JOCKEYING FOR POSITION
Where the Southeastern Conference basketball teams rank nationally in the Rating Percentage Index used by the NCAA:9th Kentucky (20-5, 10-2 SEC)10th Florida (20-5, 10-2)23rd South Carolina (20-5, 10-2)43rd Arkansas (18-7, 7-5)46th Tennessee (14-11, 6-6)53rd Georgia (14-11, 5-7)59th Ole Miss (15-10, 6-6)64th Vanderbilt (12-13, 5-7)67th Auburn (16-9, 5-7)74th Alabama (14-10, 7-5)94th Texas A&M (13-11, 5-7)121st Mississippi State (14-10, 5-7)149th LSU (9-15, 1-11)242nd Missouri (7-17, 2-10)
Mississippi guard Breein Tyree (4) is defended by Auburn forward Anfernee McLemore (24) during an NCAA college basketball game in Oxford, Miss., Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017. (Bruce Newman/The Oxford Eagle via AP)One of the wackiest yet most telling games of the Southeastern Conference basketball season took place Saturday night at Ole Miss.
Andy Kennedy's Rebels jumped out to an 8-0 lead over Auburn, but Bruce Pearl's Tigers countered with a 47-19 surge to take a 20-point lead into halftime. Auburn extended its sizable advantage to 23 early in the second half, but Ole Miss wound up compiling 63 points in the final 20 minutes to pull out a 90-84 triumph.
"We've had certain segments of games when we've looked like a quality team," Kennedy said Saturday night in a news conference. "We've got to figure out a way to knit this thing together for 40 minutes."
Join the club.
Fantastic comebacks or blown leads - depending on the perspective - have helped get the SEC to Valentine's Day with a logjam of nine men's teams possessing league records from 7-5 to 5-7. Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina are out front with 10-2 conference marks and 20-5 overall records, while Missouri and LSU already are assured of losing SEC seasons with six league games remaining until the conference tournament in Nashville.
The SEC is looking to produce more than three NCAA tournament representatives, which has been its fate in three of the past four 68-team fields, but teams in the middle of the league's pack have experienced difficulties breaking free.
Auburn had crept into NCAA "bubble" conversation before losing its big lead Saturday night, that outcome occurring just hours after Tennessee lost a 14-point lead in the second half of a 76-75 defeat against visiting Georgia. The Volunteers are among the league's most pleasant surprises with six victories in their last nine games, including an 82-80 topping of Kentucky on Jan. 24, but they were in position to win all nine, having also lost a 13-point second-half lead at Ole Miss and a 19-point first-half lead at Mississippi State.
"A lot of the times we just aren't executing," Vols freshman forward Grant Williams told reporters Saturday. "We either turn the ball over or we're not cutting hard on offense. We just get complacent."
The latest projected NCAA bracket released Monday by Jerry Palm of CBS has only Florida, Kentucky and South Carolina in the NCAA field. Arkansas is the first team in Palm's "First Four Out," while Ole Miss is third.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi has four SEC teams in his latest bracket, with Arkansas projected for a play-in game in Dayton, Ohio. Lunardi also has Tennessee as the top team among his "First Four Out."
"This league is better than it's been in some time," said Georgia coach Mark Fox, whose Bulldogs led late in regulation in losses at Florida and at Kentucky and also squandered a nine-point lead late at Texas A&M. "We ought to go and get four, five or six teams in the tournament field easily, because the league is better compared to previous years."
The SEC had a chance to send a lot more teams last winter, but the stretch run was anything but fruitful for the league's bubble teams. Alabama and Florida lost four of their last five regular-season games, while LSU lost four of its last six and South Carolina four of seven.
Going by the Rating Percentage Index used by the NCAA, Arkansas (43rd), Tennessee (46th), Georgia (53rd) and Ole Miss (59th) are the teams currently with the best chances of enhancing the league's NCAA representation, but obviously there is work to be done for those and others seeking to escape the logjam.
"Usually Kentucky is so far out of reach, but this year Florida is right there and South Carolina is right there," Kennedy said. "Then there are a lot of teams with five or six league losses. We've just got to focus on us and trying to win as many games as we can going into Nashville, and we'll see what happens."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.