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Chris LowMar 12, 2025, 08:00 AM ET
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- Faculty soccer reporter
- Joined ESPN.com in 2007
- Graduate of the College of Tennessee
Bruce Pearl hasn’t ever been hesitant to leap out at the proverbial ledge. He is a grasp marketer and a fair higher basketball trainer.
Imagine what he has achieved at Auburn in what has been a historical steady season for the No. 1 Tigers — and for all of the SEC. With the SEC’s males’s basketball match set to start Wednesday in Nashville, Tennessee, the league is projected to ship 13 groups to the NCAA match, in line with ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, which might ruin the Large East’s report of eleven bids set in 2011.
The crème de l. a. crème has come courtesy of Pearl, who has reworked the “Most endearing Village at the Plains” right into a village as ate up with basketball as it’s soccer, and Pearl has a singular standpoint on what a monster the football-obsessed SEC has grow to be when it comes to hoops.
“I in reality imply this. It is going to be attention-grabbing to look what number of coaches wish to keep on this league,” Pearl stated. “In different phrases, we’ve got were given some coaches which can be doing nice jobs, coaches who have in reality increased their systems, and they are nonetheless within the center or decrease part of this league as a result of how difficult it’s.
“A few of the ones guys are going to mention, ‘You realize what? You’ll have it,’ and move in different places.”
Bruce Pearl has Auburn poised to be the No. 1 total seed within the NCAA match. Justin Ford/Getty Pictures
It is the type of grind the SEC has lengthy been identified for in soccer. Six other colleges within the convention have received nationwide championships going again to the primary 12 months of the BCS in 1998, and the league received seven in a row from 2006 to 2012.
However in males’s basketball?
Outdoor of a make a choice few groups, the SEC was once chucking up air balls in 2016 when Greg Sankey took over as commissioner. Most effective 3 SEC groups made it into the NCAA match that 12 months, and a type of was once an 11-seed Vanderbilt staff that misplaced within the First 4. Most effective Texas A&M made it previous the second one spherical.
“A nasty day” is how Sankey described that Variety Sunday, which was once preceded by way of a in large part woeful stretch of basketball. Within the 4 years from 2013 to 2016, the SEC had simply 3 groups within the NCAA box thrice.
It had grow to be a nasty state of affairs that was once allowed to fester.
“There was once just a little little bit of a hesitancy to only principally pop out and say we wish to put assets in basketball,” stated Ole Pass over athletic director Keith Carter, who was once an All-SEC basketball participant for the Rebels in 1999. “Soccer has been and nonetheless is the money cow, and I believe there was once an apprehension on this league that we had been someway going to remove from soccer. What we’ve got discovered is we completely can do each and be elite in each.”
THE BIDS FOR this 12 months’s NCAA match move out Sunday, and 6 SEC groups — Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas A&M — are in place to get top-three seeds, with Auburn the most probably No. 1 total seed.
“That is six out of the highest 12. I imply, jeez,” stated Texas A&M trainer Buzz Williams, who has taken groups from 3 meetings to the NCAA match. “I in my opinion suppose there is going to be an SEC vs. SEC matchup simply to visit the Candy 16. There evidently might be an SEC vs. SEC matchup within the Candy 16.”
Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams totally expects to look an all-SEC matchup within the Candy 16. Maria Lysaker-Imagn Pictures
Simply within the final two weeks of the steady season, there was once chaos that illustrated the league’s intensity. Unranked Georgia disappointed No. 3 Florida, which became round per week later and received at Alabama. Texas A&M had misplaced 4 in a row sooner than beating No. 1 Auburn by way of double digits March 4. On that very same night time, unranked Ole Pass over disappointed No. 4 Tennessee, which was once 3 days after Tennessee beat Alabama on the buzzer on Jahmai Mashack’s 35-footer. To not be outdone, Alabama bounced again at the final day of the steady season to win at Auburn in time beyond regulation on Mark Sears’ floater on the buzzer.
In numerous techniques, Vanderbilt epitomizes the steadiness within the league. Picked to complete final within the preseason in Mark Byington’s first season as trainer, the Commodores have received 20 video games and are all however a lock for an NCAA match berth. The similar is going for Georgia, which hasn’t been to the NCAA match since 2015.
“You notice the intensity of the league, and that’s the reason evident with the selection of groups we’ve poised to make the [NCAA] match,” stated Williams, who took Marquette to the Candy 16 in 2011 when the Large East had a report 11 NCAA match groups. “However it is usually the intensity of the ability on every staff’s roster. We were given [Rueben Chinyelu] in foul hassle after we performed Florida, and he is a in reality just right participant. They sub in [Micah Handlogten], and he is higher than [Chinyelu]. That isn’t even counting [Alex Condon], who completely torched Alabama.”
John Calipari is in his first season at Arkansas, however it is his sixteenth within the SEC after 15 years at Kentucky. There was once a time when he did his personal barnstorming looking to persuade everyone that the SEC wasn’t simply Kentucky and everyone else. The Wildcats had been to the Ultimate 4 in seven of the previous 8 a long time (no longer together with this one) going again to the Nineteen Forties.
The Large Blue will at all times be the bluest of blue bloods within the SEC, however they now have corporate.
“All you do is take a look at the funding, the coaches on this league, the lovers, how onerous it’s to win at the street,” Calipari stated. “It is a Candy 16 sort atmosphere each and every time you play.”
Seeing the SEC so robust from height to backside would have looked like natural delusion to Tennessee’s Rick Barnes when he was once rising up in ACC nation in Hickory, North Carolina. He coached beneath Wimp Sanderson at Alabama within the mid-Nineteen Eighties when the SEC had some just right groups and a few embellished avid gamers.
However there was once a lingering stigma that hovered over basketball within the SEC, that it was once extra tolerated than embraced throughout the league workplace and by way of lots of the colleges no longer named Kentucky.
“The working shaggy dog story was once that you have got soccer season, spring soccer, after which the whole lot else falls at the back of it, and that basketball is in there someplace,” stated Barnes, who has taken groups from 4 meetings to the NCAA match. “That was once a mentality that was once created by way of management, whether or not you wish to have to name it the management within the convention, the colleges or no matter. There simply wasn’t an emphasis put on basketball around the league.”
Sankey was once decided to switch that. His predecessor, Mike Slive, had already began the ball rolling in 2013 when he introduced in Greg Shaheen, who had prior to now overseen NCAA championships, to lend a hand the league’s groups enhance their nonconference schedules. The SEC gained simply 3 NCAA bids that 12 months, and best Florida complex previous the primary weekend.
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One in all Sankey’s first calls after taking up as SEC commissioner in 2016 was once to former Large East commissioner Mike Tranghese. Sankey employed Tranghese as a specialist and 3 months later introduced in Dan Leibovitz as affiliate commissioner of fellows’s basketball. Leibovitz had coached in each the varsity and NBA ranks.
“We wanted anyone like that with a basketball pedigree, anyone who understood what we as coaches undergo,” Barnes stated. “We had been suffering. Our scheduling was once deficient. The officiating was once deficient, and again when John Guthrie was once within the league, we had the most efficient officers within the nation within the SEC. We wanted anyone like Dan, a robust voice for basketball in our league.”
When Leibovitz left for the Large East in 2023, Sankey changed him with Garth Glissman, who was once the vp of basketball operations for the NBA.
“We have simply endured to reinvest in basketball on this league, and the extent of play, the fan engagement, the intensity of ability within the league … it is simply endured to visit some other degree,” stated Pearl, whose Tigers have received both the SEC regular-season championship or match championship in 5 of the previous 8 years.
Tranghese downplays his position in getting the SEC “off their asses in basketball,” as one former league trainer described the placement. However he stated he did not cling again in the ones preliminary conferences with athletic administrators and coaches in 2016.
“They had been simply utterly crushed down,” Tranghese stated. “The coaches felt no one cared. I am not positive if all of the ADs in that room believed they might win. I discovered it ludicrous, to be truthful with you. I informed the ADs, ‘That is essentially the most unbelievably nonsensical factor I have ever heard.’ I even had one AD inform me that you simply could not win in basketball for the reason that league was once so just right in soccer.
“My reaction: ‘Why no longer? You’ve got the assets, the fan bases, nice athletes for your backyards. Use soccer for your merit.’ Maximum of all, I informed them to give up whining and give up making excuses.”
Tranghese additionally served as a sounding board for colleges after they had been hiring coaches.
“I did not inform them who to rent up to I informed them who to not rent,” stated Tranghese, noting 9 of the present 16 coaches within the SEC have taken groups to the Elite 8.
Tranghese, who had the added standpoint of serving at the Faculty Soccer Playoff variety committee in 2014-15, known there was once uneasiness amongst coaches that basketball was once no longer a concern for his or her athletic administrators. He stays thankful to former Florida AD Jeremy Foley, who was once at a few of the ones early conferences. Florida, which received soccer nationwide championships in 2006 and 2008, had confirmed that luck in each sports activities was once very a lot conceivable. The Gators beneath Billy Donovan received back-to-back nationwide championships in basketball in 2006-07, which wasn’t duplicated till UConn went back-to-back the previous two seasons.
“I seemed on the coaches and simply stated, ‘You should have Humpty Dumpty as your athletic director. That isn’t an excuse for no longer successful,'” Tranghese stated. “Possibly they do not cling your hand. Possibly they do not pay as a lot consideration to you as they do soccer, however who cares so long as you will have the equipment to prevail?”
THERE WERE SIGNS that this season’s luck could be coming after final season, when the SEC matched its all-time prime with 8 NCAA bids (additionally completed in 2023 and 2018). The league’s 4 top-4 seeds a 12 months in the past had been its maximum since 2002, and Alabama went to its first Ultimate 4. The Tide had been to no less than the Candy 16 in 3 of the previous 4 seasons. Previous to Nate Oats’ arrival six seasons in the past, Alabama had no longer complex to the Candy 16 since 2004.
“And we had been including Texas and Oklahoma,” Mississippi State trainer Chris Jans stated. “I don’t believe there was once a staff within the league that did not suppose it had a just right sufficient roster to visit the NCAA match, and that’s the reason about the way in which it is performed out.”
Tennessee’s Rick Barnes admits ‘we had been suffering’ sooner than the SEC made strikes to enhance basketball within the final 10 years. Stew Milne/Getty Pictures
Pearl stated probably the most difference-makers has been a significant dedication to NIL.
“It is everyone, too, up and down the league,” Pearl stated. “Faculties are paying. You might have heard me say that we will do extra at Auburn within the NIL house. We are nowhere close to the highest.”
Pearl, at the side of as regards to everyone else within the SEC, additionally has struck it wealthy within the switch portal. Senior heart Johni Broome, a height candidate for nationwide participant of the 12 months, is in his 3rd season at Auburn after beginning his profession at Morehead State.
In truth, a number of stars within the SEC began on the mid-major degree, together with Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. (Iona), Alabama’s Sears (Ohio), Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier (North Florida) and Vanderbilt’s Jason Edwards (North Texas). A 12 months in the past, Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht led the SEC in scoring after moving from Northern Colorado.
“Annually, it is gotten harder and harder, and I might say this 12 months is the hardest,” stated Tennessee senior level guard Zakai Zeigler, who is in his fourth season. “It displays how just right the groups are on this league. You have got groups ranked within the height 4 or 5 within the nation, and they are getting beat by way of groups in the course of our league and even decrease. It is each and every recreation.
“Whilst you get available in the market in convention play, there is no ducking, no smoke. You need to play each and every night time.”
Zeigler is one of the seniors who’re taking part in large roles within the SEC, offering the type of revel in that might set them up for postseason luck. In keeping with ESPN Analysis, 77 seniors within the SEC have began no less than one recreation this season with 58 beginning double-digit video games. Within the Large Ten and ACC, 68 seniors have began video games, whilst 50 have double-digit begins within the Large Ten and 48 do within the ACC. Auburn has six fifth-year or older avid gamers (best 4 groups within the nation have extra), and the common age of its beginning 5 is 23.2. Alabama’s beginning 5 averages 22 years outdated, Tennessee’s 21.8 and Florida’s 21.6.
Within the nonconference portion of the agenda, the intensity of the league was once transparent. The SEC’s nonconference successful share was once .889 (185-23). The final time any convention was once that just right in nonleague play was once the ACC in 2003-04 with an .882 successful share. The SEC was once 30-4 towards the ACC, 14-2 towards the Large 12 and 10-9 towards the Large Ten.
Final month, ESPN’s Jay Bilas, who performed on Duke’s 1986 nationwide runner-up staff, known as the SEC the “essentially the most tough basketball league, height to backside, that there has ever been. I’ve by no means noticed the rest remotely like what we are seeing within the Southeastern Convention this 12 months.”
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ESPN’s Bilas: ‘SEC has the most efficient league within the nation, by way of a long way’
Whilst discussing the importance of Auburn and Alabama being ranked No. 1 and a pair of, respectively, Jay Bilas explains why the SEC has the most efficient males’s basketball league he is ever noticed.
However that was once February, and school basketball legacies are in-built March. Anointing a convention because the most powerful in historical past previous to the postseason is corresponding to calling a 100-meter race on the 80-meter mark.
Tranghese was once the right-hand guy to former Large East commissioner Dave Gavitt when that league was once shaped, and within the Nineteen Eighties, the Large East was once referred to as a beast for just right explanation why. In 1985, Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova all made the Ultimate 4, with Villanova scary Georgetown within the championship recreation. Boston Faculty additionally made the Candy 16 that season as six of the league’s 9 groups made the NCAA match.
That continues to be the one time 3 groups from the similar convention complex to the Ultimate 4.
“I don’t believe anyone has ever ruled regular-season play just like the SEC has this 12 months,” Tranghese stated. “We had arguably the most efficient postseason anyone’s had that 12 months within the Large East, however I simply suppose when you find yourself evaluating steady seasons, the SEC is gazing two No. 1 seeds, 4 of the highest 8 seeds, 9 of the highest 25. I have simply by no means noticed the rest like that sooner than.”
An SEC staff has no longer received the nationwide championship since Kentucky in 2012, so finishing that drought will move a ways towards writing the general bankruptcy of this season. In 2019, the ACC produced 3 No. 1 seeds, together with eventual nationwide champion Virginia. Duke and North Carolina had been additionally No. 1 seeds that 12 months.
“There is a probability that the SEC match may well be doubtlessly more difficult than making it to the Ultimate 4,” Pearl stated of a season during which the SEC may just tie the report for 3 No. 1 seeds from the similar convention. “You are speaking about dealing with upper ranked groups than you may within the Candy 16.”
Zeigler, who hopes to guide Tennessee to its first Ultimate 4, stated it is not not possible that every one 4 spots may well be occupied by way of SEC groups.
“I understand how just right the SEC is,” he stated. “I am available in the market each and every recreation taking part in towards those guys. So if it comes right down to an SEC faculty being on every facet of the bracket, I would not be shocked in any respect.
“You should almost certainly ask anyone in our convention that. We have lived it.”
THERE ARE TWO colleges of idea at the have an effect on of taking part in in this type of rugged league when groups have to modify gears to the one-and-done mindset of the NCAA match. Both it prepares you by way of making you extra combat examined, or the damage and tear from the regular-season grind catches up with you.
In his first 12 months at Arkansas, longtime Kentucky trainer John Calipari has quite a lot of revel in within the SEC. Jeff Blake-Imagn Pictures
“We are going to in finding out,” Pearl stated. “The one manner we’re going to know the solution to this is after we get later in March. I believe the mix of simply the psychological fatigue in addition to the bodily fatigue in comparison to groups that experience more or less been in a position to blow via their league is other. Glance, lots of the energy convention leagues are just right. It is simply that the SEC is dominant.”
Pearl stated he has decreased the period of time Auburn spends at the courtroom between video games to relieve fatigue.
“You have to follow much less and lighter in order that we will keep recent,” he stated. “However I believe it takes a psychological toll within the sense that you simply take a look at everyone’s agenda. There may be completely no ruin. And you have to deliver the hassle and effort each and every night time if you wish to win.”
Williams stated irrespective of what occurs later this month, it should not diminish the SEC’s regular-season superiority.
“I believe the actual check of your aggressive personality is what you do over the 10-week convention season since you are judged 18 occasions,” Williams stated. “I do not essentially suppose {that a} one-game state of affairs within the postseason will have to uninteresting or negate the ones 10 weeks of taking part in in statistically the most efficient league that there has ever been.”
For Barnes, in his tenth season at Tennessee, issues have come complete circle. The Vols are the one staff within the SEC to have received 25 or extra video games in every of the previous 4 seasons. The varsity two times attempted to rent Barnes when he was once more youthful, the primary time when he was once at Windfall and however when he was once at Clemson. He merely wasn’t bought at the SEC’s dedication to basketball.
When Tennessee fired Don DeVoe following the 1989 season, Barnes met with then-Tennessee athletic director Doug Dickey concerning the task. Barnes recalls telling journalist and shut buddy John Feinstein and Gavitt, who remained a mentor to Barnes till his dying in 2011, concerning the Tennessee interview.
“They each stated, ‘You’ll’t take that task. They do not care about basketball. You are already in a basketball league,'” Barnes stated. “That was once the belief, and it did not have the rest to do with Doug Dickey. That is simply the place the league was once. They had been set on being the most efficient soccer league within the nation.
“Now there may be an emphasis on this league to be the most efficient in each and every game, an amazing quantity of delight, and what is took place in basketball is in contrast to the rest I ever idea I might see within the SEC, no longer from the place I grew up within the Carolinas.”
