The TBS cameras cut to a slow-motion replay of Jaylin Williams going up for a shot from underneath the basket during the first half of Saturday night’s Elite 8 showdown against Duke. The Arkansas big man made the bucket and got fouled, much to the delight of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who was shown in the second row putting his own body English on Williams’ attempt at a 3-point play.

Of course Sankey was pulling for Arkansas. The Hogs were the SEC’s last remaining team in the NCAA Tournament. A loss to Duke meant that the conference would be left searching for its first Final Four team since 2019, and it would also officially leave the SEC without a national championship berth for the 7th consecutive NCAA Tournament.

No amount of body English from Sankey could’ve pushed the Hogs over the top of Duke on Saturday night. And no amount of body English or increased importance on SEC basketball was enough to end an even longer drought.

It’s been a decade since the SEC claimed a national title in men’s hoops. The 2012 Kentucky squad was the conference’s last squad to cut down the nets.

Obviously, that drought isn’t in the same ballpark as the Big Ten or Pac-12, both of whom have gone multiple decades since their last national title (2000 for the Big Ten and 1997 for the Pac-12). As long as that continues — there’s no end in sight — the SEC won’t be at the but of the joke like either of those conferences. It especially avoided the ultimate conference dunce cap thanks to the Big Ten becoming the first conference to ever put 9 teams into the field and fail to send a single team to the Elite 8.

At least the SEC had representation in the Elite 8, even if it was 1-and-done. Arkansas saved the conference from what would’ve been its most disappointing NCAA Tournament ever after 5 of the SEC’s 6 teams in the field got bounced by double-digit seeds on the opening weekend.

But it’s a fair question — how long will this drought last?

A few things are worth remembering with that discussion. This is not the SEC’s longest drought without a title in men’s hoops. The conference went without a crown from 1959-77 (Kentucky won it all in 1958 and 1978). John Wooden also won 10 titles during that stretch. It was a different time, and it was a different tournament with a smaller field before the NCAA expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Some would say there’s no way that the SEC will have a drought that lasts 2 decades. The conference with the highest-paid coaches had a much different narrative a short 2 weeks ago. For the first time since 1999-2004, the SEC had 5 teams in the field for the 5th consecutive year. But just like that 1999-2004 stretch, this current stretch didn’t yield a single title berth. At least not yet.

In fact, the SEC actually didn’t have a single 1-seed during that time. The 2015 Kentucky squad was the SEC’s last 1-seed. The unbeaten Cats were the overwhelming favorite to win it all, but well, we all know how that turned out:

The SEC’s lone Final Four participants since that night were 2017 South Carolina, who made it into the field as a 7-seed, and 5-seed Auburn, who was on the wrong end of the controversial missed double-dribble call in the semifinal against eventual-winner Virginia. Would we be talking about the SEC’s drought if that play had been called correctly? We can’t definitively say because Auburn would’ve still needed to get through an impressive Texas Tech squad.

Whatever the case, the facts remain. The SEC’s drought continued.

Who can end it? The default answer would be Kentucky, but John Calipari is facing more questions than answers now 7 years removed from his last Final Four berth, and 1 week removed from one of the biggest Round 1 letdowns we’ve ever seen. It’s fair to wonder if Calipari’s offensive approach can win big in this fast-paced, 3-point happy era of the sport.

What about teams who do play modern basketball like Auburn or Alabama? Depending on when that question was asked, you’d probably get a wildly different answer.

It’s hard not to default to some recency bias with the way Auburn fizzled out after reaching No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the first time in program history. Even with potentially the future No. 1 overall pick, Bruce Pearl couldn’t make the right tweaks to stop the bleeding in the final 1/3 of the season. It’s not impossible for a post-sanctions version of Auburn to go all the way, but it doesn’t feel like a yearly contender just yet.

Oats, meanwhile, suffered an upset loss in March again. Granted, it was an inconsistent team all year and the Jahvon Quinerly injury in the NCAA Tournament was a killer, but it’s hard to assume someone who has never been past the Sweet 16 is about to win a title.

Speaking of guys who have struggled to reach beyond the Sweet 16, Rick Barnes couldn’t have asked for a more favorable March situation this year, yet the SEC Tournament champs still couldn’t even reach the second weekend. Barnes hasn’t been to the Elite 8 since 2008. He only reached the Sweet 16 once since then, too. And for a Tennessee program who has never played in a Final Four, it doesn’t seem fair to expect the Vols to end the drought, either.

What about one of the SEC’s teams with a new head coach, you ask? In the 21st century, Calipari (2012) and Kevin Ollie (2014) are the only coaches who won a title less than 5 years into their respective tenures. That’s not to say a team like Florida couldn’t put itself back in the hunt sooner than expected. But nobody in their right mind is calling for the Gators to win it all in the next 2 years.

Maybe this is now Arkansas’ mission to conquer. The Hogs lost by 9 points in consecutive Elite 8 appearances. Last year, they gave eventual national champ Baylor its best game of the tournament. Maybe Duke will cut down the nets this year. Either way, we just watched Eric Musselman join Calipari and Billy Donovan as the SEC’s only coaches to make consecutive Regional Finals in the 21st century.

Both of those coaches also won it all. No other SEC coach did that in the 21st century. Maybe Musselman, with his infectious brand of basketball and proven track record overhauling the roster in the transfer portal, is about to take that next step.

Excluding Arkansas, Pearl pinned the SEC’s poor NCAA Tournament showing on the conference beating up on each other. Nobody in their right mind would use that as an excuse for SEC football, baseball, women’s basketball or any other title-winning sport. It appears that SEC basketball is searching for its voice, and above all else, a championship identity.

It’s gonna take a lot more body English to get there.