By: Kenneth Harrison

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The last time an SEC team won the men’s college basketball national championship was Kentucky in 2012.

The last team to play in the national championship game was Kentucky in 2014.

Obviously, the Wildcats are the most successful program in the conference. This season the SEC has been the best basketball conference in the nation. Let’s take a look at the top teams as they head into the SEC Tournament.

# 3 Auburn: The Tigers (27-4) lost their season finale to archrival #5 Alabama 93-91 over the weekend.

They also lost to Texas A&M before that so they are on a two-game losing streak.

Despite that, they are still the top seed in the SEC Tournament. The top four seeds have a bye for the first two rounds of the tournament.

They are led by veteran head coach Bruce Pearl. Pearl was the head coach at Tennessee from 2005-11. He took over at Auburn in 2014 and they did reach the Final Four once in the 2018-19 season. They are led by senior forward Johni Broome. He averages 18.6 points per game and 10.6 assists per game.

They will face the winner of Ole Miss and South Carolina/Arkansas.

# 4 Florida: The Gators (27-4) are the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. Head coach Todd Golden is in his third season in Gainesville and they have improved every year. Last year they made it to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 6 seed and lost in the round of 64.

This season they have a chance to be a No. 1 seed, which would make the path to the Final Four much easier.

The team’s leading scorer is senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. with 17.2 ppg. Sophomore forward Alex Condon leads the team with 8 rpg and 11.4 ppg.

They will face the winner of Mizzou and LSU/Miss State.

# 5 Alabama: The Crimson Tide (24-7) have been good at basketball for the last few years. That’s because of head coach Nate Oats, who was hired in 2019.

They made it to the NCAA Tournament in four of the last five seasons. They went to the Final Four last year and the Sweet 16 twice.

Senior guard Mark Sears averages 19.2 ppg and 5 apg. Senior forward Grant Nelson averages 12.1 ppg and 7.9 rpg. Bama is the third seed so they will play the winner of Kentucky and Oklahoma/Georgia.

# 8 Tennessee: The Vols (25-6) are the fourth SEC team ranked in the top ten. They are a very good team but they are inconsistent. They have been swept by Kentucky and have lost to Vanderbilt and Ole Miss. Florida beat them by 30 points in early January. They got revenge in February when they beat them by 20.

Head coach Rick Barnes has been in Knoxville since 2015. He’s led the Vols to the NCAA Tournament six times. They advanced the Elite Eight last season and they have been to the Sweet 16 twice.

Senior guard Chaz Lanier averages 17.9 ppg. Senior guard Zakai Zeigler is the second leading scorer with 13.1 ppg. Tennessee is the fourth seed and they will face Texas A&M or Texas/Vanderbilt.

# 15 Texas A&M: The Aggies (22-9) had a four-game losing streak before winning the final two games of the season. One of those wins was against Auburn. They are the fifth seed and will play the winner of Vandy/Texas.