Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
SEC off to middling start after putting record 14 teams into NCAA Tournament
BY ALEJANDRO LOPEZ
College basketball’s most dominant conference in the regular season marched into the Big Dance with a record number of tournament entrances.
The SEC is now 5-5 with 4 teams left to play or finish today :
Two days into the tournament, the SEC lost five teams with four still left to play on Friday.
No. 11 Texas lost to Xavier 86-80
No. 9 Georgia lost to Gonzaga 89-68
No. 6 Missouri lost to Drake 67-57
No. 9 Mississippi State lost to Baylor, 75-72
No. 10 Vanderbilt 59-56
Fortunately for the SEC, the titans of their conference are still going strong as Auburn, Alabama, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Tennessee have all looked strong in their games. This leaves the undisputed strongest conference in college basketball with a strikingly average 6-5 record in tournament play.
The SEC’s first-round trials however are not yet finished either. Four teams are still on the first-round slate with Florida, Oklahoma, Kentucky scheduled to play Friday.
It could just be the nature of March Madness, or it could be that the mighty SEC conference is not as strong as everyone may have thought.
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