SEC Bracketology: Who’s in, who’s out? – Kentucky shooting for 2-seed

Bracketology update for the SEC where Kentucky is getting hot and four teams are likely to make the NCAA Tournament, but 10 will be left out.

The SEC has had a lot of talent come in and out of the league in recent years. Despite a lack of championships since the Kentucky Wildcats cut down the nets in 2012, there’s hope that this season could see things turn around for the conference.

As always, that begins with the play from Big Blue Nation. John Calipari’s team has gotten stronger as the season goes on and holds a two-game lead to stay atop the conference standings. A mixture of veterans — by Kentucky standards in the Calipari era — and freshmen have them sitting pretty at the moment.

Yet, it is not Kentucky-or-bust for this group as they have a few other teams that have proven to have what it takes to be the last team standing when all is said and done. Let’s take a look at the teams that are on solid footing, who still has work to do and who has no shot.

Going dancing

As mentioned above, Kentucky are the leaders down South. Nick Richards has been on an absolute tear this year, finally showing well on the promise that had him ranked as one of the top recruits in the 2017 high school class. Add in the production of Tyrese Maxey, Ashton Hagans and Immanuel Quickley and this is one of the stronger groups that Coach Cal has had in quite some time.

Before Kentucky rose to the top of the SEC, it was the LSU Tigers that were the leaders of the pack for most of conference play. Will Wade is getting production from a future All-SEC selection too as senior Skylar Mays has put together an SEC Player of the Year season to lead his team to double-digit conference victories.

Auburn, another team of Tigers, is also one of the teams that are among the upper echelon of the conference. After making a surprising run to the Final Four last season, the program has reloaded and retooled as they try to make another deep postseason run. 3-pointers and uptempo play has once again made this group dangerous.

Lastly, the Florida Gators were thought to be the early favorite to win the SEC but things couldn’t have looked further from that result through the first few months of the season. The talent was evident on the roster but it took longer than expected for things to mesh. They’ve won five of their last seven and gave the Wildcats all they could handle before losing in Lexington.

No dancing shoes

With just four teams in, that leaves 10 teams on the outside looking in. Obviously, no conference wants to have over fifty percent of their members not make the NCAA Tournament but the problem for the SEC has been more self-inflicted. The teams on the outside have simply beaten up too much on each other to have any of them separate from the rest.

Mississippi State (“First Four Out”), South Carolina (“Next Four Out”) and Alabama (“Next Four Out”)  are the only teams with any realistic chance of being part of March Madness — unless someone makes an unexpected run through the SEC Tournament.

Those three teams are not only on the bubble but are relative longshots (except for the Bulldogs) to move up enough in these last few weeks to get in by the end of the season.

For Arkansas, Georgia, Ole Miss, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt their seasons will likely conclude when the 2020 SEC Tournament ends. With Georgia’s Anthony Edwards missing out, that means, much like when Ben Simmons was a member of the conference with LSU, the potential No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft will not be playing on college basketball’s biggest stage.

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