Despite Kentucky's thrilling overtime victory over Texas A&M in the Southeastern Conference tournament title game, Sunday was anything but a banner day for the league in men's basketball.
For a third time in four years, only three of the 14 SEC members earned bids to the 68-team NCAA tournament field. Kentucky, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt, which drew a No. 11 seed and must start Tuesday night at a "First Four" game in Dayton, Ohio, are this year's representatives.
Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina accepted NIT bids Sunday night.
"I was little disappointed in some of the results, but I'll reserve more comments until I take a closer look at it," Georgia coach Mark Fox said Sunday night on a conference call. "South Carolina obviously had a terrific season, and I thought they were deserving to go. I'm disappointed for Coach (Frank) Martin and his team, because I did think they were an NCAA tournament team."
Martin's Gamecocks are 24-8 entering the NIT but stumbled three times against Georgia, including Friday night in the SEC tournament quarterfinals.
The SEC had six teams projected for the NCAA tournament in mid-February, but Alabama and Florida each lost four of its last five regular-season games. LSU led the league before losing four of its last six regular-season games, and any hopes of the Tigers regrouping in the SEC tournament were dashed when the Tigers were humiliated by Texas A&M, 71-38, in Saturday's opening semifinal.
LSU announced Sunday after the NCAA field was set that there would be no postseason of any sort for the 19-14 Tigers.
"We will be able to utilize this time to get better and start preparations for next season," LSU coach Johnny Jones said in a statement. "We fell short of the mark of getting to the NCAA tournament. I take full responsibility for this team and will do the things necessary to make sure we are able to reach one of our main goals at LSU in the future."
LSU's decision effectively ends the college career of freshman standout Ben Simmons, who is expected to be the top overall pick this summer in the NBA draft. The 6-foot-10 Simmons led the Tigers in minutes (34.9), points (19.2), rebounds (11.8) and assists (4.8) per game this season, and he shot 56.0 percent from the floor.
Even Kentucky coach John Calipari had reason for disappointment Sunday, with his Wildcats being an NCAA tournament No. 4 seed while Texas A&M got a No. 3 seed.
"That means it was picked before the game," Calipari told ESPN. "My argument with our commissioner is, 'Why are we playing this tournament on a Sunday?' It doesn't help.
"It's like they already picked the thing before we played. It is what it is."
The SEC will begin postseason play Tuesday night when Vanderbilt faces Wichita State in Dayton and with South Carolina-High Point, Alabama-Creighton and Florida-North Florida matchups in the NIT. Georgia will host Belmont on Wednesday night, which will be televised by ESPN2 at 7.
Should Vanderbilt lose, the SEC would have just two of the NCAA's 64 remaining teams for the first time since March Madness expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
"Improving our overall strength of schedule was something that was directed by the conference, and it's something that today didn't bear as much fruit as we had hoped," Fox said. "I think that everybody involved is going to have to take a hard look at every angle and see how effective that is. Is it something that we valued too much or something that the committee didn't value enough?
"I think we need to examine all that and then move forward accordingly."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.