SEC Tournament Primer

"PRIME TIME"
2017 SEC TOURNAMENT

When: Wednesday through Sunday
Where: Bridgestone Arena (19,395), Nashville, Tenn.
TV: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday on SEC Network; Saturday and Sunday on ESPN.
Defending champ: Kentucky defeated Texas A&M 82-77 in overtime in the 2016 title game at Nashville.

THE SCHEDULE
(All times ET)

Wednesday
Game 1: 13-seed LSU (10-20) vs 12-seed Mississippi State (15-15), 7 p.m.
Game 2: 14-seed Missouri (7-23) vs 11-seed Auburn (18-13), 9:30 p.m.

Thursday
Game 3: 9-seed Tennessee (16-15) vs 8-seed Georgia (18-13), 1 p.m.
Game 4: LSU/Mississippi State winner vs 5-seed Alabama (17-13), 3:30 p.m.
Game 5: 10-seed Texas A&M (16-14) vs 7-seed Vanderbilt (17-14), 7 p.m.
Game 6: Missouri/Auburn winner vs 6-seed Ole Miss (19-12), 9:30 p.m.

Friday (Quarterfinals)
Game 7: Game 3 winner vs 1-seed Kentucky (26-5), 1 p.m.
Game 8: Game 4 winner vs 4-seed South Carolina (22-9), 3:30 p.m.
Game 9: Game 5 winner vs 2-seed Florida (24-7), 7 p.m.
Game 10: Game 6 winner vs 3-seed Arkansas (23-8), 9:30 p.m.

Saturday (Semifinals)
Game 11: Game 7 winner vs Game 8 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 12: Game 9 winner vs Game 10 winner, 3:30 p.m.

Sunday
Championship Game, 1 p.m.

14 STORYLINES
(One for each, by seeding)

14) Missouri -- The Tigers announced Sunday the firing of Coach Kim Anderson, effective at season's end. Anderson is 26-67 in three seasons, including 8-46 in league play.

13) LSU -- Expect this to be Coach Johnny Jones' final rodeo on these Tigers' sidelines, also. The last two seasons have been huge disappointments in Baton Rouge. LSU had the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft in Ben Simmons last season and failed to reach the NCAA Tournament, then chased that with a 10-20 campaign in '17.

12) Mississippi State -- The Bulldogs have some talent on a very young roster, including eight freshmen, but will Coach Ben Howland (29-32 in his two seasons in Starkville) be a candidate for what figure to be some other openings around the country?

11) Auburn -- The Tigers are in the Wednesday "play-in" round for the third time in as many seasons under Coach Bruce Pearl. Two years ago they made a gallant run to Saturday before being spanked by unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Kentucky. Last year, they lost by 32 to Tennessee in the opener.

10) Texas A&M -- The Aggies have the size and athleticism in the frontcourt to give most league teams some problems, but are usually overmatched in the backcourt.

9) Tennessee -- Tough team to figure. The Volunteers beat Kentucky early in the year, but dropped five of six late before storming from 16 down in the second half last weekend to beat Alabama. When Robert Hubbs and the rest of the Vols have it together, they can be a handful.

8) Georgia -- The Bulldogs have been basically All-SEC guard J.J. Frazier and nobody else since losing All-SEC power forward Yante Maten to a sprained knee three weeks ago. The 5-foot-10 Frazier has averaged 29.6 points since Maten went down five games ago in an overtime loss to Kentucky.

7) Vanderbilt -- De facto home team with experience and plenty of outside-shooting firepower. Many a bracketologist have the Commodores as a "Last Four In," but a mini-run this weekend certainly would cinch it, given their No. 3 overall strength of schedule and regular-season sweep of Florida. RPI is 44th.

6) Ole Miss -- Forward Sebastian Saiz (14.9 ppg, 10.8 rpg), the only player in the league averaging a double-double, leads a high-octane offense that scored at least 80 points in seven of the last nine games, won three of its final four, including an upset of South Carolina in the regular-season finale. The Rebels have 19 wins, but not the strength-of-schedule (64th).

5) Alabama -- Whoever the Crimson Tide play, it won't be pretty. Bama's offense is the second lowest-scoring in the league (68 ppg), but opponents don't score much, either (64 per game). Only NCAA hope is to win it all.

4) South Carolina -- With an RPI of 30 and 22 wins, Gamecocks are dancing for the first time in 13 years, that's for sure, but they did drop four of the previous six. Their defense, though, is good enough to cause any team problems.

3) Arkansas -- In early February, the Razorbacks lost at Missouri then home against Vanderbilt in back-to-back outings, prompting speculation of Coach Mike Anderson's future. The Hogs then won six of their last seven and are safely in the NCAA field with an RPI of 26th.

2) Florida -- One tournament win likely will be enough to secure at least a 4-seed and spot in the Orlando NCAA pod, but UF may have to deal with the Commodores, who have defeated the Gators four straight (including last Saturday's Music City meltdown) in their first game Friday.

1) Kentucky -- The Wildcats, with three likely freshmen NBA lottery-picks-in-waiting, won the league outright by two games, giving them 48 all-time regular-season crowns (42 outright). They're the runaway pick in this field again.

THE FAVORITE -- Kentucky

Kentucky has won eight straight since Florida handed the Wildcats their worst loss as a Top 10-ranked team in 25 years. That was an 88-66 beatdown back on Feb. 4, but the run since has included a revenge-filled 76-66 defeat of the Gators at Lexington. UK is playing some of its best basketball just in time for the so-called "Wildcat Invitational," so named for the reason you'll see as you read on a few items below. It's about this time each season that Coach John Calipari starts getting through to his kids -- "They're young," he's been known to say a few times -- who tend to start figuring some things out about playing together when March comes calling.

THE DARK HORSE -- Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt will play the tournament about three miles from its campus, but now that the event has moved to Nashvllle on a nearly annual basis that is always the case. The reason this team must be considered a threat is because its an experienced, veteran bunch that already has beaten No. 2-seed Florida twice and is capable of hitting a bunch of 3-point shots, evidence by its league-leading 10 per game. Coach Bryce Drew has rallied Vandy from an 8-10 start, including four straight SEC losses in January, to a 9-4 finish. Junior point guard Riley LaChance is a steadying influence.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Texas A&M freshman forward **Robert Williams** was named the 2017 SEC Defensive Player of the Year.

In tournament settings, guys can get hot and single-handedly lead their teams on magical three- or four-day runs to a championship. Here are five who fit that mold.

* Malik Monk and De'Aaron Fox (Kentucky) -- Monk, the freshman guard, won the SEC scoring title by one one-hundrenth of a percentage point, finishing at 21.61 points per game. He scored a UK freshman single-game record 47 points in a win over North Carolina, a likely No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. He went for 30 in the second half alone to lead the Cats past the Gators two weeks ago. His four games of at least 30 points were also a first for a UK freshman. He is a volume and streaky scorer, but those are the kind of guys who cut nets down. Fox, the electrifying point guard, played through a sore knee late in the season, but you'd never know it by his blistering first step and finishes at the rim. He led the SEC in assists at five per game, but also was eighth in scoring at 15.6 a game. Both Monk and Fox were First-Team All-SEC selections. In the rare case that one doesn't play well (yes, it happens), the other is perfectly capable of picking up the slack and putting their team on his back.

* Sindarius Thornwell (South Carolina) -- The SEC Player of the Year, he lost out to Monk on the scoring title by averaging 21.160 per game. Thornwell, though, does everything for the Gamecocks, finishing sixth in the league in rebounding (7.3 pg), first in steals (2.2 pg), 15th in assists (2.9 pg) and was the unquestioned leader on a USC team that is going back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004.

* Luke Kornet (Vanderbilt) -- He is one of the most unique matchup problems in all of college basketball. The Commodores 7-foot-1 forward averaged 13.8 points and 6.2 rebounds, but also made 51 shots from the 3-point line this season -- at 34.9 percent -- giving him 148 for his career and setting an NCAA record for most 3-pointers made a player at least 7 feet tall. Kornet's ability to shoot and thus stretch the defense is one thing, but he's also capable of posting inside. On defense, he's one of the best rim-protectors in the league, with his 64 blocked shots ranking third.

* Robert Williams (Texas A&M) -- Get a good look at him, if you haven't already, because the 6-9, 237-pound freshman is likely a "one-and-done," projected as a lottery pick despite having an extremely raw skill set. No matter. Williams is a tremendous athlete with a ridiculous 7-4 wing span that allowed him to lead the SEC in blocked shots at 2.5 per game on his way to being named SEC Defensive Player of the Year. He averaged 12.0 points on 56-percent shooting and cleared 8.5 rebounds per outing. Williams doesn't have the supporting cast of the others above, but the Aggies have a gigantic frontcourt that could bang some teams into submission over a few days.

CHARTING THE SEC TOURNAMENT
The SEC Tournament has been around since 1933, but league officials shut the event down in 1953 and did not have a postseason tournament for the next 25 years. It returned in 1979. Here's a look at the all-time tournament standings, with Kentucky's 29 championships more than the other 13 current members (plus three former members) combined 27.

Team	Number	Record	Pct.	Semifinals	Finals	Titles (Last)
Kentucky	55	127-25	.836	41	39	29 (2016)
Alabama	57	62-50	.554	24	13	6 (1991)
Tennessee	56	65-53	.551	23	10	4 (1979)
Arkansas	25	22-24	.478	13	6	1 (2000)
Florida	51	43-47	.477	16	9	4 (2014)
LSU	57	47-56	.456	25	5	1 (1980)
Georgia	56	44-54	.449	15	6	2 (2008)
South Carolina	25	20-25	.444	6	2	0
Texas A&M	4	3-4	.429	1	1	0
Vanderbilt	55	37-53	.411	13	2	2 (2012)
Missouri	3	2-3	.400	0	0	0
Ole Miss	54	30-53	.366	11	5	2 (2013)
Auburn	54	30-53	.361	12	3	1 (1985)
Mississippi State	56	29-53	.354	12	6	3 (2009)
Former Members
Georgia Tech	19	14-18	.438	8	2	1 (1938)
Tulane	16	12-16	.429	5	3	0
Sewanee	2	0-2	.000	0	0	0

DID YOU KNOW?

* Six times the tournament has been played at on-campus sites, the last time coming in 1993 at Rupp Arena. Take a wild guess who won that one. Other schools that have hosted the tournament in the same venue where they played their home games: LSU, Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

* Kentucky holds the record (shocking, I know) for most consecutive tournament championships with seven, winning the titles from 1944-50. The Cats current streak is a mere two.

* Alabama (1989-91) and Florida (2005-07) are the only teams other than Kentucky to win the tournament three straight years. The stars of some of those 'Bama teams were David Benoit, Keith Askins, Gary Waits, Melvin Cheatum, Robert Horry, James Robinson and Latrell Sprewell. You might recall a few names from those Florida teams, as well.

The 2006 SEC Tournament champion Gators after defeating South Carolina 49-47 in the title game. Those three wins turned out to be part of a two-year, 18-game postseason winning streak for Florida basketball and the front end of back-to-back NCAA championships.

* The most points ever scored in an SEC Tournament game was 102 by Arkansas in 1998 (a 102-96 defeat of Tennessee). The fewest ever scored was 11 by Georgia in 1937 (a 35-11 loss to Tennessee).

* The tournament has been played at 17 different sites, with the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and Louisville Gardens hosting the event 12 times each. The now semi-permanent site at Bridgestone Arena will host for the sixth time this week. Twice the tournament has been played in the state of Florida, 1989 in Orlando and 2009 in Tampa, with a return to Tampa set for 2022. The 2018 SEC Tournament will be played in St. Louis for the first time, a nod to the addition to Mizzou in 2013 and a great venue for such an event.

* The last SEC Tournament MVP off a team that did not win the championship was Tennessee guard Allan Houston, who led the Vols (tied for last in the league standings at 3-15) into the tournament final before falling to Alabama 88-69 at Memorial Coliseum in Nashville.

* Vanderbilt has the best winning percentage in SEC Tournament championship games -- 1.000, based on a 2-0 record, with titles in 1951 and 2012. That team in '12 defeated eventual national champion Kentucky in the title game.

* Kentucky's 1988 SEC Tournament title, with the Wildcats defeating Georgia at Baton Rouge, was vacated when the NCAA levied sanctions against the Wildcats for rules violations under then-Coach Eddie Sutton. The scandal cost Sutton his job and brought then-Providence coach Rick Pitino to Lexington.

* The largest crowd to watch an SEC Tournament game was the 30,057 that filed into the Georgia Dome to see third-ranked Kentucky defeat reigning national champion and fifih-ranked Arkansas in an epic 95-93 shootout in the '95 tournament title game. Antoine Walker, now a studio analyst for the SEC Network, scored 23 points, grabbed seven rebounds that day and was named tournament MVP. All told, 250,351 went through the turnstiles during the '95 four-day event, the first year the tournament was held in Atlanta.

* LSU guard Chris Jackson shot 35 times in a 1989 game against Tennessee and Ole Miss guard Marshall Henderson jacked 19 shots from the 3-point arc against rival Mississippi State in 2014.

INDIVIDUAL DIGITS

Ole Miss point guard **Sean Tuohy** went on to become the real-life stepfather of **Michael Oher**, of "The Blind Side" fame.

Most points in a game: 42 -- Cliff Hagen, Kentucky vs. Tennessee, 1952; Melvin Turpin, Kentucky vs Georgia, 1984.
Most rebounds in a game: 21 -- Steve Hamer, Tennessee vs Alabama, 1996.
Most 3-pointers in a game: 8 -- Greg Stolt, Florida vs LSU, 1999; Rick Jones, Vanderbilt vs Mississippi State, 2000; Levi Stukes, Georgia vs Auburn, 2004; Earnest Shelton, Alabama vs Ole Miss, 2005; Mykal Riley, Alabama vs Florida, 2008.
Assists in a game: 12 -- Sean Tuohy, Ole Miss vs Kentucky 1980; Ennis Whatley, Alabama vs Georgia, 1982; Eric Smith, Ole Miss vs Georgia, 1987.
Blocked shots in game: 9 -- Andre Riddick, Kentucky vs LSU, 1993.
Steals in a game: 7 -- Terry Coner, Alabama vs Auburn, 1987; Clarence Swearengen, Tennessee vs Florida, 1988; Reggie Tinch, Georgia vs Ole Miss, 1992; Jared Prickett, Kentucky vs Tennessee, 1993; T.J. Cleveland, Arkansas vs LSU, 2000.

Most points in a tournament: 110 -- Cliff Hagen, Kentucky (4 games in 1952)
Most rebounds in a tournament: 45 -- Antonio McDyess (3 games in 1995)
Most 3-pointers in a tournament: 14 -- Travis Ford, Kentucky (3 games in 1993); Michael Boynton, South Carolina (3 games in 2004); Anthony Roberson, Florida (3 games in 2004).

FLORIDA INDIVIDUAL DIGITS

Most points in a game: 35 -- Anthony Roberson, vs Vanderbilt, 2004.
Most rebounds in a game: 17 -- David Lee, vs Kentucky, 2005.
Most 3-points in a game: 8 -- Greg Stolt, vs LSU, 1999.
Assists in a game: 8 (twice) -- Eddie Shannon, vs Auburn, 1998 and vs LSU, 1999.
Blocked shots in a game: 7 -- Dwayne Schintzius, vs Georgia, 1989.
Steals in a game: 6 -- Taurean Green, vs LSU, 2006.

Most points in a tournament: 70 -- Livingston Chatman (3 games in 1989).
Most rebounds in a tournament: 37 -- Dwayne Schintzius (3 games in 1989).
Most 3-pointers in a tournament: 14 -- Anthony Roberson (3 games in 2004).

2017 SEC GATOR LEGEND

Since 1999, the SEC has used its tournament as a chance to recognize a star alum from every school as its All-State SEC Basketball "Legend." This year, that UF honor goes to Matt Bonner, one of Coach Billy Donovan's early marquee signees who was a standout both on the court and in the classroom from 1999-2003. Bonner's 1,570 points rank 10th in school history and his 131 career games ranked first when he exited his Florida career. He was a three-time All-SEC selection, but also twice named the Verizon Academic All-American of the Year and three times placed on the NCAA's Academic All-America Team. Bonner played on two conference championship teams with the Gators and went on to play 12 seasons in the NBA, winning a pair of world championships with the San Antonio Spurs before retiring last summer. Among Bonner's fellow Class of '17 SEC "Legends" are Oliver Miller (Arkansas), Keith Bogans (Kentucky), Dontae' Jones (Mississippi State), Bobby Cremins (South Carolina) and Barry Booker (Vandy).

Here's the complete list of UF "Legends"
1999 - Tony Miller; 2000 - Neal Walk; 2001 - Andy Owens; 2002 - Chip Williams; 2003 - Gary Keller; 2004 - Gene Shy; 2005 - Stacey Poole; 2006 - Andrew Moten; 2007 - Andrew DeClercq; 2008 - Dan Cross; 2009 - Eugene McDowell; 2010 - Bob Emrick; 2011 - Craig Brown; 2012 - Mike Miller; 2013 - Bill Koss; 2014 - Greg Stolt; 2015 - Eddie Shannon; 2016 - Lee Humphrey; 2017 - Matt Bonner.

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