We are only one week away from the NCAA tournament starting. With such a short amount of time left, teams across the nation are trying to secure their spot in the upcoming NCAA Tournament as conference tournaments continue this week. The Lexington Herald's Jerry Tipton provides coaches' comments as the SEC Tournament begins this week in Nashville, TN.
There has been one dominant theme in regular season play this year for the SEC. The SEC East has dominated the West. No Western Division team won more than two of five games against the Eastern Division. Among Eastern Division teams, only South Carolina (2-4) and Georgia (1-5) had losing records in inter-division games. Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt are undefeated against SEC West foes.
Since division play began in 1991-92, each of the SEC divisions has had at least one team receive a NCAA Tournament bid. That streak is in jeopardy.
SEC West leader Ole Miss enters the SEC tournament with a 21-9 (9-7) record. The Rebels will face the winner of the UT vs LSU matchup on Friday. Ole Miss will has helped their bid for a NCAA tournament spot, but still needs a win or two to get to the field of 64. Ole Miss bolstered its chances by winning the last four regular-season games. The Rebels have a quality non-conference victory over Kansas State, which the school noted was the SEC's best away-from-home non-conference victory.
For an exert from Jerry's article over Coach Cal's comments on what UK needs to do to secure a number 1 seed, click read more.
Calipari said UK can remove any doubt about its No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament by winning two games in the SEC Tournament.
"If we lose the first game, we're not going to be a No. 1 seed," he said. "If we win the first and lose the second, I think we've done enough to get that one-seed."
Coach Calipari also stated that he thought that Florida belonged in the NCAA tourney.
UK Coach John Calipari cited the Eastern Division's superiority as a reason to give Florida a bid. The Gators did have the worst record against Eastern Division teams at 3-7.
"I'll tell you who are good teams: Georgia," Calipari said, "(and) South Carolina, which beat us. We were all on the same side beating the crap out of each other. That's why I say Florida should be a shoe-in."
Click here for the rest of Jerry's article.
