SEC
Southeastern ConferenceExactly seven weeks ago today, new Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl said of the Southeastern Conference’s NCAA tournament prospects this coming March, “This year I guarantee five, and I think there could be as many as six, NCAA teams.”
Roughly a month into the season, it again appears as if the conference might be closer to last year’s three invitees than Pearl’s hoped-for six.
In fact, take away unanimous No. 1 Kentucky and the league not only has no other team in the Top 25 for the first time this season, but Florida — which began ranked No. 7 — didn’t get a single, solitary vote in the latest Associated Press poll.
In fact, if Selection Sunday was this weekend instead of March 15, it’s not inconceivable that UK might be the only SEC team chosen, though LSU, which has a road win over a ranked West Virginia, and Texas A&M, which has beaten both New Mexico and Arizona State, should also march into the Madness. So might Ole Miss, which has won at Oregon, beaten a ranked Creighton and topped Cincinnati.
As for the Gators, who ran the table during last year’s regular season and league tourney, reached the Final Four and got that lofty preseason ranking, they’re 4-4 and struggling with inexperience, though if anyone can rattle Kentucky within the league, it might yet be the Rowdy Reptiles.