On Selection Sunday, there’s a chance that you’ll only hear 4 SEC teams called.

It’ll be considered a down year for the conference, and rightfully so. The SEC won’t have the 7 NCAA Tournament bids that it did last year, which included 4 legitimate Final Four hopefuls. The narrative won’t be about how “SEC basketball is here to stay” and that it’s not just a football/baseball conference anymore.

Instead, the SEC will be lumped into the wild mess that’s been the 2019-20 college basketball season. That, however, is just part of the reason I’m not selling my stock in SEC hoops.

By “stock,” I’m referring to what all of us bought last year. That is, a belief that the conference was trending upward. “Kentucky and everyone else” was a thing of the past. The fact that the Cats didn’t win the SEC Tournament or represent the SEC in the Final Four was a sign of that. There’s a chance that the script flips back to that and come Selection Sunday, we’re again talking about Kentucky as the SEC champion and as the conference’s only legitimate Final Four hopeful.

But again, don’t sell that SEC hoops stock. Remember that context is important here.

NCAA Tournament bids don’t show something that I believe to be true — the SEC’s group of coaches is as good as it has been in the 21st century. That’s the foundation of any good league. Go ask the ACC about that. Eleven of the SEC’s coaches have been to a Sweet 16, and 8 have been to an Elite 8 (the ACC has 10 Sweet 16 coaches and 9 Elite 8 coaches).

How many lame-duck coaches are there in the SEC right now? Maybe 1 with Mike White at Florida? And even he has the ability to clinch is 5th 20-win season in as many years as he has been in Gainesville. Other than that, how many SEC coaches could you legitimately see losing their jobs by the end of the 2020-21 season? Cuonzo Martin is the only other one who I’d put in that category. There’s about as much coaching stability as a Power 5 conference can have.

Rick Barnes turned down UCLA to stay at Tennessee last year, which was obviously a significant development for the conference. The fact that John Calipari once again squashed the NBA rumors was, well, expected at this point.

But it was the coaching talent that the SEC brought in that really bodes well for the 2020s. Go ask an Arkansas fan or a Texas A&M fan how good they feel about the future of their respective programs with Eric Musselman and Buzz Williams. Barring a lengthy run in Nashville, neither team will make the NCAA Tournament. Still, the Year 1 improvement shown by both teams combined with the recruiting was why the expectations rose immediately.

Speaking of recruiting, have you checked out the 2020 SEC basketball class rankings on 247sports?

Here’s the breakdown of 5-star recruits signed by conference:

  • SEC: 7
  • ACC: 7
  • Big 12: 2
  • Pac-12: 2
  • Big Ten: 0
  • Unsigned: 7

And for what it’s worth, the ACC has 31 signees/commits rated 4- or 5-stars compared to 28 for the SEC.

The talent in the conference is absolutely improving. Remember 2017 when 3 Kentucky players were the entire SEC representation in the NBA Draft? Last year, the conference had 11 players drafted from 7 schools. That number will likely take a dip this year, but NBADraft.net still has 8 SEC players from 5 schools getting drafted, including projected No. 1 overall pick Anthony Edwards.

Just as we always talk about in football, next-level talent is one of the 3 key pillars on how we judge a conference. Another is recruiting and the other one is obviously championships. That’s why the ACC dominates the discussion about having the best conference on a yearly basis.

This year, that title is with the Big Ten. That’s the conversation because, with the possibility of double-digit teams in the NCAA Tournament, the numbers speak for themselves. But the Big Ten’s national reputation takes a hit because it hasn’t had a national champion since Michigan State in 2000. It had 7 (!) national runners-up in that stretch. That’s a real stat. If that continues in 2020, the Big Ten’s depth will be an afterthought.

That’s the good news for the SEC heading into this NCAA Tournament. The bar is relatively low. Even if the SEC only gets 3 teams to the Sweet 16, that’s a win in my book. And who knows? Given the parity in the sport, you could make a case that the door is open for up-and-down teams like Auburn, Florida and LSU to get hot at the right time.

There’s also the more likely scenario that Kentucky is the only SEC team standing going into the 2nd weekend of the tournament. It’ll serve as a reminder that despite all the optimism throughout the 2018-19 season, this thing takes a bit of time to build. Eight of the 14 teams in the conference have a coach in Year 3 or fewer (the Big Ten has 5 and the ACC has 4). Quality coaching hires were at the foundation of the SEC’s 2018-19 revival. That’s the saving grace for a down 2019-20 (so far).

The SEC stock took a hit with the year that was. Those hits could continue into March.

My advice? Buy low.