LSU head coach Johnny Jones calls a play during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.The Southeastern Conference began this week with half of its men’s basketball teams owning 7-7 league records.
The sizable logjam has evoked mixed reactions from the league coaches, with LSU’s Johnny Jones leading the optimistic viewpoint.
“I think it just speaks to how great our league is and how competitive it is from top to bottom,” Jones said. “You look at what [nationally top-ranked] Florida has been able to do, but they’ve been in some tough, challenging games, and so has [second-place] Kentucky.”
LSU, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Missouri, Tennessee and Vanderbilt all entered this week with 7-7 SEC records, and Vandy was the first to fall from that list — with Tuesday night’s loss to the No. 1 Gators. Commodores coach Kevin Stallings has never seen a bigger cluster of teams in his 15 years within the league, and he doesn’t view it as a good thing.
Especially not in the eyes of the NCAA tournament selection committee.