SEC Tournament Preview 2021
3MW’s All Conference Team:
Player of the Year: Herb Jones, Sr., Alabama
Coach of the Year: Nate Oats, Alabama
Newcomer of the Year: Moses Moody, Fr., Arkansas
Freshman of the Year: Moses Moody, Fr., Arkansas
Season Storylines:
Let’s get the Kentucky talk out of the way. The Wildcats sucked something fierce this season. Chalk it up to COVID-related lack of practice time, chalk it up to the freshmen being overrated, chalk it up to John Calipari not being that great of a coach (hot take?) — whatever you chalk it up to, the fact remains the ole Wildcats finished 9-15 (8-9). In UK’s defense, it did play a lot of really good 35-minute games, the last five or so minutes just usually didn’t go as well.
Ok onto the good teams. Nate Oats and Alabama stole the hearts of the nation this season with an absolute demolishing of the SEC. The Tide finished two games ahead of second-place Arkansas and was the only team ranked inside KenPom’s top ten at season’s end. Though Bama can certainly scorch the nets, it’s the defensive end where the Tide truly shined, ranking 3rd nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency (Adj. DE) thanks in large part to POY and DPOY Herb Jones.
The Razorbacks enter the postseason as the SEC’s hottest team. Eric Musselman and Co. have won eight straight and 11 of their last 12.
Tennessee finished 22nd in KenPom and 4th in the SEC but the Vols were objectively disappointing in 2020-21. One game they’d beat Kansas by 19, the next they’d lose to Ole Miss. A sometimes-anemic offense held back what was one of the best defenses in the country.
Credit Florida for hanging tough after Keyontae Johnson’s scary collapse at the beginning of the season. The Gators got ample production from sophomore guard Tre Mann and Michigan transfer Colin Castleton. LSU repeated its traditional “awesome offense / putrid defense” season, finishing 5th in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency and 127th in Adj. DE.
Of course the biggest story of the SEC season is my Missouri Tigers are heading back to the NCAA Tournament. Oh what joy this brings me. Mizzou is a ridiculous 5-0 against Q1A competition — they can literally beat anybody in the country… unfortunately they can also very much lose to anybody.
Ole Miss needs to beat South Carolina to get on the right side of the bubble. The Rebels overcame a rocky start to the 2020-21 campaign to get back into Tourney contention. State rival Mississippi State fared much better than expected. Ben Howland clearly has a “floor” when thinking about power ratings, and he got a ton of production out of sophomores DJ Stewart and Iverson Molinar.
Auburn is ineligible for the postseason — Bruce Pearl was cheeky and took a ban during a rebuilding year. My only wish is that we would have seen Sharife Cooper for a full season.
Rounding out the bottom four of the conference this year was Georgia, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, and Texas A&M. USC was crushed by injuries, Georgia has burgeoning stars in KD Johnson and Sahvir Wheeler, and Vandy’s Scotty Pippen Jr. could have won SEC Player of the Year had the Commodores finished higher in the standings. As for the Aggies, here’s hoping Buzz can turn things around soon… that was a disappointing year.
Tournament Preview
Tournament Predictions
(12) Vanderbilt over (13) Texas A&M
(8) Kentucky over (9) Mississippi State
(5) Florida over (12) Vanderbilt
(7) Missouri over (10) Georgia
(6) Ole Miss over (11) South Carolina
(8) Kentucky over (1) Alabama
(4) Tennessee over (5) Florida
(7) Missouri over (2) Arkansas
(3) LSU over (6) Ole Miss
(4) Tennessee over (8) Kentucky
(3) LSU over (7) Missouri
(4) Tennessee over (3) LSU