Sec Has Earned Respect Kentucky, Pals A Fourth Of Ncaa’s Sweet 16

If this keeps up, the Final Four might look like another Southeastern Conference basketball tournament.

While more publicized leagues like the Big Ten have been major flops in the NCAA tournament, the SEC more known for football - has placed all four of its teams in the round of 16.

No other conference has done as well. Not the Big East, generally conceded to be the best basketball league in the country. Not the Atlantic Coast Conference, where the sport is a second religion along Tobacco Road. And certainly not the Big Ten, which saw all five of its teams lose in the first two rounds.

Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, whose 12th-seeded team advanced to the East Regional semifinals with a pair of upsets, said TV plays a big role in how leagues are perceived.

“The Big East is just the greatest conference, that’s all you hear,” he said. “They hardly ever say anything about the Southeastern Conference.”

SEC coaches, after complaining all year there’s more to their league than Kentucky, love every minute of it.

“I guess we just had some lucky bounces in this tournament,” said Mississippi State coach Richard Williams, sarcasm dripping from every word after his Bulldogs advanced to the Southeast Regional semifinals. “Our league is so weak with Kentucky and the 11 dwarfs.”

Arkansas and Mississippi State are joined in the round of 16 by Kentucky, top seed in the Midwest, and Georgia, eighth seed in the West. No other conference has more than three teams still in the tournament.

Kentucky was expected to make it this far after becoming the first SEC team in 40 years with a perfect league record (16-0). The Wildcats were so dominating, in fact, people assumed the other teams were pushovers.

“We’ve said all along we’ve got an outstanding basketball league,” Williams said, “but I think when you have a team like Kentucky in your league that’s just so dominant, it makes the rest of us look bad.”

Still, there was evidence heading into the NCAAs that the SEC was more than a one-team phenomenon.

Mississippi State (24-7) was probably the best No. 5 seed in the field. The Bulldogs upset Kentucky to win the SEC tournament and have star-quality players in Dontae’ Jones, Erick Dampier and Darryl Wilson.

Georgia (21-9) is the most experienced team in the tournament with five senior starters. And coach Tubby Smith has a knack of pushing teams to unexpected heights. His Tulsa teams were in the regional semifinals the past two years.

No one, though, could have expected Arkansas (20-12) to get this far. The Razorbacks lost all five starters from last year’s national runner-up team and were a borderline pick even to receive a bid.

Once they got in, though, it seemed like old times for Richardson and his lineup, which includes four freshmen. Arkansas upset fifth-seeded Penn State - one of two SEC victories in head-to-head matchups with the Big Ten - and No. 4 Marquette to make the regional semifinals for the fourth year in a row.

Big Ten champ Purdue was ousted in the second round by Georgia.

The SEC’s brilliant run likely will come to an end this week. Arkansas faces top-ranked Massachusetts (33-1), while Mississippi State gets Big East champ Connecticut (32-2).

Georgia would probably get Kansas (28-4) in the West finals to earn a trip to the Meadowlands.

For now, though, they can dream.

“It would be great to see us all advance,” Richardson said. “Then maybe some of the East Coast writers, some of the East Coast announcers, would say, ‘Hey, basketball is pretty good in the Southeastern Conference.”’