When the SEC expanded from 12 to 14 teams and added Missouri and Texas A&M for the 2012-2013 school year, it figured the conference's basketball bids to the NCAA Tournament would increase.
Five SEC teams played in the NCAA Tournament in 2012, and Missouri and Texas A&M brought strong basketball resumes from the Big 12. The Tigers went to the NCAA Tournament four consecutive seasons before joining the SEC, and the Aggies made it six of the previous seven seasons.
But the bigger SEC wasn't better in 2013 when it came to basketball. Just three SEC teams -- Florida, Missouri and Ole Miss -- made the NCAA Tournament in 2013.
That was the start of a four-year stretch in which the SEC was limited to three NCAA Tournament teams three times.
Last season, the conference barely got in three with Vanderbilt as an 11 seed -- where the Commodores lost a First Four game to Wichita State 70-50 -- along with Kentucky and Texas A&M.
This season, things are looking up again for SEC basketball.
The conference has five teams in the NCAA Tournament, including the Arkansas Razorbacks (25-9) as a No. 8 seed, to match the most in the past nine seasons.
SEC teams joining the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville are No. 2 seed Kentucky (29-5), No. 4 seed Florida (24-8), No. 7 seed South Carolina (22-10) and No. 9 seed Vanderbilt (19-15).
"Not only did we get five in, I thought we got five solidly in," Gators Coach Mike White said. "I was pretty pleased with all of our seeds. I thought they were very well deserved."
Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss are playing in the NIT.
"We had another two or three teams that, given a win here or a different bounce of the ball there, could have been right there in the NCAA Tournament as well," White said. "We're at five now, and certainly there's a chance and an expectation in my opinion that we'll be able to get more and more in."
First-round games for the SEC teams are Arkansas-Seton Hall, Kentucky-Northern Kentucky, Florida-East Tennessee State, South Carolina-Marquette and Vanderbilt-Northwestern.
"We're glad to get out of the family now," Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson said. "Tired of beating up on each other, and hopefully now we can go and do it on the national scene.
"That's when you get a chance to put your signature out there, put your brand out there from the standpoint of it's more than just Kentucky in our league."
Vanderbilt set a record for the most losses by a team to receive an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.
"For Vanderbilt to get a bid with 15 losses speaks to the respect that I think now is starting to be shown to our league and the body of work the league has put in," Ole Miss Coach Andy Kennedy said. "I think the league is in a great place moving forward."
The Commodores are in the NCAA Tournament field on the strength of going 3-0 against Florida, winning at Arkansas, and beating South Carolina and Iowa State, a No. 5 seed. Nine of their losses were to NCAA Tournament teams: twice to Arkansas and Kentucky, and in nonconference games to Bucknell, Butler, Minnesota, Dayton and Middle Tennessee State.
First-year Vanderbilt Coach Bryce Drew said the tough nonconference schedule was put together before he took the job, but it worked out well.
"Some of those games we thought would be solid, but a lot of those teams just really blossomed and had tremendous years," Drew said. "So I think the schedule definitely helped us."
Among the SEC's top 20 scorers, only six are seniors -- although several underclassmen are expected to leave after this season and be first-round NBA Draft picks, including Kentucky freshmen Malik Monk, De'Aaron Fox and Bam Adebayo.
"That's OK, because we've got the calvary coming in behind them," Wildcats Coach John Calipari said of his latest highly rated recruiting class. "We'll be young again next year, but we'll be all right."
Calipari said other SEC teams should be good next season, too, with strong recruiting classes to add to experienced returnees.
"This is a young league that's as good as we've been in years," said Calipari, in his eighth season at Kentucky. "As good as we've been since I've been here.
"We stay on that path, and we're going to end up having seven, eight, maybe even nine teams in the NCAA Tournament."
The Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East and Big Ten all have seven teams or more in the NCAA Tournament, and the Big 12 has six, but the SEC is closing the gap.
Alabama Coach Avery Johnson credited SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey with making a strong commitment to improve basketball. Sankey hired Dan Leibovitz from the American Athletic Conference to be the SEC's associate commissioner for basketball after adding Mike Tranghese, the former Big East commissioner, as a special assistant for basketball.
"We're back trending in the right direction because Commissioner Sankey has put a huge focus on basketball," Johnson said. "That's where the next real growth potential is in a big way for the SEC."
Coaching stability as well as some new blood have contributed to a stronger NCAA Tournament presence for the SEC.
Calipari, who led Kentucky to the 2012 national championship among four Final Four appearances, has restored the Wildcats to prominence after they struggled under Billy Gillispie. He also took Massachusetts and Memphis to the Final Four.
Anderson is in his sixth season at Arkansas and has the Razorbacks in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three seasons after the program went six seasons without an NCAA Tournament bid. He has eight NCAA Tournament appearances combined with Alabama-Birmingham, Missouri and Arkansas.
White, in his second season at Florida as Billy Donovan's replacement, has the Gators back in the NCAA Tournament after a two-year absence.
Drew has re-energized the Vanderbilt fan base after the Commodores made just one NCAA Tournament in Kevin Stallings' final four seasons as coach before he left to take the Pittsburgh job.
South Carolina is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004 in Frank Martin's fifth season as coach. Martin took Kansas State to the NCAA Tournament four times in five seasons before taking the Gamecocks' job.
Johnson coached the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals. Billy Kennedy took Texas A&M to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 last season. Auburn's Bruce Pearl, Tennessee's Rick Barnes and Mississippi State's Ben Howland have a combined 40 NCAA Tournament appearances at other schools.
Mark Fox and Andy Kennedy each have two NCAA Tournament appearances at Georgia and Ole Miss -- Fox also went three times at Nevada -- and LSU and Missouri will pursue coaches with NCAA Tournament experience in their job searches.
"I'm very proud of our conference," Martin said. "How difficult, how good it is.
"In a conference like ours, the competition and the coaches that we faced every single night for the last 19 games has definitely hardened us for this moment.
"I don't care what opponent we come up against. We're battle-tested, and we're prepared and we'll be ready to go."
Anderson said the SEC has become a deeper conference.
"I think the bottom, the middle and the top were all good," Anderson said. "It speaks volumes for the SEC administrative staff. What our coaches are doing and obviously the kids and what they're doing.
"Much improved, and I think it's only going to get better."
Sports on 03/15/2017