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Teams View SEC As Competitive, Not Mediocre

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 12, 2009

TAMPA - It didn't take long for the first wave of "Why does the Southeastern Conference stink so bad?" questions to hit once the teams arrived here for interviews. And just as quickly, the coaches and players on the aforementioned men's basketball teams proved they know how to spin those talking points.

Where we see a tournament filled with no standout teams, they see a tournament that anyone can win.

"I think the league is very, very competitive. … Though LSU had a dominant run, there's really not a dominant team that everybody, I think, in the room would pencil in and say this team here is the odds-on favorite of winning this tournament," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said.

He does have a point.

When the first of four tournament games today tips off at the Forum with Kentucky and Ole Miss, each team believes it has a chance. I'd make a joke about Georgia here, but since the Bulldogs enter as defending SEC champions I probably shouldn't. They're in the same position entering the tournament they were a year ago, when they stormed — literally, given the tornado that struck the Georgia Dome — from the back of the pack to a championship.

Demolition Derby

So while it is true that whichever team emerges from the pack will likely be hailed as the best of a mediocre lot, it still could make for some interesting basketball over the next four days.

The question around these parts, though, is whether anyone is buying it.

Some question Tampa as a suitable venue for the SEC tournament. Chip Kelly of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls this location "an odd venue for the SEC tourney." He like many others, seems to think Atlanta is a better spot. Go figure.

We'll find out today how ticket sales are going when we see how many blue seats are unoccupied, but indications are that good seats are available and will continue to be. It's kind of the perfect storm, really: a mix of a horrible economy and the lack of standout teams in the conference.

Conference tournaments can be a tough sell anyway because they usually don't matter that much. Top teams know they're getting NCAA bids anyway, and you don't often see a team like Georgia come from nowhere and win the title. That's not the case at this tournament though.

Teams like Florida, Kentucky, Auburn, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt know that a deep run in this tournament can mean the difference between an NCAA bid or one to the NIT. I'm thinking LSU, Tennessee and South Carolina are in, but who knows? A first-round loss by South Carolina could change that, especially when the SEC's relatively low power rating is factored.

The tournament basically becomes a four-day demolition derby, except for some teams it will be their NCAA hopes that will be demolished.

"I think that you can't really look at it as a four-day proposition because, you know, we know that anybody in the league could beat us," Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said.

"We just have focused all of our energy on what we need to do to be ready to play Alabama. Then hopefully we advance and we play Friday, and we've got to focus all of on our energy on what we have to do to beat Tennessee."

Pick Your Horse

So who do you have?

A lot of people like Auburn, which comes to Tampa with eight wins in the last nine games and a first-round bye.

LSU is probably the best overall team — it is the only ranked SEC team — but the Tigers have struggled in the past couple of games.

Florida will attract attention because of all the Gator fans that will show up to back what is basically the home team, but asking the inconsistent Gators to win four games in four nights is probably too much.

Tennessee played the toughest schedule in the league, but the Vols struggled in two blowout losses to a thoroughly average Kentucky.

Mississippi State is interesting, as is South Carolina. I'll throw a dart in that direction. Those teams should meet Friday afternoon, and the winner could be voted most likely to succeed this weekend.

Sorry to not narrow it down any more than that, but when you've got a league this, um, "balanced," it's best not to take many chances.

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