Greg Sankey has watched first hand how SEC men’s basketball has ascended into the conversation of the best conferences in college basketball.

The SEC Commissioner visited the set of “SEC Now” near the court in Tampa, Florida where the SEC Tournament is held this week to reflect on all the improvements in the league. Daymeon Fishback of the SEC Network pointed out that 4 SEC teams this season have a shot at the Final Four. Fishback then asked Sankey is the strength of the league has exceeded Sankey’s own expectations.

Previously, Sankey said, the SEC underperformed its own expectations, but he quickly pointed out that the investments in coaching, facilities and recruiting were outside of his reach.

“What do we have to do to have the right foundation, so we can achieve the level of excellence we expect,” Sankey said. “You saw progress pretty quickly, and now it’s been sustained. We were at 3, then we go up and then we go back down. We’ve been at 5, 6, 8, people are projecting 6. But we have to have a conversation about what it’s like to play in this league night in, night out and the quality of basketball. So you’ve got a team like, take A&M, every time somebody plays A&M it’s close. It’s a grind.”

Sankey then recalled that in 2016, there were 3 teams in, and this year there may be 3 teams on the top 2 seed lines.

After a sub-par Selection Sunday in 2016, Sankey asked what changed, and he learned that adapting academic support so that teams’ Academic Progress Rate improved, and coaches achieved more flexibility with their rosters.

“Continuity matters, hiring a coach and I’ll take from football, the Mark Stoops approach,” Sankey said. “You may have to take your lumps from year to year, but it was Billy Donovan, it was Kevin Stallings, those 2 guys were the consistent presence, and guess what, those 2 programs were the ones with the consistent presence in mid-2000s to 2015 or so. We have to think long term and I know fans get frustrated, we’re not winning enough. Winning’s hard. Think about the margins today we’ve seen.”

Sankey also said that outside the SEC, there was a perception that it’s a football league, but he pointed out that the SEC is an “everything league.” Sankey reiterated that the SEC had 9 national championship trophies last year, mainly from women’s sports.