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Sunday, February 13, 2011

SEC hoops: Down the stretch it goes ...

Here's my game story from Georgia's 60-56 win at South Carolina on Saturday. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder how a team only scores nine points in a half and yet still almost comes back to win.

But anyway ...

After a rather mediocre past couple weeks, Georgia still finds itself in a tie for second place in the SEC East, with a big game looming Wednesday against Vanderbilt, the other team in the tie. So with six games left, the Bulldogs have a chance to get a first-round bye in the SEC tournament - but still have work to do to make the NCAAs.

Here are the updated conference standings, along with RPI numbers and remaining schedule.

EAST ............. W-L ....... RPI
Florida ………. 9-2 ….…..11
Tennessee, at LSU, Georgia, at Kentucky, Alabama, at Vanderbilt
Georgia ……... 6-4 .…..…43
Vanderbilt, at Tennessee, at Florida, South Carolina, LSU, at Alabama
Vanderbilt …. 6-4 …......15
At Georgia, at Auburn, Tennessee, at LSU, at Kentucky, Florida
Kentucky ……. 5-5 …..... 14
Mississippi St., S. Carolina, at Arkansas, Florida, Vanderbilt, at Tennessee
Tennessee ….. 5-5 .….... 25
S. Carolina, Georgia, at Vanderbilt, Mississippi St., at S. Carolina, Kentucky
S. Carolina .... 4-6 ….....120
At Tennessee, at Kentucky, Ole Miss, at Georgia, Tennessee, at Miss. St.

WEST …………..... W-L … RPI
Alabama ……..…. 8-2 …....85

At LSU, Arkansas, Auburn, at Ole Miss, at Florida, Georgia
Mississippi St. ... 5-5 ...…146
at Kentucky, Ole Miss, LSU, at Tennessee, at Arkansas, South Carolina
Arkansas ….….…. 5-6 ….. 112
At Alabama, Kentucky, at Auburn, Mississippi State, at Ole Miss
Ole Miss …….…... 4-6 ….. 61
Auburn, at Mississippi St., at S. Carolina, Alabama, at Auburn, Arkansas
LSU ……..……..…. 2- 8 ….. 219
Alabama, Florida, at Mississippi St., Vanderbilt, at Georgia, Auburn
Auburn ……..…… 2-8 …… 271
At Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, at Alabama, Arkansas, Ole Miss, at LSU

14 comments:

Josh said...

Honestly I think the meltdown to South Carolina might end up being a good thing for this Georgia team. Coach Fox will be able to point to this game when Georgia gets up big and use it as motivation to keep their foot on another team's throat.

It wasn't pretty, but a win is a win and that was a big one. I'd say we're still 50/50 on going to the NCAA tourny and we can probably pull an upset or maybe 2 to finish out the season. As long as we don't take a bad loss I think we'll be good.

Go dawgs!!!

bigeasydawg said...

This doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but it also occurred to me that the dawgs are also only a couple of games out of the lead for the conference title (I don't think they have the strength to pull it off).

But it's weird that nobody cares about the sec title in bball. Whereas in football it means a lot. To me 2005 was a better year in football in 2007 because we won the conference. Even though we lost the bowl (still hurts), lost more games, lost to fla, and finished ranked lower, I think it sticks out to most people. It's a flag on top of the stadium etc.

But in basketball, it seems people could really care less about it. I so because:

1. There's a regular season title and a sec tourney title. People are often confused as to which one is recognized as conference champ. I'm about 80% sure the regular season champ is recognized but I'm not sure.

2. Kentucky wins it 75% of the time so who cares.

3. People are more concerned with how far a teams make it into the ncaas. In other words, more people would rather have a sweet 16 banner than an sec one.

I'm sure there are more reasons too. Sorry for the rant, I just find it interesting. If for example football went to a 16 team playoff, would people care about winning the conference title. Would it be like the nfl where winning your division is good because you get at least a game at home, but no one really cares about who won the division (the jets went farther than the pats and the packers won).

I don't think so, but I'm bored, so I post long comments.

Seth Emerson said...

BigeasyDawg,

You are correct, the SEC recognizes the regular-season champion.

That's one reason it'll be fascinating if Alabama - by beating up on the weaker West - wins that title. The Tide would still have a long way to go to get an at-large bid to the tourney.

And that's why, in my opinion, the SEC title doesn't get as much attention. The NCAA tournament, and to a lesser extent the SEC tourney, are the main focus.

NCT said...

The conference recognizes the regular season title, but sends the conference tournament winner to the NCAA tournament as the auto-bid recipient.

And as for Kentucky's conference championship? Well, it's not quite 75%, but they hold almost 2-1advantage over the field.

Muckbeast said...

The reason nobody cares about regular season SEC champion is because of the SEC Tourney, not because of March Madness.

Anonymous said...

Dont think the Dawgs will win tonite. UGA has problems shaking off teams like SC and Auburn who are cellar dwellers. The meltdowns will eventually catch up with the Dawgs. Dawgs could easily right now be a 14 - 10 team too. Just saying....

Anonymous said...

I don't think we will win tonight either, anon 8:32...WE DO NOT Play Tonight! Go Dawgs, beat Vandy on Wednesday!Put the pedal to the metal and keep it there!Finish this season strongly!

BulldogBen said...

Bottom line, our fate will be decided one way or the other (barring winning the SEC tourney) in the next 10 days.

We can't secure an at-large bid in those 10 days because we'll still have games to play but go 0-3 or even 1-2 and we're toast.

Still, it's not impossible.

bigeasydawg said...

@Muckbeast
I don't think anybody really cares about winning the sec tourney, unless you're outside looking in or looking to improve your seed. Which really means they care about the ncaa tourney. Don't get me wrong, I have my tourney champs shirt just like everybody else. But that's because I'm begging for bball success.

Anonymous said...

I really care about winning the sec tournament! I would love to see the Dawgs do it!

Tom & Jerry said...

We don't need to win the SEC tourney but we may need a marquee win to improve our ncaa tourney chances. The dawgs SHOULD be favored in every remaining game except UF, UT, and Vanderbilt. (though Alabama will be a toss up). Win one of those, preferably UF, and we should be ok.

Rick said...

Quick Question for Seth: So Tennessee has 10 losses yet they are still project as a 7 seed in the ncaa tourney? How far will those two big early out of conference wins carry them exactly? Sure their RPI is low and they have those marquee wins, but they have 10 losses and may have more before the season is over. It seems like they are getting in no matter what they do at this point. Even if we had beat them in Athens, I feel like they'd have a higher seed than us at this point. What's the deal?

Seth Emerson said...

Rick, I think you answered it yourself: RPI. Plus Tennessee has some marquee wins, and won at Georgia.

That said, every year the NCAA committee has a surprise or two, and I wouldn't be surprised if Tennessee is seeded much lower than expected. Still, the Vols would have to collapse not to get in.

Muckbeast said...

bigeasydawg, that isn't the point.

The whole confusion of which is the real SEC champ: regular season or tourney just makes people throw their hands up and say screw it.

The SEC would be smart to dump the regular season champ thing, and put it all on the tourney. That's where the automatic big comes from anyway. They won't do that because it is safer this way as it sometimes gets an extra team into the tournament.