HOOVER, Ala. (AP) - South Carolina understands what's at stake this week in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
The Gamecocks (32-24, 13-17 SEC) head into their first-round game Tuesday with Missouri (29-26, 15-15) at Hoover, Alabama, knowing they need a productive week to reach the NCAA Tournament for a 16th consecutive season. An early elimination likely means they'll be left out of the NCAA field for the first time since 1999.
"I don't know exactly what we have to do, but we certainly have to win some games down here, that's for sure," South Carolina coach Chad Holbrook said. "We certainly can't lose (Tuesday), I don't believe, and be in the conversation, and we probably need to make a pretty darn good run down here to solidify ourselves."
South Carolina isn't the only SEC team with much at stake.
Now that it already has won an SEC regular-season title and likely wrapped up one of the eight NCAA Tournament national seeds, LSU (46-9, 21-8) is chasing its third consecutive SEC Tournament crown. Defending national champion Vanderbilt (39-17, 20-10), Texas A&M (43-10, 18-10) and Florida (40-15, 19-11) also remain in contention for national seeds.
Other teams must play well this week just to get an NCAA bid at all.
Tuesday's single-elimination games feature Ole Miss (30-25, 15-14) facing Alabama (30-26, 12-18), Kentucky (30-24, 14-15) meeting Auburn (34-22, 13-17) and Arkansas (33-20, 17-12) battling Tennessee (24-25, 11-18) as well as the South Carolina-Missouri matchup. Tuesday's winners advance to the double-elimination portion of the tournament that begins Wednesday.
"I think we're like the majority of the clubs that will be playing (Tuesday)," Kentucky coach Gary Henderson said. "We need to win."
A look at some things to watch in the SEC Tournament.
TOURNAMENT TOUGH: LSU is seeking its third straight tournament title and sixth in the last eight years. LSU leads the SEC in batting average (.322), runs scored (395), stolen bases (104) and ERA (2.91). LSU coach Paul Mainieri said he tries to look at the SEC Tournament as a reward for his team after the grind of the regular season. "If you feel like you're already going to be in the NCAA Tournament, there's not the pressure that some of the schools are going to have this week probably, that they have to win or their season is over," Mainieri said. "That feeling hasn't been with us. We already know we're in the NCAA Tournament. We can just relax and go out and enjoy the competition and enjoy the experience of playing there."
WHO'S SURGING: LSU has won 23 of its last 27 games and 16 of its last 19. ... Arkansas hasn't lost an SEC series over the last eight weeks and has gone 16-7 in league competition during that stretch. ... The SEC team with the longest current overall winning streak is Tennessee, which has won four straight. Before last week, the Volunteers hadn't won more than three consecutive games all season.
WHO'S SLUMPING: Missouri has lost 12 of its last 15 games. ... Auburn has dropped five of its last seven.
WHO'S MISSING: Mississippi State (24-30, 8-22), a College World Series runner-up in 2013, failed to reach the conference tournament for the first time since 2010. Thirteen different Mississippi State players missed a total of 272 games due to injury. ... Georgia (26-28, 10-19) lost eight of its last 12 conference games and also got left out of Hoover.
UNRELIABLE INDICATOR: If last year's SEC Tournament offers any indication, this week's results don't necessarily have much bearing on how SEC teams will fare the rest of the postseason. LSU and Florida met in last year's SEC Tournament final and both ended up losing in regional competition. Vanderbilt went 1-2 in the SEC Tournament and was outscored 18-3 in its two losses, yet the Commodores went on to win the national title.