FAYETTEVILLE -- A panel of media members from within the SEC and nationally whiffed badly on its preseason order of finish in the SEC.
The panel picked Auburn to finish ninth and Tennessee to finish 13th in voting released Oct. 18 at SEC media days in Birmingham, Ala. The Tigers and Volunteers tied for the SEC regular-season title with records of 13-5 after both teams posted victories Saturday.
Auburn, which has the SEC's longest NCAA Tournament drought of 15 years, won its first title since 1999, while the Volunteers earned a piece of their first championship since 2008.
Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes said the credit for Tennessee's surprising run to a co-championship belongs with the players.
"They started this a long time ago," Barnes said. "A year ago they were one of the younger teams in the country, and they still are this year, but they've played a lot of basketball.
"We've got three guys in the program that experienced losing 19 games. We've got guys in the program that a year ago going into February, we were a team everybody talked about being on the bubble, and we didn't get it finished. So they've had some different experiences that they've learned from."
The media picked Kentucky to claim the title for a fourth consecutive year, but the Wildcats finished in a tie for fourth with Arkansas and Missouri. Kentucky was picked to win the title for the 13th time since the 1998-1999 season.
Missouri and Arkansas, picked to finish fifth and sixth, respectively, have those exact seeds for the SEC Tournament in St. Louis this week.
Texas A&M, which got off to a great start before suffering through a series of roster issues, finished in a tie for seventh with Mississippi State, four slots below their preseason choice at No. 3. But the Aggies weren't the team that finished furthest below expectations because that distinction went to Vanderbilt, picked to finish seventh before coming in 13th after losing preseason All-SEC second-team pick Matthew Fisher-Davis.
LSU, chosen to finish last by the media, tied for ninth with Alabama, five spots higher than expected. Mississippi State also finished five spots ahead of projections after being picked 12th.
All-SEC list
The coaches' picks for the All-SEC teams and top individual honors come out today, and the field for player of the year and freshman of the year looks wide open.
Among the contenders for player of the year are the Auburn guard trio of Jared Harper, Bryce Brown and Mustapha Heron; Tennessee forward Grant Williams; the Arkansas guard duo of Jaylen Barford and Daryl Macon; Kentucky freshman Kevin Knox; and Missouri guard Kassius Robertson.
Strong candidates for freshman of the year are Knox, Alabama's Collin Sexton and LSU's Tremont Waters.
Coach of the year might come down to Tennessee's Rick Barnes and Auburn's Bruce Pearl, whose teams tied for the SEC championship, as well as Missouri's Cuonzo Martin, whose Tigers endured during his first season despite losing Michael Porter Jr., who was widely regarded as the nation's top freshman.
Projections
The SEC will head into the postseason with seven or eight teams projected to make the NCAA Tournament field, which will be revealed on Sunday.
ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi included Alabama among his last four teams in the field as an 11 seed in a play-in game. His other SEC teams and seeds are 3 Auburn and Tennessee, 5 Florida, 6 Kentucky, 7 Arkansas and Texas A&M, and 8 Missouri.
CBSSport's Jerry Palm dropped Alabama out of his field Monday and made these projections for seven SEC teams: 3 Auburn and Tennessee, 5 Kentucky, 6 Arkansas, 7 Florida, and 8 Missouri and Texas A&M.
Hot Fox?
Georgia Coach Mark Fox, whose Bulldogs are 4-9 since a 61-60 victory at LSU on Jan. 16, appears to be on the hot seat in his ninth season at the helm.
He was asked whether he felt the Bulldogs needed to play well at the SEC Tournament to solidify his job status.
"In fairness to our players, we're just trying to get them to win the next game," Fox said. "This is about their season. Anything more than that I think would be undue pressure for them and unfair pressure for them."
Fox has a record of 161-132 at Georgia with two NCAA Tournament bids in his eight seasons, which resulted in first-round losses in 2011 and 2015.
Rematches
Alabama and Texas A&M will face off Thursday at noon at the SEC Tournament for the second time in five days and the third time this season. Six hours later, LSU and Mississippi State will hook up for the second time in five days.
The Aggies beat Alabama 68-66 on Saturday in College Station, Texas, after falling to the Tide on the road, 79-57, in a conference opener on Dec. 30.
LSU pounded Mississippi State 78-57 on Saturday in Baton Rouge in the first meeting of the season between the longtime SEC West rivals.
Both of the other known matchups in St. Louis, to be played Wednesday between the four lowest-seeded teams, will feature the second meetings between teams.
Ole Miss beat South Carolina 74-69 at The Pavilion in Oxford, Miss., in a season opener Dec. 31. Vanderbilt beat Georgia 81-66 in Nashville, Tenn., in their only meeting Feb. 7.
Stat kings
Georgia's Yante Maten wound up with the regular-season scoring title with 19.4 points per game, followed in the top five by Alabama freshman Collin Sexton (18.3), Arkansas guards Jaylen Barford (17.9) and Daryl Macon (17.1), and Vanderbilt's Jeff Roberson (17.0).
Texas A&M's Robert Williams won the rebounding title with 9.0 per game, just ahead of Maten (8.8) and his Aggies teammates Tyler Davis (8.7).
Florida's Chris Chiozza had 6.1 assists per game to take that category, followed by LSU's Tremont Waters (5.9) and Auburn's Jared Harper (5.7).
Other regular-season stat kings: Arkansas' Daryl Macon with 86.3 percent free-throw shooting and with 43.8 percent three-point shooting; A&M's Davis with 58.2 percent field goal shooting; Waters with 2.0 steals per game; and Auburn's now-injured Anfernee McLemore with 2.7 blocked shots per game.
Macon just edged Barford, who made 43.4 percent of his three-point shots.
Top players
Florida guard Jalen Hudson, Tennessee forward Admiral Schofield and Missouri forward Jontay Porter were recognized as SEC players of the week Monday.
Porter was selected as the SEC Freshman of the Week after averaging 21.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists in victories over Vanderbilt and Arkansas, including a season-high 24 points against the Commodores.
Hudson averaged 24.5 points and shot better than 60 percent in victories over Alabama and Kentucky, while Schofield averaged 23.5 points and 5.0 rebounds as the Volunteers beat Mississippi State and Georgia.
FROM TOP TO BOTTOM
RANK;LAST WEEK;RPI;TEAM (RECORDS);COMMENT
1;1;8;Auburn (25-6);Can Tigers' slender rotation hold up in postseason?
2;2;10;Tennessee (23-7);SEC-best 16 assists per game
3;5;39;Florida (20-11);Won last 3 games after dropping 3 in row, 5 of 7
4;3;17;Kentucky (21-10);Best rebound margin (+4.1) in SEC games
5;8;33;Missouri (20-11);Now at 7 healthy scholarship guys, plus Porter Jr.
6;4;30;Arkansas (21-10);Won 6 of last 8, another Anderson-like finish
7;9;24;Texas A&M (20-11);SEC-low 62.1 pct. FT shooting in league games
8;6;69; Miss. State (21-10);Second (behind Hogs) in SEC play with 45.1 pct. FGs
9;7;59;Alabama (17-14);Maybe wrong side of bubble w/5-game skid
10;10;82;Georgia (16-14);Lost 6 of last 9 to fall off the NCAA bubble
11;11;87;LSU (17-13);Tied Auburn for SEC lead with 7.5 steals per game
12;12;77;South Carolina (16-15);Needs one win to stay better than .500
13;13;116;Vanderbilt (12-19);League-worst 49.1 pct. FG defense in conference
14;14;126;Ole Miss (12-19);Changing coaches in hoops, FB in last year
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.
By the numbers
8
Conference teams with 20-plus victories heading into the postseason
13.3
Florida's average margin of victory in its current 3-game win streak vs. Auburn, Alabama and Kentucky
9,158
Average home attendance for both LSU and Vanderbilt this season
Sports on 03/06/2018