By: Buck Blanz

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

For college basketball fans around the country, we are just under two weeks away from the tournament season that each of us felt robbed from a year ago.

Thankfully, the sports world has been able to work around those obstacles and resume play.

With that time of year rolling around again the spotlight appears to be on the SEC Tournament more than recent years due to the fact there is a new frontrunner.

The SEC Tournament beginning March 10th, is held at Bridgestone Arena, in Nashville Tennessee and with Alabama leading the with a 13-1 conference record it is shaping up to be a good one.

Let’s take a look and see how each contender is looking heading into the last week of regular season conference play.

Alabama 18-6 (13-2): Ranked 6th in the country, The Alabama Crimson Tide has dominated the SEC in conference play only giving up losses to 18th ranked Missouri and 24th ranked Oklahoma team in the BIG12 vs. SEC Challenge.

Nate Oats and The Crimson Tide have relied on the “Three and D” play style (often shooting over 40% from three) and it paid off pretty well most of the season with a couple of hiccups recently.

The Alabama squad should be well rested coming off of a double by and not playing until noon on March 12th.

Arkansas 18-5 (10-4): Ranked 20th in the country The Razorbacks are on an eight-game conference win-streak currently with a huge test against LSU on Saturday.

Adding to their win-streak with an impressive victory Wednesday night over Alabama, the Razorbacks appear to be playing their best basketball confidently at the right time.

LSU 14-7 (9-5): This is an LSU team that can flat out score with Guard Cameron Thomas (Averaging 22.7 ppg) who leads the league in scoring, putting up 104 on the Auburn Tigers.

After their statement across the league against Auburn I think they have put the SEC on notice.

Florida 12-6 (8-5): After the unfortunate loss of the Gators key player Keyontae Johnson (Preseason SEC Player of the Year) back in December, many people wrote Mike White’s squad off.

Against all odds Florida has played themselves into maybe a four seed in the SEC Tournament and maybe an eighth seed in the national tournament.

Tennessee 16-6 (9-6): Currently ranked 25th in the country, the Tennessee Volunteers have been famous for their defense these past few years. However, in recent games the Vols are giving up over one point per possession while also being inconsistent with their scoring.

Ole Miss 13-9 (8-7): Considered a bubble team with some work to do, according to Bracketology expert Joe Lunardi, but the Rebels have been on the move recently.

Winning five out of their last six games has allowed Ole Miss to have the opportunity to use the conference tournament to add to their resume for an at-large for the national tournament.

Missouri 14-7 (7-7): This 24th ranked Missouri team is a team that is trending in the wrong direction at the wrong time losing four out of their last five games.

Missouri is another team that will look to try and add to their resume in the SEC Tournament but with quite a bit of work to do it seems nearly impossible.

Kentucky 8-13 (7-7): Obviously Kentucky is considered one of college basketball’s “Blue Blood” programs but has had an unfortunate year nonetheless.

With their only hope at a national tournament appearance is through winning the SEC Tournament, it is fair to say that goal is out of reach.

Teams that are eliminated from an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. Better luck next year…

Georgia                  14-9 (7-9)

Mississippi State    12-11 (6-8)

Auburn                    11-13 (5-10)

South Carolina        5-11 (3-9)

Texas A&M              8-7 (2-6)

Vanderbilt                6-13 (2-11)

The SEC Tournament starts March 10th and although Alabama has seemingly run away with the regular season, the conference championship is up for grabs for anyone.

Only time will tell if we will get to see an SEC team appear in the FInal Four for the third time in four years.