Butch Dill/Associated Press
Going into the 2022 SEC tournament, it’s going to be all about Auburn.
The Tigers won the regular-season title outright with a 82-71 win over South Carolina on Saturday.
Head coach Bruce Pearl’s team now has won at least a share of the SEC title for the third time in the last four seasons.
Auburn will be the No. 1 seed as all 14 teams descend on Tampa, Florida for a chance to cut down the nets on March 13.
Looking to take down the Tigers will be Arkansas Razorbacks, Tennessee Volunteers and Kentucky Wildcats, ranked No 2, No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
Outside of the top four ranked teams, the Alabama Crimson Tide appear to be primed to be the team that comes in a steals the show.
Only Kentucky has won more SEC Tournaments than Alabama, so they’ve got the experience and know how to win it.
The tourney begins this coming Wednesday with the Missouri Tigers taking on Ole Miss and Vanderbilt taking on Georgia in the first round.
2022 SEC Tournament Schedule
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Wednesday, March 9 – First Round
No. 12 Missouri vs. No. 13 Ole Miss (6 p.m. ET, SEC Network)
No. 11 Vanderbilt vs. No. 14 Georgia (8 p.m. ET, SEC Network)
Thursday, March 10 – First Round
No. 8 Texas A&M vs. No. 9 Florida (noon ET, SEC Network)
No. 5 LSU vs. Missouri/Ole Miss winner (2:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network)
No. 7 South Carolina vs. No. 10 Mississippi State (7 p.m. ET, SEC Network)
No. 6 Alabama vs. Vanderbilt/Georgia winner (9:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network)
Friday, March 11 – Quarterfinals
No. 1 Auburn vs. Texas A&M/Florida winner (noon ET, ESPN)
No. 4 Arkansas vs. LSU vs. Missouri/Ole Miss winner (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
No. 2 Tennessee vs. South Carolina/Mississippi State winner (6 p.m. ET, SEC Network)
No. 3 Kentucky vs. Alabama vs. Vanderbilt/Georgia winner (8:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network)
Saturday, March 12 – Semifinals
Semifinal No. 1 (1 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Semifinal No. 2 (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Sunday, March 13 – Championship Game
Championship Game (1 p.m. ET, ESPN)
All games can be live-streamed on ESPN.com and the ESPN app.
2022 SEC Tournament Bracket
Can Auburn be Stopped?
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Coming into the SEC Tournament with the No. 1 seed, Auburn has to live up to expectations.
But that’s something they’ve done all year.
The Tigers (27-4, 15-3 SEC) were close to having to share the regular season title, but took care of business on Saturday against South Carolina.
“To be 15-3 in this league says they came to play every night,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl told ESPN. “They really did. Now that is virtually impossible to do when you’re dealing with 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kids. Our kids came in to play every single night. They took no team for granted.”
Led by freshman Jabari Smith, who averaged 17.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game during the regular season, Auburn is looking to use the SEC tourney as a springboard into the top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers will have to stay focused, though, because teams like Kentucky are primed to win it, too.
The Wildcats have a top candidate for National Player of the Year in dominant big man Oscar Tshiebwe, who dropped a game-high 27 points in the 71-63 win over the Florida Gators on Saturday.
With the way Tshiebwe is playing, opponents will have to find a way to stop him from tallying double-doubles by halftime.
“The things that he’s doing haven’t been done for 50 years,” Kentucky coach John Calipari told Jon Hale of the Louisville Courier Journal. “So, how could you not (vote for him)?”
Kentucky’s regular-season closer showcased their strengths as a team when they are gelling and put everyone on notice that they are a serious threat to the field in the SEC and the Big Dance.
Alabama won the SEC Tournament in 2021, but find themselves coming in as a No. 6 seed after losing 80-77 to LSU.
“It’s tough. We’ve gotta regroup,” Alabama coach Nate Oats told Matt Howe of 247Sports.com. “We’ve gotta figure out who we’re gonna play. I have no idea who we’re gonna play in the first round of the SEC Tournament. We’ve gotta get ourselves ready to play in the SEC Tournament now.”
The Crimson Tide are a very streaky team, so they should have no problem bouncing back from their two-game skid to close out the regular season to make some noise in the SEC tournament.
As for Tennessee, its best player, Kennedy Chandler, will delay any announcements about entering the NBA Draft.
“I just want to continue to just get better every single day in practice,” Chandler told Mike Wilson of the
Knoxville News Sentinel. “Get ready for the SEC Tournament next week and get ready for March Madness. Continue to get wins. That decision that I’ll make, whatever I want to do (will be when) the season is over.”
That could mean that he’s trying to out on a high note, which means he’ll do everything in his power to propel the Volunteers to the cutting down of the nets.
Either way, this year’s version of the SEC Tournament should be competitive, exciting and not easily forgotten.
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