SEC may land eight, nine squads in NCAA tourney

Mississippi State’s Ben Howland was hardly shocked when South Carolina upset No. 12 Auburn, and doesn’t believe his Southeastern Conference coaching peers were, either.

“Auburn goes into South Carolina the other day and South Carolina dominates the game, which doesn’t surprise any of us coaches,” Howland said. “It’s just so difficult night in and night out.”

He is not knocking the league-leading Tigers but praising the depth in the SEC, which doesn’t have a team ranked in the top 10 but just may have more than 10 good ones. The SEC appears poised to land more than six teams in the NCAA Tournament for the first time, with some coaches and bracket observers predicting eight or even nine.

“They’re certainly going the quantity approach, which has not been typical in recent years,” said ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi, who projects eight SEC teams into the tournament. “They have often had a great team and in a couple of recent cases with Kentucky, historically great teams. And the backto-back Florida champions, going back over a decade.

“But there have been years when they’ve gotten 2-3-4 bids because frankly the league didn’t seem to care enough about what it took to make up an NCAA Tournament résumé, specifically their nonconference schedules.”

The SEC and schools have taken steps to remedy that in recent years. A number of coaches insist their league has never been better, or deeper, though bell cow Kentucky only just snapped a four-game losing streak with an all-freshman starting five.

In fact, the top of the standings historically would be more likely in football season. The Tigers are 23-4 and hold a two-game lead over No. 19 Tennessee (19-7), which lost the head-to-head matchup. Auburn has only won two SEC titles, in 1960 and 1999, but the Tigers just lost center Anfernee McLemore for the season to a left ankle injury.

Four teams are three games back.

No other team is ranked in the AP Top 25, but a nation’s best six are rated that high according to the NCAA’s RPI led by No. 8 Auburn. Volunteers coach Rick Barnes, who coached in the Big 12 at Texas from 1998-2015, doesn’t buy into the criticism that the SEC doesn’t have a so-called elite team.

“This league is as good of a league as I’ve ever been in. Ever,” Barnes said.

Barnes won’t find much argument from within the SEC, at least. The league sent three teams to regional finals last year. Now, even the SEC’s biggest advocates might have different takes on who, if anybody, is a safe bet to match that feat.