SEC report

Who will dethrone Kentucky?

Kentucky's run of three consecutive SEC regular-season titles will come to an end this week.

FAYETTEVILLE -- A burst of regular-season SEC dominance by Kentucky will come to an end this weekend, with only league-leading No. 14 Auburn and No. 16 Tennessee in position to win the SEC regular-season championship.

Auburn (24-5, 12-4), in year four under Coach Bruce Pearl, has a one-game lead over the Vols (21-7, 11-5) with two games to play. The Tigers, who have won SEC regular-season championships in 1960 and 1999, are seeking their first crown in 19 years.

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Tennessee has won or shared eight SEC regular-season championships, the last in 2008.

Kentucky has won or shared the past three regular-season titles and has won the past three SEC Tournament crowns.

In the eight years since LSU won the 2009 title, only three teams have won it. Kentucky has won four outright titles in those eight seasons and shared the 2016 championship with Texas A&M. Florida won the other three championships, in 2011, 2013 and 2014.

Auburn plays Arkansas at Walton Arena tonight at 8 in its second opportunity to clinch at least a share of the title. The Tigers lost 72-66 at Florida on Saturday in their first shot. The Gators have won 11 in a row and 20 of the past 21 in that series.

"We've got a great locker room," Pearl said. "You can see the difference. We're not the most talented team in this league, but we've brought it every night. And we've found ways to scrap and win and do different things.

"But we're talented enough. And I think to survive this season this year in this league -- you look at some of the teams that are in the lower half of our league -- it's incredible how good they are."

Auburn closes the regular season against South Carolina at Auburn Arena on Saturday looking to avenge one of its conference losses.

Tennessee faces Mississippi State on the road tonight at 6, so Auburn should know the result of that game before tipoff at Walton Arena. The Volunteers finish up at home against Georgia on Saturday.

Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes was informed Monday this is the ninth Tennessee team to win 21 games.

"I didn't know that," Barnes said. "To be honest with you, I don't know if I get too caught up in it. I just want this team to max out and be the best team they can be. You want to be a team that's relevant every year."

Forecasts

Jerry Palm of CBSSports.com continued to include eight SEC teams in his latest bracket, with the following seeds: 2 Auburn, 3 Tennessee, 5 Kentucky, 7 Arkansas, 8 Texas A&M, 10 Florida and Missouri, 11 Alabama.

ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi also listed eight teams in his latest bracket projection with the following seeds: 3 Auburn and Tennessee, 5 Kentucky, 6 Florida, 7 Texas A&M, 8 Arkansas, 9 Alabama and Missouri. Lunardi listed Mississippi State with the teams among his first four out.

Last bids

League-leading Auburn has, by far, the longest NCAA Tournament drought among SEC teams. The Tigers' last NCAA bidcame in 2003. The next-longest drought belongs to Mississippi State, which last went in 2009.

Every other SEC team has played in the NCAAs at least once since 2012, which marked Alabama's last appearance.

The SEC sent five teams -- Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and Vanderbilt -- to the 2017 tournament, with South Carolina making the Final Four, and Florida and Kentucky also qualifying for the Elite Eight.

Kentucky leads the SEC by far with 56 all-time NCAA bids, followed by Arkansas (31), Missouri (26), LSU (21), and the trio of Alabama, Florida and Tennessee with 20 bids each. Ole Miss and Auburn are tied on the bottom end with eight NCAA bids each, followed by South Carolina (9), Mississippi State (10), Georgia (12) and Texas A&M (13). Vanderbilt has 15 NCAA tourney appearances.

'9 teams in'

Kentucky Coach John Calipari got animated as he marveled at the SEC scores he heard last Tuesday after his Wildcats' 87-72 victory at Arkansas.

Calipari asked reporters about the other results around the SEC because he had not heard any other scores, and when someone replied that Ole Miss had won 90-87 at Missouri, Calipari banged his hand on the table and replied, "Ole Miss beat Missouri! On the road!"

When told Mississippi State had won 93-81 at Texas A&M, Calipari said, "They won!" and whacked his palm on the table again.

"Are you hearing? What in the world? Listen, please, this should not hurt our league. It should help our league. Why don't we have nine teams in [the NCAA Tournament]? We should have nine teams in."

East-West

Teams in the West Division of the SEC for football own a 28-26 record against teams in the SEC East.

The best record in cross-division play belongs to league leader Auburn, which is 6-2 and has lost to only South Carolina (84-75) and Florida (72-66) on the road.

Arkansas, Florida and Kentucky are all 5-2 against teams from the other division.

The worst record in cross-division play is South Carolina's 1-6, followed by LSU's 2-6.

Tide vs. Hogs

Alabama Coach Avery Johnson talked up the experience of Arkansas, the oldest team in the SEC, and particularly guards Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon after his team's 76-73 loss to the Razorbacks on Saturday.

"You're dealing with some grown men," Johnson said. "At the end of the day, we can't make ourselves over.

"When you're talking about Barford and Macon, these are two guys who declared for the draft last year, juco kids. And when you've made it as far as they made it in the tournament, that's a ton of experience. And when you're playing in the finals of the SEC Tournament and making a good run in the [NCAA] Tournament, you've got a little bit stronger resume, and we're not there yet. That's something that in Year Three we're striving towards."

Porter cleared

Michael Porter Jr., the nation's top recruit in 2017, resumed practicing late last week for the Missouri Tigers, though a timetable for his return is undecided. There's no assurance he'll be ready for tonight's road game at Vanderbilt, so his return from back surgery after playing two minutes in the season opener might come in the regular-season finale against Arkansas on Saturday.

Or it might wait until the postseason.

The Tigers (18-11, 8-8 SEC) held up well without him, reeling off a five-game winning streak in the middle of conference play and rebounding in a strong manner from last year's 8-24 fiasco.

The Tigers resented the narrative they could fall apart after Porter's injury.

"That kind of really upset us ... we're not going to deny it," forward Kevin Puryear told reporters last week. "Of course, Michael is who he is, and he's a great teammate. He's a great player. But even he would tell you that we have a talented group of guys as well, [and we] went out there and took care of business."

Guard Jordan Barnett told reporters, "This is a team that went 8-24 last year and had even more rough years before that, so regardless we had something to prove. And the fact that he went down and everybody counted us out right away [ticked] us off even more."

Top players

Tennessee's Admiral Schofield, Mississippi State's Lamar Peters and Kentucky's Jarred Vanderbilt earned the weekly SEC honors Monday.

Schofield averaged 20.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3 assists per game in victories over Florida and Ole Miss. He shared player of the week honors with Peters, who averaged 17 points, 6 assists and 5.5 rebounds in victories over Texas A&M and South Carolina. Vanderbilt, the SEC Freshman of the Week, averaged 11 points and 12 rebounds in victories over Arkansas and Missouri.

Admiral thoughts

Tennessee's Admiral Schofield scored a career-best 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting to go along with 7 rebounds and 3 assists in his team's 73-65 victory at Ole Miss on Saturday, but the junior said the team was not enthralled with its overall performance.

"We got a good win, but we didn't do things well tonight," Schofield told the SEC Network. "We had a great lead coming out in the first half, but we didn't put it away. That's one of the things we've got to get better at. When we've got leads we've got to really keep pushing, especially when it comes to tournament time. There's going to be tough teams. We've got to have a mentality where this is the last game and we didn't have that today."

Board beats

During their recent four-game losing streak to Missouri, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Auburn, the Kentucky Wildcats won the rebounding battle by plus-1.8 per game.

The Wildcats turned it around on the boards during their current three-game winning streak. Kentucky outrebounded Alabama, Arkansas and Missouri by an average of 12.7 per game and won each of those games by double digits, 81-71 vs. Alabama, 87-72 at Arkansas and 87-66 vs. Missouri.

Low Tide

Alabama had the SEC's top scoring defense in league games heading into Saturday's 76-73 home loss to Arkansas, but the Crimson Tide are trending in the wrong direction.

Alabama was allowing 67.3 points per game prior to Saturday, but its past three opponents have blown past that average, resulting in losses at Kentucky (81-71), at Auburn (90-71) and against the Razorbacks.

Dogs gone?

Mississippi State's 9-7 record in SEC play is probably the second-most surprising in the conference behind league leader Auburn.

The Bulldogs' 21 victories are tied with Tennessee for second in the SEC behind Auburn's 24, but Coach Ben Howland's crew has a harder route to the NCAA bracket because of a tender nonconference schedule.

NCAA basketball analyst Ken Pomeroy has rated Mississippi State's nonconference schedule as No. 345 among the 351 teams in Division I, while ESPN ranks it at No. 303 and CBS Sports at No. 308.

Mississippi State's RPI ranking of 63 probably leaves the Bulldogs on the wrong side of the bubble with the postseason looming despite their solid conference record.

No trash

Alabama forward Braxton Key made 5 of 6 shots in the second half while scoring 14 of his 16 points in the Crimson Tide's 76-73 loss to Arkansas on Saturday.

"I just wanted to win," Key said. "I mean, I didn't want to let my team down. I felt like I was playing like trash in the first half and just let my team down. At the end of the day, all I ever want to do is win."

FROM TOP TO BOTTOM

RANK;LAST WEEK;RPI;TEAM (RECORDS);COMMENT

1;1;7;Auburn (24-5, 12-4);Can clinch tie for SEC title at Walton tonight

2;2;12;Tennessee (21-7, 11-5);Finishes at Miss. State, home vs. Georgia

3;6;16;Kentucky (20-9, 9-7);Three wins in a row after 4-game skid

4;5;30;Arkansas (20-9, 9-7);Can earn split with league-leading Auburn tonight

5;7;56;Florida (18-11, 9-7);Snapped 3-game skid with win over Auburn

6;9;62; Miss. State (21-8, 9-7);Maybe No. 2 SEC surprise team after Auburn

7;3;41;Alabama (17-12, 8-8);Lost last 3, finishes with Florida, Texas A&M

8;4;44;Missouri (18-11, 8-8);Followed 5 wins in row with current 3-game skid

9;8;26;Texas A&M (18-11, 7-9);Outstanding RPI, subpar SEC results

10;11;70;Georgia (16-12, 7-9);3-1 since losing 6 of 7 games

11;10;82;LSU (16-12, 7-9);Already 6-win improvement over 10-21

12;12;74;South Carolina (15-14, 6-10);Has LSU, Auburn in fight to finish .500

13;13;119;Vanderbilt (11-18, 5-11);5-3 in SEC games at Memorial Gym

14;14;112;Ole Miss (12-17, 5-11);Lone W in past 9 games was at Missouri

The Ratings Percentage Index is a scale used by the NCAA Selection Committee to rank Division I basketball teams by their performance in light of strength of schedule. Low RPI ranking numbers denote strong teams; and high numbers, weaker ones.

Game of the week

Auburn at Arkansas, 8 p.m. today (SEC Network)

The Tigers, in search of their first SEC championship since 1999, can clinch at least a share of the title with a victory at Walton Arena, which would give Auburn its first season sweep of the Hogs since 2008-2009. Arkansas had won 9 of 10 in the series before falling 88-77 at Auburn on Jan. 6. Tennessee, which finishes against Mississippi State and Georgia, is a game behind Auburn, seeking its first title since 2008.

By the numbers

5

Minimum SEC wins for all 14 teams, first time for every team since 1988

5

SEC teams, most in the nation, in the top 30 of the NCAA RPI ratings, with No. 7 Auburn, No. 12 Tennessee, No. 16 Kentucky, No. 26 Texas A&M and No. 30 Arkansas

11

Consecutive victories for Florida vs. Auburn

Quotebook:

"We're not the most talented team in this league, but we've brought it every night." -- Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl

"If you're one of the 68 teams that get a chance to play for the big trophy, that's got to be your goal, but it's something you never take for granted." -- Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes

"At one point I stopped them and I said, 'The reason I'm so relaxed and having fun coaching you: I'm not fighting everybody.' It was only a month ago, three weeks ago, half the team, it was a fight to get them to play how we were trying to get them to play." -- Kentucky Coach John Calipari

Sports on 02/27/2018