiny, but we've certainly strained that with our play as of late."

The Rebels were swept by Mississippi State and are 0-7 in games against SEC teams with winning league records. Owning Alabama, Auburn and LSU won't mean much to the NCAA committee, as that trio is 9-30 in SEC games.

"In our seven SEC losses, we are being outscored from the free-throw line by a combined 78 points," Kennedy said. "We've lost those seven games by a combined 39 points, so you can do the math. We have got to limit our opponents' opportunities to get free points off the free-throw line. To this point, it's been a major downfall of our team."

Arkansas (14-14) began league play in a hole after November losses to Morgan State, East Tennessee State and South Alabama, but the Razorbacks inched into the NCAA picture after taking the West lead at 6-3. They since have lost three of four games, including Wednesday's embarrassing setback at LSU, which entered 0-12 in the league.

Only once since the SEC went to divisional play in 1992 has the West not produced an NCAA tournament participant. That occurred in 2007 when Ole Miss and MSU tied for first with 8-8 records, while Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn went 7-9.

"The West is very competitive, and we know that," Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. "I don't think there is great separation from anybody in the West."

Which hasn't been a good thing this season.