Who needs football? This year’s SEC in the conversation for strongest men’s basketball conference … ever

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Chaz Lanier stayed in Tennessee for another season and it’s paying off for the Volunteers, who are 10-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)

John Calipari recently likened playing in the SEC this season to sitting down at a poker table full of sharks. The Arkansas coach told reporters that he scanned the league standings from top to bottom and didn’t find a single automatic win.

“Then I started thinking, ‘Are we the win?’” Calipari deadpanned. “Maybe they’re looking, saying, ‘We’re playing Arkansas. Thank God for that.’”

Calipari surely isn’t the only SEC men’s basketball coach apprehensive about the 18-game gauntlet ahead. The SEC isn’t just the sport’s clear-cut top league this season. It’s building an argument as one of the strongest in recent memory.

As of Monday morning, SEC teams have a combined record of 144-20 this season. The SEC’s winning percentage of .878 towers above men’s basketball’s other four power conferences, the Big 12 (.743), the Big Ten (.742), the Big East (.689) and the ACC (.635).

It’s not like the SEC has feasted on nothing but cupcakes either. SEC teams are 55-17 against power-conference opponents and 17-8 against AP Top 25 teams. That’s already four more regular-season, non-conference Top 25 wins than any other league has ever amassed in one season, per former ESPN stats and information researcher Jared Berson.

Tennessee retained the No. 1 spot in Monday’s AP Top 25 after escaping at the buzzer at Illinois on Saturday despite leading scorer Chaz Lanier and standout point guard Zakai Zeigler fouling out. Auburn tightened its white-knuckle grip on No. 1 in every advanced metric on Saturday with a 91-53 demolition of Ohio State.

All 16 SEC teams appear in the top 68 in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted-efficiency rankings. Twelve SEC teams are inside KenPom’s top 40. The league put Tennessee, Auburn, Kentucky, Alabama and Florida in the top seven of the new AP Top 25 and had Texas A&M,…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-16 19:29:00

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