NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The fourth-ranked Florida Gators head into the Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament knowing exactly what they want.
The defending national champions also know how quickly everything can slip away.
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“As long as we maintain the mindset that as great as it is right now, it could be gone tomorrow if we don’t take care of business or play the way we believe we’re capable of,” Florida coach Todd Golden said Tuesday. ”And I think our guys have a good grasp on that.”
The SEC’s regular-season champs come to Music City as the winners of 11 straight, beating opponents by an average of 21.7 points in that streak. A second straight tournament title and sixth overall certainly would burnish the Gators’ resume for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The top-seeded Gators (25-6) start in the quarterfinals Friday with No. 15 Alabama, No. 17 Arkansas and No. 22 Vanderbilt also earning double-byes in the tournament that starts Wednesday.
Golden, the AP All-SEC coach of the year, said his team doesn’t need any reminders about how much a loss this week might hurt. The coach remembers too well how losing to Auburn or Missouri feels.
“We don’t want to feel that way,” Golden said. “This team’s mature, man. That’s just the reality. We got some studs that can handle the expectations at this point. I think that was an issue for us early in the year. We’ve battled through that and we’ve grown up a lot, handling all that.”
No record this time
The SEC won’t match its performance of a year ago with a record 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament. The league still is projected to lead all conferences with 11 when the bracket is announced Sunday, which would tie the Big East in 2011 for the second-most teams in the field.
No. 8 seed Missouri (20-11) and 10th-seeded Texas (18-13) need wins to avoid starting the NCAA Tournament in Dayton. Vanderbilt has won two straight knowing that stringing together more victories can improve seeding.
“We want a peak in March and hopefully April,” Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner said.
Tennessee (21-10) lost the title game to Florida last year and freshman Nate Ament, the Vols’ second-leading scorer, is nursing an injured right leg that kept him out of the last two games. Coach Rick Barnes with his 857 career wins knows the challenge now well: “You can’t have bad nights right now.”
Kentucky on deck
The Wildcats — yes, the program with 49 SEC regular-season titles and 31 tournament championships — plays the very first game in this tournament Wednesday morning. Kentucky hasn’t played on a Wednesday at this tournament since the SEC brought the event back in 1979 and finished that year on a Saturday.
Now No. 9 seed Kentucky (19-12) plays 16th-seeded LSU (15-16) to open the tournament. These Wildcats were booed in this same arena back in December.
“We are going to put our whole heart and soul into it, and that’s the only thing that matters to us and that’s the beauty of the postseason,” coach Mark Pope said.
That means the Wildcats must win five games in as many days for Kentucky to take home its first title since 2018, and this team strung together five straight wins only once back in January.
Bubble watch
Auburn probably has the most on the line in Nashville. A year ago, the Tigers were the top seed both in this event and also the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament on their way to the Final Four.
Now first-year coach Stephen Pearl needs more than lobbying from his father and former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl to push the Tigers off the bubble and into an NCAA berth. No. 12 seed Auburn (16-15) opens Wednesday against No. 13 seed Mississippi State.
Pearl ticked off his Tigers’ resume noting a win at regular-season champion Florida and a 2-2 record against the winners of the Big East, SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 on the road.
“It’s win or go home, I don’t know what more urgency you need at this point,” Pearl said. “We’ve put ourselves in obviously a difficult situation but a great situation. We play in the best league and deepest league in college basketball.”
The schedule
Play opens Wednesday with four first-round games, including No. 10 seed Texas against 15th-seeded Mississippi and No. 14 seed South Carolina against No. 11 seed Oklahoma. Tennessee is the only ranked team playing Thursday in the second round with the top four seeds having double-round byes into Friday’s quarterfinals.
The semifinals are Saturday afternoon followed by Sunday’s championship just ahead of the NCAA bracket announcement.
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AP Sports Writer Mark Long contributed to this report.
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