SEC Basketball

SEC BASKETBALL

Amazing! All 5 Kentucky Wildcats Basketball starters selected in the first round of the 2010 NBA Draft. First time that's ever happened. Read more about that at our new John Wall Biography. The Kentucky Wildcats are the 2010 SEC Basketball Regular Season and Tournament Champion. Congrats!!

Unfortunately, Kentucky lost in the 4th round of "March Madness;" as did Tennessee. Still, both teams had nice runs all the way to the "Great 8" and represented SEC basketball very well.

Ole Miss made it to the "Final 4" of the NIT, before losing to Dayton.

The Southeastern Conference has a long and storied tradition in the sport of football. However, it should come as no surprise that the SEC is also an elite Division I basketball conference. Indeed, the SEC is widely regarded as one of the strongest conferences, top to bottom, in the nation when it comes to college basketball.

One of the primary reasons that SEC basketball is so highly regarded is its depth. Every single team in the SEC is capable of beating any team in the country on any given day, and this depth makes the SEC trmendously dangerous, and deep, and always a postseason threat.

In the 2009 - 2010 college basketball season, the SEC will once again benefit from extensive depth. Teams such as Mississippi and Arkansas are going to finish at the bottom of the conference more likely than not. However, when a team such as Arkansas, who finished 2-14 in the SEC, manages to beat Texas and Oklahoma in non-confernce play, as happened in 2008, you have to feel good about the depth of talent within the conference.

That said, despite the depth, the talent may be slightly more top heavy in 2009-10 than last season. That is not because the middle of the conference has gotten weaker, but rather, because the top 4 teams of the conference, Tennessee, LSU, Florida, and Kentucky, have probably gotten stronger. And indeed, the arrival of Coach John Calipari to Kentucky presents an intriguing subtext to the 2009-10 season.

If you are looking for tickets, check out 2010 SEC Basketball Tickets.

Here are our current rankings of each SEC men's basketball team.

The past two March Madness' have not been good for the SEC. Last season (2009), the SEC went 1-3 in the NCAA Tournament (only LSU won a game; and only one). The previous year, 2008, was also not good. The SEC had 6 teams in the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Only one (Tennessee) made it to the "Sweet 16" and 0 made it to the "Great 8." Overall, the SEC went 4-6 in that tournament.

After 2008 and 2009 March Madness, we obviously can no longer make the argument we used to make that the SEC was the Best College Basketball Conference in the nation.

However, it's hard to say which conference is #1 (you can post your opinion at the bottom of this page). Here are some opinions from Best All Time.com: Best All-Time College Basketball Conference and Best Current College Basketball Conference.

In last year's NCAA B-Ball Tournament "Final Four" -- we had two Big East Teams; one ACC team; and one Big Ten Team. The ACC team (UNC) won it all. The year before we had one ACC team (UNC); one Pac-10 team (UCLA); one Big 12 team (Kansas) and one member of Conference USA (Memphis). Of course Kansas won that one.

Right now (Jan 2010), in the college basketball AP poll, we find a scattering of teams from all conferences in the Top 25. However, two conferences currently stand out a bit above the rest. Here's our current college basketball, Division 1, conference rankings:

1. ACC -- The premier college basketball conference as far as history and tradition -- and currently as well. North Carolina won it all last year; Duke is the reigning 2010 Div. I NCAA Men's Basketball Champ.

Other Great College Basketball Sites:

Basketball Predictions

NCAA Hoops Today

Rush The Court

Thanks to ukathletics.com for these photos. All rights are reserved for these photos.

2. Big East -- (5 in top 25) Given the Big East dominated much of the regular season last year; had 3 top seeds in the Tourney; and had 4 of the 8 final teams in 2009 March Madness, I expected to move the Big East to #1 after the 2009 NCAA Tournament. BUT, they didn't quite follow through. No Big East team was in the National Championship game (UNC vs Mich. State) and the ACC's UNC won it all. However, the Big East is truly a great basketball conference, both historically and currently. Schools like Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut, Villanova, Georgetown and Louisville are some of the biggest names in college basketball. Of course, the Big East has more teams than any other conference (16). And, last year's "Final Four" saw 0 teams from the Big East. If this ranking was based only on historical records, we'd have to rank the B.E. #1. Why? Check out Best All Time NCAA Basketball Conference Record and Best All Time March Madness Conference. All in all, we rank em #2 right now.

3. Big 12 -- (3 teams in pre-season top 25; including #1 Kansas and #3 Texas). Kansas won it all in '08. Oklahoma and Texas are both often top 10 teams.

4. Big Ten -- Moved up to #4 based entirely on this post Big Ten Last?. Still, this conference has seen a decline over the years. Remember when Indiana was college basketball? Been a while....

5. SEC -- (3 teams in top 25). After, the first 3 conferences, there is a pretty big drop-off. We'll pick the SEC for #4 because KENTUCKY is coming back. Tennessee, Florida and Ole Miss are strong too.

6. Pac-10 -- (2 teams in top 25 currently) -- UCLA -- wow, what a great college b-ball history.

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Now, for our Current SEC Basketball Rankings. For SEC Basketball rankings we rank based on current strength on the court only. Here's how we rank them right now. Click on the team name to go to its homepage.

1. Kentucky Wildcats -- Lost to West Virginia in the round of 8. Nice season, but not a National Championship which is what Wildcat fans really wanted. UK could be the most talented team in the country. Only 2 losses (both in conference on the road); ranked #3 nationally. The Wildcats have 3 potential NBA lottery picks. With Coach Cal, the Cats could possibly win it all this year. Nice to see Kentucky basketball back where it belongs. At the top.

2. Tennessee Volunteers -- Great Season. The Vols made it all the way to the "Great 8" before losing in a heartbreaker to Mich. State. All in all, best men's basketball season ever in Knoxiville. HUGE regular season wins over #1 Kansas; then #1 Kentucky; as well as #2 seeded Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament. With their tough schedule, the Vols are a Top 10 team nationally. They've proven they can beat anyone. With a great coach in Bruce Pearl, Tennessee is a team to watch in March Madness.

3. Vanderbilt Commodores -- Tough loss in 1st round of NCAA Tourney -- last second buzzer-beater by Murray State. Still, Vandy has had a very nice year. A bit of a surprise. Officially, the Dores are still "on the bubble"; but should make it to the field of 64. Ranked #13 now in the AP. They have 5 returning starters, but are also in the same division as Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida. Cautious optimism.

4. Florida Gators -- Lost to BYU in 1st round of March Madness. Ranked #30 in the AP. Billy Donovan always finds a way to make his teams compete at a very high level, and despite losing some pretty significant talent from last season, he should be able to get the team towards the top of the conference once again. They probabloy won't be the best team on the conference to begin the season, but given Donovan's track record, it would be no surprise if they are there toward the end.

5. Mississippi State Bulldogs -- On the bubble right now!! But, it looks unlikely unless another SEC Tourney run. Will make NIT of course. Won the 2009 SEC Basketball Tournament. Ranked #39 in the AP. Mississippi State is a little bit of a wild card here. Much of their 2009-10 fortunes probably hinge on LSU, a team that we believe it is still inferior to, but one which is losing a lot of talent regardless. If LSU falters, it will likely be MSU that takes over as the king of the West.

6. Ole Miss Rebels -- Lost in Final 4 of NIT to Dayton. But, nice season. Early on was ranked 16th in the nation!! As we said in January: "Surprise team of the year in the SEC so far. Looks to be an NIT bid."

7. South Carolina Gamecocks -- South Carolina is coming off a really strong year, and continued development within the program should result in the team actually improving on its performance of last season. The problem is, everyone else got better too, and the top 4 of the SEC are significantly better than SC.

8. Auburn Tigers -- Auburn made great strides in 2008-9, and should once again be one of the better teams in the SEC West. Unfortunately, the strength of the East means that this still puts them in the bottom half of the conference overall.

9. Alabama Crimson Tide -- Alabama should be competitive, and if everything does right for this team, it could conceivably be a fringe NCAA Tournament team. However, when all is said and done, this team is probably better positioned for the NIT.

10. Arkansas Razorbacks -- Arkansas may be a sleeper in 2009-10. They clearly aren't close to NCAA worthy, but it's not impossible to believe they could win 17 games and maybe even get the attention of the NIT selection committee.

11. Georgia Bulldogs -- Georgia is going to finish last in the brutal SEC East division. That said, we suspect they would finish last in the SEC West too.

12. LSU Tigers -- The cream of the crop among SEC hoops teams in 2008-9, the team lost a number of key contributors in 2009-10. LSU has surprised to the downside this year.

If you want more information about the men's basketball program of any SEC school, click on the team listed above to go to its home page. You'll find a summary of the teams prospects this year as well as schedules, rosters and other information.

Since this web site is really all about the fans -- click here for the Top SEC Basketball Fan Attendance School. That page also compares the major college basketball conferences in fan attendance.

Finally, you can get lots more good information about SEC basketball at the links below.

OTHER SEC BASKETBALL PAGES

SEC BASKETBALL COACHES BIOGRAPHIES

SEC BASKETBALL PLAYERS BIOGRAPHIES

NCAA BASKETBALL ARTICLES

NBA BASKETBALL ARTICLES

SEC BASKETBALL!!
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SEC BASKETBALL!!

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What Other Visitors Have Said

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Big Ten Last?
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