SEC TOURNEY PRIMER: Can Auburn repeat? History doesn't bet on it
Senior Mark Sears leads Alabama into the SEC Tourney with eyes on another trip to the NCAA Final Four. (Unv. Alabama Media Relations)
By GRAHAM DUNN
After what has been considered the greatest conference season in college basketball history, the greatest conference tournament is about to take place in Nashville.
Has to be, right?
No less that 12 teams are expected to reach the NCAA tournament, meaning at least four teams headed to the big dance will play in the tournament’s first round on Wednesday.
The first 16-team field in the SEC tourney will have plenty of intrigue and should produce a surprise or two during the weekend.
Does that include a surprise winner of the tournament?
Can Auburn repeat as tourney champ? Can Bama win its third in the last four years? Will Tennessee win it again for the second time in three years?
Will Florida break its string of no titles since Billy Donovan?
And what of the top four seeds - Auburn, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee? Will these teams go all out to win a tournament that probably has little affect on their NCAA seeding?
Whatever happens, there are a few points to remember as the tournament opens Wednesday at the Bridgestone Arena.
Here are a few notes to share with your friends.
Did you know…. (Based on tournaments after its return in 1979)
Kentucky has won more tourney titles than any other school (18) which is more than twice as many as the next school, Alabama (7).
The Wildcats have never gone more than six years without winning the tournament and it’s been six years since its last title (2018).
Regular-season champions have won two tournament titles in the last four years, both by Alabama (2020-21 and 2022-23). Kentucky did it in 2016-17. Since the turn of the century it has happened just seven times (out of 24 years - there was no tournament in 2020 due to COVID-19).
Auburn’s last tournament championship came last year. That was the third title in school history (2019, 1985)
Outside of the latest newcomers (Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas A&M, none of which have never won a tournament title) only one school has never won a tournament - South Carolina.
Auburn’s 2019 tournament championship team was the last to win the SEC Tournament and later reach the Final Four.
Florida was the last SEC Tournament champion to win the national title the same year. - 2006.
Before the arrival of Billy Donovan in 1997, Florida had never won the SEC Tournament. He led them to four titles and seven appearances in the championship game. Since he left in 2015, Florida has just one championship game appearance which was last year.
Auburn won the title last season as the No. 4 overall seed (although they tied for second in the league standings). When the Tigers won it in 2019, they were the No. 5 seed and in 1985 they were the No. 8 seed.
The lowest seeded team to win the SEC Tournament was Georgia in the “Tornado Tourney” in 2008 when a tornado hit the Georgia Dome during the second round. The tournament was moved to Georgia Tech’s gymnasium where the Dogs won three games in two days, defeating Arkansas in the finals. The Bulldogs were the sixth seed out of the East and would have been considered the No. 11 seed overall, having won just three conference games that year.
The running joke is Alabama is always in the same bracket as Kentucky. In fact, the Crimson Tide has faced the Wildcats 19 times in tournament action, winning only twice (1982, 1983). The two haven’t met since 2019 which ended a string of four straight years that the Cats eliminated Bama from the tourney. The two teams could meet this year if Kentucky wins its second-round game and would face the Tide in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Alabama and Kentucky have met in the SEC tourney finals three times since 1979 with the last meeting in 1992. Kentucky has won two of the three meetings.
Kentucky has a winning tournament record against every team but two - Missouri and Texas A&M. The Cats are 1-1 against the Aggies and have never faced Missouri.
The Wildcats are the last repeat champions, winning four straight tourneys between 2015-18.
Nashville is this year’s host of the tourney for the 15th time, surpassing Atlanta as the most frequent. That includes the COVID year, 2020, when the tournament was cancelled after the first round. Also, one of those years was held at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium (1991).
The most recent tournament championships for each school (total number since 1979)…
Alabama (7) - 2023
Arkansas (1) - 2000
Auburn (3) - 2024
Florida (4) - 2014
Georgia (2) - 2008
Kentucky (18) - 2018
LSU (1) - 1980
Ole Miss (2) - 2013
Miss St (3) - 2009
Missouri (0)
South Carolina (0)
Tennessee (2) - 2022
Texas A&M (0)
Vanderbilt (1) - 2012