The Southeastern Conference sent eight men’s basketball teams to the NCAA tournament last year for the first time after an adventurous regular season in which every program finished with a league record ranging from 13-5 to 5-13.
Auburn and Tennessee attained the 13-5 SEC marks and were crowned co-champions, with Florida finishing third at 11-7 and Arkansas, Kentucky and Missouri each winding up 10-8. Whether another wild ride is in store this winter will begin unfolding today, when the SEC begins league play.
“I think there are two, three or four teams that have separated themselves a little bit more than the others, and I wouldn’t put us in that category,” Florida coach Mike White said this week. “I think the middle of the league is very strong, and I think the bottom of the league is strong. We’ll see who finishes where.
“Tennessee is the highest-ranked team in our league, and they’re awfully, awfully good, but I don’t think that they’re the only ones.”
Four SEC teams are ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 – No. 3 Tennessee, No. 12 Auburn, No. 13 Kentucky and No. 17 Mississippi State. The league also has eight programs among the top 50 in the NET rankings that will be used to assist the NCAA tournament’s selection committee, and 12 of 14 in the top 100.