Let the chaos begin.
Although the start of the NCAA tournament is still a week away, many conference tournaments have already started around the country. Leagues you don’t normally hear about during the college basketball season — like the Metro Atlantic and Big Sky — get their one shining moment on a huge stage.
For most of the smaller conferences, only one team will have the privilege of getting an automatic invitation to the big dance. Liberty University qualified for the tourney over the weekend by winning the Atlantic Sun tournament title, even with a 15-20 record.
This time of year, anything can happen. That’s why March and college hoops are a match made in heaven.
And the Southeastern Conference tournament will be no exception.
It’s been an uncharacteristically awful year for SEC men’s hoops. The last time the conference was this low on the power conference totem pole was when LSU won the SEC regular season title behind Marcus Thornton, Tasmin Mitchell and Garrett Temple in 2009.
After the SEC slate concluded Saturday, the only two teams that have probably solidified their tickets to the NCAA tournament are Florida and Missouri. Even those two teams will have something to prove when the SEC tournament kicks off Wednesday.
Florida was almost guaranteed a No. 1 seed a month ago, but in ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s “Bracketology” on Monday, he had the Gators as a No. 3 seed in the East Region. Missouri played a tough non-conference schedule, but a first-round loss in Nashville, Tenn., this week would hurt the Tigers’ seeding.
Lunardi only has three teams making the field from the SEC in his latest bracket: Florida as No. 3 seed, Missouri in a No. 8 slot, and Kentucky fighting in the First Four in Dayton, Ohio against La Salle for the No. 11 seed in the South Region.
But depending on the outcome of the SEC tourney, a lot could change.
Kentucky is on Lunardi’s list of the “Last Four In” to the NCAA tournament while two SEC squads, Ole Miss and Tennessee, are on his “First Four Out” list. Alabama was also on his “Next Four Out” list.
What does that mean? Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Alabama will be approaching the SEC tournament with one thing on their minds: to win at all costs. A first-round loss by any of those teams will likely lead to each finding themselves in the National Invitational Tournament.
For the Volunteers and Crimson Tide, one win might not be enough. Other bubble teams such as La Salle, Baylor and Virginia have chances to make statement wins when their conference tournaments start.
SEC squads sitting squarely on the bubble don’t have that luxury. The winner of the tournament gets the conference’s automatic bid, but if one of the bubble teams doesn’t capture the tournament title, they’ll be on pins and needles come Selection Sunday.
Other SEC teams outside of the NCAA tournament picture aren’t just going to lay down, and that includes LSU. The Tigers have probably assured themselves an NIT bid by posting an 18-11 regular season record, but a first-round loss to Georgia could be costly.
The desperation all these teams are experiencing should only translate to some fantastic matchups in Nashville. Potential quarterfinal games include Tennessee versus Alabama, Kentucky versus Arkansas and Missouri versus Ole Miss. Those are all cases where either team could escape with a victory.
It’s just the nature of the SEC this season. Every team seeded one through nine thinks it has a chance to bring home the SEC tournament title, which should make for an interesting five days of roundball in the Music City.
Micah Bedard is a 22-year-old history senior from Houma.
