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.