Does winning the SEC regular-season basketball title guarantee a long NCAA Tournament run?
By Chris Wright
Published:
Tuesday night, Auburn could celebrate its first SEC Championship in basketball since 1999.
What kind of predictor is that for NCAA Tournament success?
Let’s just say winning the regular season doesn’t guarantee a long NCAA Tournament stay, but it is a better indicator than winning the SEC Tournament.
Seven times in the past 10 years, the SEC Champion (regular season) had the longest stay in the NCAA Tournament. In two of those instances, that team also won the SEC Tournament (2015 and 2010).
Just one other year (2011) did the SEC Tournament champion make it farther in the NCAA Tournament than the regular season champion.
Twice in the past four years, though, an outsider has gone farther than the regular season champion or the SECT champion. Last season was the most dramatic outlier: South Carolina finished fourth in the regular season, lost its opening game of the SECT, then quickly recovered and made a stirring run to the Final Four.
Here’s at look at how the regular season champions have fared:
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Managing Editor
A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.
