The first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament have come and gone as the SEC has two teams remaining. Coming into the NCAA Tournament, the SEC tied for the most teams of any conference with eight. Fast forward to now, the SEC has the worst record of any power six conference. The only power conference with fewer teams is the Pac-12, a conference that won’t exist next season. You could attribute something like this to a lot of things but for me, I think the SEC was a lot more one-dimensional then we thought.
Why Are SEC Teams Struggling In The NCAA Tournament?
During the first round of the NCAA Tournament, five SEC teams lost to lower seeds. To be fair to Mississippi State, they lost to an eight as a nine. That nine being Michigan State coached by Tom Izzo, who has won 56 percent of his games as the lower seed, which is absurd. For the other four, we saw them not be able to dominate the areas they had been dominating all season, and they had nothing to fall back on.
Kentucky
For Kentucky, what many thought would be its downfall in the NCAA Tournament ended up being exactly that. Teams with the precedent of Kentucky’s offensive and defensive numbers, rarely make it out of the first weekend. The rebuttal to that is that none of those teams had multiple lottery picks, or were a top-three seed. Kentucky ranked number one in the SEC in three-point shooting during conference play. When the shots didn’t fall, their defense couldn’t win them the game. Jack Gohlke dropped 33 points, sending the Cats home early en route an 80-76 upset victory for Oakland. In their previous five meetings against the top 55 Kenpom opponents, Oakland failed to hit 80 points. Ultimately, Kentucky’s defense couldn’t make up for offensive shortcomings.
Auburn
Auburn is for the most part an exception. I don’t feel as any one thing lost them this game. Sometimes that just happens in the NCAA Tournament You can point out an elite shot-blocking team only getting three blocks. You could point to them losing the turnover battle which didn’t happen much this season. However, this is a game the Tigers should have won. Being up as much as ten is a game you expect this team to win. The three-point shooting was on par, shot better from the floor, and they out-rebounded Yale. They could not make plays when it mattered most, which metrics didn’t account for.
South Carolina
During SEC play, South Carolina ranked third in the conference in two-point defense. When they matched up with Oregon in the NCAA Tournament, that defense seemingly vanished. Facing an Oregon team that was nothing special from inside the arch this year, ranking 84th nationally, the Ducks shot 67 percent on twos. When the Gamecocks normally reliable defense folded, everything else folded with it. South Carolina lost the turnover battle, let Oregon get to the line 30 times, and was never competitive in the second half. They had no backup plan.
Florida
During SEC play, Florida was the best three-point defense in the conference. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Colorado proceeded to shoot 60 percent from three. Florida deserves some credit because they fell back on Walter Clayton Jr. being elite. Despite his 33 points, it’s just difficult to win a game when what you’ve been elite at all season long turns into an absolute disaster.
