TAMPA, Fla. — The Southeastern Conference Tournament and the state of Florida have history. Bad history.
Let's review.
The league's marquee basketball event first came to the Sunshine State in 1990. The venue was Orlando Arena. The buildup started months before, as the Florida Gators had four starters returning from the first conference championship team in program history, so the anticipation of the state's flagship school as the favorite was substantial.
UF freshman guard Erving Walker is consoled by Auburn players after missing last-second shot in the Tigers 61-58 win in second-round play of the 2009 SEC Tournament at Tampa.
Then the NCAA came knocking. Coach Norm Sloan was fired. Star center Dwayne Schintzius quit. So did power forward Livingston Chatman. Before the season was over, Interim Coach Don DeVoe announced himself as a "no-nonsense coach in a nonsense program." Remember? UF went 7-21 and lost in first-round play to Vanderbilt. As if that wasn't bad enough for the Orlando folks, Kentucky was on NCAA probation and banned from the tournament, so the eventual championship game — Alabama vs. Ole Miss — was witnessed by an announced crowd of 7,285, and the eight-game tournament by a record-low 75,982.
SEC officials left Orlando swearing the event would never return to Central Florida.
Instead, it resurfaced in Tampa in 2009. The Gators were two years removed from their historic second straight national championship, but coming off a NIT season and needing a conference tournament run to get back to the NCAAs. Same with Kentucky, which was flailing under Coach Billy Gillispie after going 8-8 in league play. Tournament officials were pulling for a surge from one of the two.
Please.
Neither made it to the weekend. The final between Mississippi State and Tennessee drew just 10,093 fans. Another disaster.
Now, back to present day and the SEC is back in Tampa at beautiful Amalie Arena, but the circumstances appear nothing like the last two; not even close. OK, so maybe the situation with the state school could be better — the ninth-seeded Gators (19-12) desperately need a win Thursday over eighth-seeded Texas A&M (20-11) to better their tournament hopes — but what a five-day basketball extravaganza it figures to be.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
The SEC just put together arguably the greatest top-to-bottom regular season in league history, with probably a half-dozen of the participants capable of winning the tournament, and maybe two or three more legitimate contenders for a national championship. This time, the stars aligned quite nicely for the state and its state of basketball, which pretty much looks like the last time the tournament will be here. Starting in 2023, the SEC Tournament goes back to Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., and is under contract to stay there through 2035.
"Our patience has paid off," Tampa sports commission executive director Rob Higgins said of the tournament that opens with a pair of low-seed matchups Wednesday night. "The conference has put such an emphasis on lifting men's basketball and we're going to see the culmination of that this week. We're destined for 13 great games, some instant classics at Amalie, and we just feel so honored and privileged the SEC has given us this opportunity."
UF's standout post player, senior Colin Castleton (12), in action last month when the Gators lost at Texas A&M.
All four of the tournament's top seeds are ranked, including three teams in the top 10. At some point during the season, half of the conference teams have been ranked.
"It's a stacked league this year," UF senior forward
Colin Castleton said. "So many great coaches and players. Every game has been a dogfight."
So why should the next one be any different? Both Florida and A&M are on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament's so-called "bubble," with near-identical resumes. The two teams finished in a five-way tie for fifth place in the league, with winning percentages against the teams in that logjam determining the seeding. UF fell to the bottom of that pile, but certainly is capable of putting something together in a tournament setting.
The two team's played Feb. 15 at College Station, Texas, with the Aggies winning 56-55, courtesy of three free throws with 19.5 seconds to play. Florida missed a last-second go-ahead jump shot.
The rematch will be played two hours south of the UF campus, but whether that means a more Gator-friendly crowd remains to be seen. It's certainly not something Coach
Mike White can be concerned about.
"I'm not sure it's going to be a big factor one way or another," White said. "The bigger factors will be shooting a better percentage against those guys, finishing at the rim, making an open 3, transition defense, floor balance, live-ball turnovers and defending the glass … ."
His list tailed off and turned to one all-encompassing point.
"We've got to play really well," White said.
UF-A&M basically is a NCAA Tournament elimination game, with the winner getting regular-season champion and top-seeded Auburn (27-4) in the Friday quarterfinals. The Tigers spent three weeks as the nation's No. 1-ranked team in February and are currently ranked fourth nationally.
"There's not another [conference tournament] 8-9 game in college basketball anywhere near the caliber of the 8-9 game between A&M and Florida. Not even close," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. "Both of these teams are probably a win or two away from being in the tournament, particularly a win against us. So they'll both be playing with their hair on fire."
Should make for a warm steamy setting in our hot and humid state. What a welcome sight that will be … for a change.
