March Madness 2025: An unprecedented all-SEC Final Four is still alive as league backs up enormous hype

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Bruce Pearl refused to stay on topic.

When CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson tried to ask about Auburn’s upcoming matchup with Michigan State, Pearl steered the conversation in a different direction.

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“How about the SEC?” the Auburn head coach enthusiastically shouted. Then Pearl led his fist-pumping players in a round of “S-E-C” chants.

This year’s SEC has reason to crow after backing up the season-long hype that it was perhaps the strongest conference in college basketball history. Half the Elite Eight hails from the SEC after No. 1 overall seed Auburn secured its place with a 78-65 victory over fifth-seeded Michigan on Friday night.

This weekend, it will be the four national championship contenders from this season’s dominant conference against the four leading challengers to SEC supremacy. Saturday will feature No. 1 Florida vs. No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 1 Duke. Sunday will follow with No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 1 Houston and No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 2 Michigan State.

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The 2016 ACC was the most recent conference to send four teams to the Elite Eight, when North Carolina, Syracuse, Virginia and Notre Dame all reached the regional finals. The 2009 Big East was the first to do it with Louisville, Pittsburgh, Villanova and UConn.

This is the first time that one conference has four Elite Eight teams in four different regions, keeping hope alive of an unprecedented all-SEC Final Four. The Big East became the only league to produce three Final Four teams in 1985 when Villanova toppled Georgetown in the national title game and St. John’s was a semifinalist.

Seldom has an Elite Eight better encapsulated the theme of the entire season than this year’s does. It has been SEC-versus-the-world ever since the league dominated November and December in a fashion few, if any, conferences have before.

The SEC won 88.9% of its games against other conferences, amassed a 58-19 record against the other four power conferences and notched…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/college-basketball/article/march-madness-2025-an-unprecedented-all-sec-final-four-is-still-alive-as-league-backs-up-enormous-hype-054535551.html

Author : Jeff Eisenberg

Publish date : 2025-03-29 05:45:00

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