Don’t let anyone tell you that Alabama fans are only concerned with football.
Why? This week’s mailbag is dominated by the Crimson Tide faithful. However, not all questions are aimed at thoughts on Alabama.
Let’s dive into the mailbag.
At this point, five is the max. I don’t really see any scenario playing out where the SEC gets six teams.
Now for the teams that are/should be/could be in:
- Teams that are in: Kentucky, South Carolina, Florida
- Teams that should be in: Arkansas
- Teams that could be in: Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Vanderbilt
So for everyone out there that thinks the SEC is a horrible basketball conference this season, 8 of 14 teams at least have a shot midway through conference play.
Unless the Razorbacks take a serious dive, they’ll be in. Their RPI is sitting pretty at No. 28, and while we all know I despise the RPI, it still matters this time of year.
As for the four bubble teams? Tennessee has the best shot at claiming the fifth spot due to strength of schedule, RPI and recent performances.
I thought Georgia would find a way to get in, but the upcoming schedule does the Bulldogs no favors: at South Carolina, vs. Florida, at Tennessee, vs. Mississippi State, vs. Kentucky, at Alabama. The good news is that there are a lot of resume-boosting wins in there. The bad news is I’m not sure how many of those Georgia actually wins.
We’ll talk about Alabama in the next question, but Vanderbilt is in better shape from an RPI standpoint (No. 48) thanks to several quality wins this season.
A lot can change in the second half of the conference slate, though.
I’m not sure there’s a magic number, as it’s more about who Alabama beats along the way.
Right now, the Crimson Tide sit at No. 63 in the RPI. That means there’s still plenty of work to do. Things would have looked a lot better had Alabama won at Arkansas.
If you look at this team’s schedule the rest of the way, there are four games that will make a huge difference in whether the Crimson Tide can sneak in:
- Feb. 7 at South Carolina
- Feb. 11 vs. Kentucky
- Feb. 23 vs. Georgia
- Mar. 4 at Tennessee
Those are all important. If Alabama beats the teams it should beat (bad losses aren’t acceptable at this point), a tournament bid will come down to how Avery Johnson’s squad fares in these four games and the SEC tournament.
The Arkansas loss certainly made it a lot tougher to get there. But this team still has the potential to beat anyone on any given night.
The biggest thing we’ve learned about the middle-of-the-pack teams (teams not named Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina, LSU or Missouri) is that they’re all lacking consistency. That’s not surprising when you consider how many young teams there are in the league.
I’ve constantly talked about how it takes time to build programs. There are a lot of newer coaches in this conference, and we’re already seeing what they’re capable of.
We see it with Rick Barnes at Tennessee. We see what Avery Johnson’s been able to get out of a Crimson Tide program that was going nowhere. And Bryce Drew’s scored big wins at Vandy despite the ups and downs.
We’re getting close to this league getting back to six bids a year in the NCAA tournament.
It’s coming, maybe as soon as next season.
It’s certainly a big game for both teams, and there’s more to it than just the rivalry.
Auburn won the game convincingly on January 21, but the Tigers failed to fully capitalize on it. The victory at TCU was nice and all, however, the return home against Tennessee was simply a bad performance from Bruce Pearl’s team.
On the Alabama front, again, the Arkansas loss was ugly. Really ugly.
An Alabama win on Saturday would be great for revenge and rivalry purposes. It would also show what Johnson has felt has been a strength of his team: the ability to bounce back after a tough loss (which the Crimson Tide did in winning by 20 at Georgia after the Auburn loss).
For the Tigers, it would be good for bragging rights to sweep your rival during the regular season.
Looking beyond this game, both programs are heading in the right direction. Both have head coaches that know how to win, and the incoming recruiting classes will prove more playmakers and depth to each of their rosters.
Hopefully Coleman Coliseum will be rocking for what should be another exciting game between these two.
Blake Lovell has worked in sports media for over 10 years. He currently covers SEC football and basketball for various publications.