NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Southeastern Conference served notice to the rest of the women’s college basketball world this weekend — it is a force to be reckoned with come NCAA tournament time.
With seven of the 12 teams ranked in the Top 25 and the 12 exciting games played in the SEC tournament, finishing off with No. 5 LSU’s 78-62 win over No. 3 Tennessee, the rest of the nation should fear the teams from down South and with good reason.
Can the nation’s other conferences compare to the SEC’s dominance? Let’s break them down.
ACC: Weak. Big XII: Not quite. PAC-10: Who? Big East: Don’t even go there.
None of these conferences can handle the talent, speed or depth SEC players have or the quality coaching associated with each team. Their tournaments don’t have the thrills and excitement either. They have no game.
Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State proved to be more than pretenders with the Lady ‘Backs and Lady Commodores giving LSU two good games and MSU falling in the waning seconds to top-seeded Tennessee on a Kara Lawson jumper.
Schools from other conferences might be in for a rude awakening if they get any of these teams in their bracket.
All the SEC’s eligible teams are battled tested and will be primed to upset any opponent standing in the way.
The SEC sports the nation’s top conference power rating and has two of the top four RPI teams in LSU (No. 4) and Tennessee (No. 1). Both could get No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament and could face each other a third time in the Final Four.
What makes the SEC a cut above the rest is scheduling. Tennessee has the nation’s toughest schedule, which included road games against No. 1 Connecticut, No. 2 Duke and No. 7 Texas.
UT head coach Pat Summitt is no stranger to difficult games. With six national titles to her credit, she’s been through the wars.
Two of the Lady Volunteers’ three losses have come at the buzzer, and since then the team has won 20 straight games and went 14-0 in conference play.
With the win, LSU has joined UT in the nations elite and asserted itself as a Top 5 team this year and for years to come.
The team has done this not only by recruiting the nation’s best freshman in Seimone Augustus and consistently being ranked high all season, but by beating good teams when it counts.
The Lady Tigers are 10-3 against Top 25 teams, with wins over Penn State and Texas earlier this year.
Unlike the other major conferences, the SEC is talented from top to bottom.
Sure Florida and Ole Miss have mediocre records, but if they played against the likes of Seton Hall or Florida State twice a year, the numbers would be higher.
Teams like Notre Dame and North Carolina have risen to prominence, but LSU, Tennessee and Georgia have been a constant in the national picture, and this year is no exception.
While Connecticut enjoys a national-best 69-game winning streak and Duke went undefeated in the ACC, both teams enjoyed success against inferior conference foes that wouldn’t last a day in the wild and crazy world of the SEC.