Let’s get weird.

That’s been the message for the entire 2022-23 season of college hoops, so why not continue that this week in Nashville? The SEC Tournament is set to kick off on Wednesday night at 6 CT with No. 12 South Carolina and No. 13 Ole Miss.

(Those are SEC Tournament seeds … definitely not AP rankings.)

What sort of buzzer-beaters and upsets are in store? Can anyone stop Alabama from its second sweep in 3 years? Could we get our first championship matchup of 2 non-double bye teams since the format changed with expansion in a decade ago?

Here are 6 more questions for the SEC Tournament this week:

1. Will the SEC bubble teams do enough?

The story of the SEC Tournament might be just how many bubble teams the conference has. Take Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology for what it is, but here’s where he had these 4 SEC teams as of Sunday afternoon:

  • Arkansas, 9-seed
  • Auburn, 11-seed (last 4 byes)
  • MSU, 11-seed (last 4 in)
  • Vanderbilt (next 4 out)

All of those teams are in that 6-10 range with opening games on Thursday. One would assume that Arkansas is in good shape, especially after the Hogs only dropped 2 spots in NET ranking to No. 18 following the Kentucky loss. ESPN’s John Gasaway has Arkansas as a “lock” heading into conference championship week.

Still, though. How much better would Hog fans feel if they got to win No. 20 and avoided sweating out 3 long days before Selection Sunday? You could argue that the Arkansas-Auburn game on Thursday night will have the most significant NCAA Tournament implications of any game all week in Nashville, and perhaps in all of Power 5. I wouldn’t dub it a “loser goes home” game, but perhaps it’s more of a “winner breathes a giant sigh of relief” game.

And what about MSU and Vandy? Both are entering the week with 4 Quad 1 wins. Obviously, getting to the quarterfinals and beating Alabama would be massive for MSU while Vandy knocking off Kentucky (again) would turn major heads. Anything short of that might be an uphill climb to make the field.

2. Is there any way that Alabama can play itself out of a No. 1 seed?

We need to bring this up because while I don’t necessarily think a one-and-done SEC Tournament should drop the Tide to that 2-seed line, crazier things have happened. The justification from the selection committee for making such a move would be that with a loss, Alabama played in thrillers in 7 of its final 8 games and away from Tuscaloosa, it looked plenty vulnerable.

Again, I don’t think this will happen because I don’t believe the Tide will even put themselves in that spot by losing to the MSU-Florida winner. More likely is that Alabama pulls a 2021 and sweeps the regular season and conference tournament titles. Of course, in 2021, that team didn’t get the 1-seed that this team would be in line for if it accomplished that feat. In fact, no SEC team has been rewarded with a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament since 2015 (more on that in a minute).

3. Can Tennessee find its identity without Zakai Zeigler?

There are few things worse for a contender than opening March by finding out that their starting point guard is out for the year with a torn ACL. Brutal. We know that the Vols have gone through their share of offensive dry spells and to lose their third-leading scorer so close to the postseason was a crushing blow.

The good news was that the Vols shifted the ageless Santiago Vescovi to point guard and hope that the veteran can right the ship, or perhaps a committee approach will be the move going forward. The bad news is that appears to still be a work in progress coming off the Auburn loss, and the SEC Tournament isn’t an ideal time to find the right way to replace your point guard.

The Vols went from perhaps knocking on the door of a 1-seed in mid-February to now looking like a team who could be ripe for an upset in Nashville.

4. Will the real Kentucky please stand up?

It was fitting that Kentucky’s final week of the regular season included a baffling home loss to Vandy to stop a 4-game winning streak, and then a gritty road win at Arkansas without Cason Wallace. While John Calipari remained vague on Wallace’s status for the SEC Tournament — he said he has “no idea” if he’ll be available — it’s fair to wonder which UK team we’ll get in Nashville, especially with the way the bracket sets up.

There’s a good chance that Kentucky’s first game of the week is against the Vandy squad who waltzed into Rupp Arena and stunned the Cats on Senior Night. Actually, Georgia could also play its way into a matchup against Kentucky after upsetting the Cats in Athens in mid-February. In an ideal world for UK, Wallace plays and with limited expectations, finds the right ingredients (and rotations) for a deep run in Nashville.

In reality, that’s anyone’s guess.

5. Who is the most likely team to repeat 2022 A&M’s run?

Last year, A&M was the story of the week. The Aggies entered the week considered to be a bubble squad and won 3 games … only to lose to Tennessee and get left out of the field entirely.

Any team seeded No. 6 or worse could qualify, though I wouldn’t put much hope in anyone seeded 11-14 on making a deep run. If that happened, given how much separation it feels like there is between those teams, we’d be busting out the 2007-08 Georgia comps.

Go figure that the team in that 6-10 range most likely to pull off that kind of run could be the Arkansas-Auburn winner, who would have to get through the 2023 version of the Aggies. The Hogs have dealt with injuries and have struggled to hit their stride, but we know they aren’t lacking talent with Anthony Black and Nick Smith Jr., and they’ve been incredibly streaky all year.

It’s tempting to go with Auburn to follow in 2022 A&M’s footsteps because we know that when Bruce Pearl’s team is right, it seems borderline unstoppable. The problem with that kind of prediction is that it suggests they’re going to figure out how to close games, which has been an issue all year. They got all the way up to No. 15 and then lost 6 games by single digits in the final 5 weeks of the regular season.

Could the hometown Dores be the story of the week? It’s no secret that Jerry Stackhouse’s squad has vastly improved ever since that 101-44 beatdown against Alabama. Winning 8 of 9 to close the regular season should have everyone on notice, even with the season-ending injury to leading scorer Liam Robbins. Couldn’t you see a scenario in which Jordan Wright shoots Vandy into a few victories and it continues this remarkable late-season run? Absolutely.

6. Can the SEC Tournament actually get some love from the selection committee?

It’s somewhat under the radar how little the SEC Tournament has mattered in the eyes of the selection committee. Tennessee’s 3-seed after winning the conference tournament was a stunner, as was 2019 when Auburn only got a 5-seed after rolling through the SEC field as a ranked team. And remember when Alabama pulled off that aforementioned regular season-conference tournament sweep in 2021? It was rewarded with a 2-seed, not a 1-seed.

Between those instances, it’s fair to wonder if the selection committee really puts any stock into the SEC Tournament. It’s not that the conference as a whole is lacking relevance. In 4 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, the SEC had at least 6 teams in the field after it failed to do that once from 2009-17. But 2015 Kentucky was the last SEC team to earn a No. 1 seed. The last 6 SEC Tournament winners earned the following seeds in the NCAA Tournament:

  • 2016 Kentucky — Entered SEC Tourney No. 16 in AP, earned 4-seed
  • 2017 Kentucky — Entered SEC Tourney No. 8 in AP, earned 2-seed
  • 2018 Kentucky — Entered SEC Tourney unranked, earned 5-seed
  • 2019 Auburn — Entered SEC Tourney No. 22 in AP, earned 5-seed
  • 2021 Alabama  — Entered SEC Tourney No. 6 in AP, earned 2-seed
  • 2022 Tennessee — Entered SEC Tourney No. 9 in AP, earned 3-seed

Look. I’m not saying the SEC is worthy of being in consideration for a 1-seed every year like the Big 12 suddenly is. A lack of national championship appearances in the last 15 years (2 total) might have something to do with that. But given how the conference has seemingly improved its depth in the last 5 years, it’s a bit of a surprise to see such a significant drought of 1-seeds, especially when 3 of those teams entered conference tournament week as top-10 teams.

One would think Alabama is set to bust that. But if the Tide get left out of a 1-seed after being in the top 4 of the AP Poll for the last 2 months, sound the conspiracy alarms.

I wouldn’t bet on that, though.