NCAA March Madness – Breaking Down the SEC Entrants (2021)

SEC has big plans to hang around NCAA Tournament

Football, pfft! This is a basketball conference!

This has been in the making for a while, though as an infusion top level coaches in Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, Tennessee’s Rick Barnes, LSU’s Will Wade, Mississippi State coach Ben Howland, Kermit Davis of Ole Miss, Alabama coach Nate Oates, Cuonzo Martin of Missouri and Eric Musselman of Arkansas. All of these talented coaches have helped elevate these teams into the NCAA Tournament as Auburn went to the Final Four when it was last played in 2019.

The following is a look inside each of the SEC’s NCAA Tournament entrants which profiles these teams in a league where basketball is no longer riding in coach while football is in first-class. Odds and point spreads are bought to you by Bovada Sportsbook and don’t forget to check out TheSportsGeek’s NCAA Bracket Challenge where you could win a 2021 Chevrolet Corvette and $100,000 as well as other great prizes!

2 – East  – Alabama – (+2200) – vs. Iona 

Coach Nate Oats has revamped the Alabama program in a style that he wants to play – up-tempo offensively with a physical, aggressive defense that can force turnovers. Let’s don’t forget though that former coach Avery Johnson left Oats some big time talent in SEC Player of the Year Herb Jones and sharp-shooter John Petty.

Alabama won the weekend’s SEC Tournament when a stick back by LSU’s Aundre Hyatt rimmed out at the buzzer as the Tide now boasts both the regular season and tournament titles.

The Crimson Tide is third in the nation in offensive tempo with a 14.1 second per possession mark while Alabama is No. 2 in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency as opponents make only 40 percent of their shots and those opponent shoot a paltry 28.8 percent from the floor.

Jones and Petty are seniors and are proof of what happens if you stay in college and develop your games under talented coaches such as Oats and the people noted above. Jones (11.2 ppg, 6.5 rpg) was the fourth leading scorer, but became a major force and not just a glue guy.

Petty (12.3 ppg, 37-4%-3) can load it up on the perimeter and he joins Jaden Shackelford and Jahvon Quinerly in surrounding the three-point line and spreading defenses where the Tide can either knock down the three or use the driving lanes to get to the free throw line where they shot 72 percent, collectively, on the year.

The Tide opens what many think will be a run to the Final Four on Saturday at 4 p.m. against the Rick Pitino-coached Iona Gaels.

3 – South – Arkansas – (+6000) – vs. Colgate

Much like Nate Oats at Alabama, Eric Musselman has upgraded the Razorbacks program and now has it back to being a player on the national level.

Keeping the talent in the state of Arkansas was a major objective and he did this already with the recruiting class that gave us Moses Moody, who has had a phenomenal year as a freshman as he was the consensus SEC Freshman of the Year, SEC Newcomer of the Year and first team all SEC.

Smith is an athletic power forward who shot 54.1 percent from the field. The depth in the backcourt is something that will be a problem for the opponents as JD Notae (13.3 ppg, 3.2 rpg) has had a stellar year with only one start. Jalen Smith leads Arkansas in assists as he and Notae show up well on the defensive end.

The line on the Arkansas-Colgate game seems extremely low. The Razorbacks have the length, size, athleticism, depth, fire power, and star power to put this away early. They need a quick start.

5 – Midwest – Tennessee – (+7000) – vs. Oregon State

This will not be an easy first round matchup for the Volunteers. Oregon State is hot right now after winning the Pac-12 championship, and the Beavers have also won seven out of their last nine games. The Volunteers use tons of ball pressure, and they are fourth in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency.

They also turn their opponents over at a high clip as they force 15.7 per game.

John Fulkerson is a fan favorite in Knoxville, but the jury is out on whether he can play after he was knocked out of last week’s win over Florida when Omar Payne game him to shots to the head with his elbows. It feels like Tennessee could get upset by Oregon State but then if the Vols win that one and match with Oklahoma State and win, Illinois likely awaits.

This path equates to a tough road for the Vols.

8 – Midwest – LSU – (+8000) – vs. St. Bonaventure

The Tigers were seeded too low at an 8. They have the offensive fire power to get to the Final Four, but the question is if they will defend at a high enough clip to do so.

LSU lost a heartbreaker in the SEC Championship when Alabama more or less survived when Aundre Hyatt’s stick back at the buzzer went down in the basket and came out. The Tigers continually came from behind in that game and fought Alabama to the wire after losing the two regular season games by an average of 24 points.

The physicality of Smart on the point is a huge advantage and he generally uses that to his advantage in dishing 104 assists and then shooting 42.1 percent from behind the line. Watford comes off his career high of 30 points in the SEC Final and he is a good player at sniffing out a mismatch and using it to his advantage.

Darius Days is a role player and a glue-guy that figures across the boards for Wade. Days (11.7 ppg, 7.9 rpg) leads LSU in rebounding and his athleticism on the boards makes him a tough matchup for opponents.

LSU has gotten better defensively over it’s last five games as the Tigers had held their four opponents before Alabama to 39.6 percent in those four. The Tigers defend the three at a high rate (30.2 percent), but they have had trouble off the dribble and inside throughout the season.

7 – South – Florida – (+15000) – vs. Virginia Tech

This is the first SEC team to be an underdog and a lot of that has to do with how inconsistent the Gators have been this season. They had a four-game winning streak at midseason which was highlighted by a win at West Virginia, then they lost two in a row and jumped to three wins  in a road which was highlighted by Dubs at Auburn and Kentucky.

One thing is certain and that is the effort of point guard Tre Mann which is at the hub of what Florida can do. Mann (16.0 ppg, 5.7 rpg) is the floor general and has upped his leadership and stature throughout the season. Mann is 31-of-53 from the floor over his last four games and is averaging 23.5 points per game in those four.

Big man Colin Castleton (12.0 ppg, 5.9 rpg) has struggled down the stretch. Often times, he looks disconnected from the rest of the team and appears disinterested if he is not at the forefront of the scoring.  At 6-11, he needs to be more aggressive on the boards and in the paint on both ends of the floor.

Castleton averaged only 7.7 points per game in his last four and only found 24 shots in those games, making 11. For Florida to win, the Gators need success early to build confidence within the game that they are playing.

Coach Mike White has talked about the fact that the team gets too emotional as at times it has trouble playing through adversity. The Gators have to clear up the turnover issues as they look for Appleby and Locke to play at the level of Mann to advance past a good Virginia Tech team.

9 – West – Missouri – (+15000) – vs. Oklahoma

Cuonzo Martin has one of the oldest crews in college basketball as the Tigers average 2.47 years of experience which is 11th in the NCAA. Missouri is more or less a guard-driven team led by Dru Smith and Xavier Pinson who both average 14.1 points per game. Both of these guys nail the triple and can get to the rim.

Pinson has reached double figures in seven of the last eight games and the Tigers are 8-2 when he makes just two or more threes per game. Smith has such a bearing on the outcomes of games that he averages 14.8 points and shoots 47 percent in Missouri’s wins and 12.9 points and 39.8 percent in the Tigers’ losses.

Missouri is not a very good three-point shooting team and will get what it can off the dribble and through post ups and conversions by Tilmon or Kobe Brown, who is continuing to take his game to the next level. He had 11 and 16 points back-to-back against LSU and Georgia and scored in double figures in five of his last seven games.

The matchup with Oklahoma feels like a game that Tilmon, with his 6-11, 250-pound frame, could have success in vs. the Sooners’ Brady Manek. The matchups will be interesting as Dru Smith (one of three players named Smith on the the team) should draw Oklahoma leading scorer Austin Reaves.