Before anyone makes too much of this past weekend's Big 12/SEC Challenge, which wound up in a 5-5 tie, let us briefly return to last season's Challenge.
The Big 12 won that one by a 6-4 count. Two months later, the SEC had seven teams in the NCAA tournament to the Big 12's six, and when March Madness ended, those seven SEC schools had finished 12-7 in the big tournament to the Big 12's 8-6, though Texas Tech did reach the NCAA title game before losing to Virginia in overtime.
Point is, what happened on 10 Power Five conference campuses in last Saturday's Challenge may or may not tell us anything significant about March, or which teams will get in the Big Dance, or which schools will see their bubbles burst and which might make some significant noise - as Auburn and Texas Tech did a year ago in reaching the Final Four.
As Tennessee coach Rick Barnes noted on Monday, it often becomes more about individual teams than conferences this time of year, and given the latest NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings, that might be good for the Southeastern Conference because the NET isn't showing the SEC much love right now. Only five SEC schools - No. 20 Auburn, Kentucky (21), LSU (25), Arkansas (28) and Florida (37) - would appear to be in that Can't Miss range at the moment.
"This is the time of year where everybody gets separated," said Barnes, whose Volunteers reached the Sweet 16 last season after soundly defeating West Virginia in the Challenge. "If you want to be one of those teams that's playing late in the year, you better realize it's about moving forward and getting better."
No rational person could say the Vols haven't been getting better of late after suffering early league losses to LSU and Georgia. The midseason additions of 7-foot post player Uros Plavsic and guard Santiago Vescovi have brought UT both depth and talent, especially Vescovi.
A single stat to show how quickly Vescovi, a native of Uruguay, is adjusting to the speed, quickness and athleticism of American hoops: After averaging one turnover for every 4.4 minutes played in his first five games, he averaged one turnover for every 27.5 minutes played in his last two, including Saturday's 74-68 loss at No. 3 Kansas.
Said Barnes on Monday of that loss to the Jayhawks as he also looked ahead to Tuesday night's visit from Texas A&M: "We did play well. What we're trying to get these guys to understand is if we'd gotten four more stops on the defensive end, we win the game."
Kentucky got those stops at Texas Tech, topping the Red Raiders in overtime to snap Tech's 54-game nonconference home winning streak.
Afterward, Tech coach Chris Beard was so impressed with the No. 13 Wildcats that he said of Big Blue: "I've said it all week and I'll say it again, they're definitely a Final Four-type team, a national championship contender. They have pros. They have a great coach. They have experience."
Those last three words - "they have experience" - almost never have been uttered in Lexington since the arrival of coach John Calipari prior to the 2009-10 season. Ever since, UK has become the poster boy and lightning rod for the one-and-done movement, which embraces talent over experience.
That philosophy served Calipari quite well in his first six seasons, when the Cats reached four Final Fours and won the championship in 2012. But while they've reached two Elite Eights in the past four seasons, there have been no more Final Fours.
Said Beard of the current Cats: "They only have one freshman in their starting lineup, and he (Tyrese Maxey) didn't have the best of games. It was those experienced players who really stepped up when they needed to most."
Indeed, UK junior center Nick Richards went for 25 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks against Tech while sophomore guard Immanuel Quickley added 21 points and a half-court shot just before intermission.
If such productivity continues, Cal's Cats just might return to the Final Four for the first time since 2015.
But LSU - which enters Tuesday night's game against Alabama with an eight-game winning streak and a 6-0 SEC mark - could also make a deep March run if it can stop taking every victory down to the wire. The Tigers' last six wins have been by a combined 15 points, which stats guru Ken Pomeroy believes is the lowest combined margin of victory for a six-game winning streak since at least 1997.
Still, the Bayou Bengals are winning, along with Auburn - which hosts both Kentucky and ESPN's "GameDay" crew on Saturday.
Throw in Arkansas, Florida and possibly Alabama, and the SEC might get as many as six teams into the tournament.
Could the Vols become one of those? To do so it would seem they would need to split with Arkansas, Auburn and Kentucky and lose only one more elsewhere. That would give them a 12-6 league mark heading into the SEC tournament. It would also give them enough quality wins in conference play to override a lack of quality wins elsewhere, as well as improve their current NET ranking of 54.
"After you've learned valuable lessons through losses," Barnes said of the Vols' earlier struggles, "I like to win and learn lessons."
To do otherwise is to possibly learn more than you want to about the National Invitation Tournament.
Mark WiedmerContact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.