For those who didn’t benefit from the weeks of depressing public debate over whether or not Alabama or Ole Miss deserved to make the School Soccer Playoff, simply wait till the center of March.
Speaking heads will likely be evaluating the resumes of the Twelfth-best basketball staff within the SEC towards No. 3 or 4 within the Huge East.
And will probably be absolutely justified.
Males’s basketball is the game the place “It simply means extra” in 2025, and the SEC is robust sufficient to interrupt the file for single bids from a convention by getting 12 groups in.
You can begin with the human rankings, the place 5 of the highest eight groups within the AP ballot are SEC stalwarts, and Auburn simply changed Tennessee as king of the hill. A whopping 9 SEC groups—greater than half the league—are ranked this week, together with everybody’s favourite basketball sleeping large, Georgia, which has knocked off three ranked groups in 2024-25.
Earlier than convention play started, the SEC mixed for a ridiculous .889 successful share. It received nearly each marquee matchup it was part of within the nonconference. The Huge 12 has been criticized lately for its groups feasting on the weakest nonconference schedules you possibly can dream up. That’s not what occurred right here.
Take Florida as Exhibit A.
The Gators ripped via Florida State, Wake Forest, Virginia and Arizona State earlier than assembly North Carolina. It was a massive-air-quotes “impartial court docket” recreation in Charlotte. Florida proved itself with a gritty 90-84 win.
The Gators entered SEC motion 13-0, promptly misplaced 106-100 at Kentucky, then shredded the final unbeaten staff within the nation and then-No. 1 Tennessee—by 30 factors.
And for an encore … How does a loss to Missouri sound?
A Florida staff stacked with huge rebounders like Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu and harmful shooters like Waler Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin was outrebounded 15-12 on the offensive glass and outshot 11-9 from the 3-point arc Tuesday… at house… to Missouri.
However wait, who did Missouri beat earlier this season? Oh proper, Kansas. Typically it’s exhausting to maintain up.
“We as a employees, as a program, didn’t consider it as a entice recreation,” Florida coach Todd Golden stated. “Missouri’s excellent. They’re a match staff, however coming house, you recognize, folks say, ‘Oh, the schedule is (lightening) up.’ It’s simply not correct on this league.”
Each coach of a Energy 5 program likes to do the “our convention is the hardest” bit. Mark Madsen, answerable for ACC newcomer California, simply tried to drag off that nonsense when the ACC has been in decline for what looks like 5 years now.
The hardest convention is the deepest one, and groups can’t take an evening off within the SEC, the place 14 of 16 groups have been ranked top-50 within the NCAA’s NET rankings to start out the week, and the worst-rated staff by KenPom.com, South Carolina, is healthier than 11 ACC groups.
In actual fact, the one SEC staff that most likely doesn’t scare anybody proper now could be the one sitting alone at 0-4 within the standings, Arkansas, and good ol’ Coach Cal.
Lord assist us all if John Calipari’s staff is the primary SEC staff overlooked of the NCAA Match. They’ll increase the sector or change the qualification standards quicker than you possibly can say Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.