NASHVILLE — The SEC Tournament has reached Quarterfinal Friday, but there are plenty of storylines from the first 2 days of this veritable basketball feast in Nashville.
From a brewing Cinderella story to NCAA Tournament bubble drama to Kentucky earning a third shot at rival and SEC champion Florida, here are 5 storylines I’m absolutely overreacting to after Wednesday and Thursday of the SEC Tournament.
Kentucky earns the game Mark Pope and the Cats wanted
Kentucky arrived in Nashville earlier than ever before, playing in the Wednesday afternoon session at Bridgestone Arena. The bracket said “Kentucky-LSU,” and 8th seeded Mizzou lurked on Thursday, but one opponent was front and center remained front and center in Mark Pope’s mind before the SEC Tournament began.
Mark Pope on Florida: "if we do our job, we'll get to see them again in the course of this tournament and hopefully have a different result"
— Wyatt Huff (@Wildcat_wave) March 9, 2026Is it another sign of how the Florida-Kentucky rivalry has flipped that a third matchup with the Gators weighed so heavily on Kentucky’s mind even before the matchup was set in stone? A little bit, to be sure. But as Eric Crawford wrote last week, at least right now, it’s Florida that looks and feels like Kentucky used to in the SEC. The Gators play with a self-assured swagger that used to define the great Kentucky teams of yesteryear. Why wouldn’t you want to compete against the best?
After surviving a late LSU run on Wednesday, the Wildcats earned the right to play Florida a third time on Thursday, holding off another late charge to beat Missouri 78-72.
In a fit of irony, Kentucky’s best player at the SEC Tournament to date has arguably been former Florida Gator and national champion Denzel Aberdeen. Florida’s 7th man a season ago, Aberdeen was sensational on Thursday, scoring 16 points, adding 7 assists (with just 1 turnover), and nabbing 2 steals in Kentucky’s second round win. Aberdeen saved his best for last, scoring through uncalled contact on this outstanding attack of a Mark Mitchell closeout late to seal the win for the Cats.
Kentucky's offensive patience, for a second straight game, was really impressive.Back when the 'Cats first played Missouri someone would have forced up a bad shot along the way.Excellent finish by Denzel Aberdeen to effectively put the game on ice. pic.twitter.com/0bHg4wUID8
— Brandon Ramsey (@BRamseyKSR) March 13, 2026As the excellent Brandon Ramsey notes above, Otega Oweh has been terrific in Nashville as well. Against LSU, Oweh played the type of complete game Kentucky will require from him to play deep into March, scoring 23 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, and dishing out 3 assists. Oweh scored 21 against Missouri, too, though he was quieter on the glass and defensively, bothered a bit by Missouri’s size.
Kentucky’s X-factor, however, continues to be which “third guy” steps up to help the Batman and Robin duo of Oweh and Aberdeen. When Kentucky played its best basketball this season, during an 8-1 stretch from mid-January to mid-February, that player was usually Collin Chandler, a sharp shooting wing who is a terrific defender, cutter, and a capable passer. Chandler was great against Mizzou, scoring 15 points and swiping 3 steals, but the better news is that in Nashville, Kentucky’s received contributions from elsewhere. Brandon Garrison was magnificent in the win over LSU, stuffing the stat sheet with 17 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals. Kam Williams, back from injury, has provided a defensive spark and finally gives Kentucky a guy they can throw at Tommy Haugh who at least has similar footspeed and height. Mo Dioubate has averaged 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists in Nashville. In other words, Kentucky is demonstrating the type of depth it expected would result from what is, even without injured guard Jaland Lowe and center Jayden Quaintance, one of college basketball’s most expensive rosters.
Will that be enough to finally get over the hump against Florida?
The old college basketball adage is that it’s tough to beat a good team 3 times. The data suggests otherwise, though. Since 2010, the team that’s won the first 2 games has won the third game 73% of the time. A Kentucky win would be an outlier.
It feels harder still given the fact that, while Kentucky remained close in both contests with Florida to date, the Cats have never led the reigning national champion Gators in 80 minutes of ball this season. If I were a prop bettor, I would expect Kentucky to at least play with a lead some on Wednesday. If it does, it’ll have the benefit of its usual SEC Tournament homecourt edge, likely outnumbering Florida fans 2 or 3-1 despite how well Florida fans have traveled for basketball all season.
Will that energy carry them late, when the fatigue of playing a third game in 3 days, this time against a bigger, more physically imposing, talented team, sets in?
Anything can happen in March, so we’ll find out. Either way, it’s the game Kentucky and their fan base desperately wanted.
Cinderella Beard and the Rebels
If you placed a bet on 15-seed Ole Miss gallivanting its way into SEC Quarterfinal Friday, you’re probably going to have a fine time on the town this weekend.
The worst basketball team Chris Beard’s ever assembled has put up a fight in Nashville, winning games against 2 likely NCAA Tournament teams, Texas and Georgia, wire to wire to set up a date with 2-seed Alabama on Friday night.
Ole Miss winning 2 games in Nashville is an astonishing development, considering the Rebels won just 1 SEC basketball game between January 18 and Wednesday, losing 12 of 13 games.
Some of it is matchup-related. For all of Georgia’s offensive strengths, the Dawgs have struggled to guard consistently all year, ranking 82nd in defensive efficiency, per KenPom. Texas suffers from the same defensive malaise, ranking 110th. Ole Miss has struggled to score all year, ranking 101st in KenPom offensive efficiency, but middling offenses can score against bad defenses, and the Rebels have proved that this week. Alabama, who also generally does not guard anyone, will be another favorable matchup in that regard on Friday night.
The real difference for Ole Miss right now, however, is the inspired play of Malik Dia, a senior who doesn’t want his career to end. Preseason All-SEC, Dia played sparingly in February as Beard tinkered with his rotations and looked for answers. The answer, though, was always to play more through Dia, who has responded with a great run of basketball over the last month, when he’s eclipsed 20 points or more on 6 occasions and started keeping defenses honest by hitting the long-range 3s that he missed earlier in the season. Dia is averaging 20 points and 5 rebounds per game in Nashville and shooting 50% from beyond the arc. That opens driving lanes for Ole Miss wings and guards like AJ Storr (19 points vs. Georgia) and Ilias Kamardine (16 against Texas), making the Rebels suddenly tough to guard.
Alabama is so elite offensively it may not matter. But the Rebels are playing like a team fully capable of extending this Cinderella run to semifinal Saturday.
Just when I believe in Georgia, they go to Nashville and lay an egg
I can’t say I wasn’t warned.
“They aren’t going to keep shooting this well,” a SEC assistant texted me this week after I went on ESPN Radio and opined that the Dawgs looked like a Sweet 16 outfit.
Georgia entered the SEC Tournament shooting at a nearly 50% clip from 3 in its 5-1 stretch to close the regular season. On Thursday night in Nashville, the Dawgs shot an icy 9-38 from deep, their worst performance from beyond the arc since shooting 27% and getting bludgeoned 86-66 by Florida in Athens in mid-February.
Mike White’s team looks like a team that can win multiple games in the NCAA Tournament because of its assortment of playmaking guards, all of whom can drive and pass. But the ceiling is limited significantly when they miss shots, as Georgia reminded us all loudly Thursday evening in its miserable defeat to 15-seed Ole Miss.
“I didn’t see that coming,” White said after the 7 seed Bulldogs were knocked out by the Cinderella Rebels. “I thought we’d have good offensive flow and rhythm. We have in practice. Spacing, ball movement. Knew these guys were very different with their defensive approach than Texas. Spent a lot of time on it the last few days.”
Not enough time, apparently. The Dawgs are not good enough defensively for their top 20 offense (15th KenPom) to struggle this March. A smaller team like Ole Miss presented an opportunity to flex the muscles of their playmaking guards, who excel at creating rim twos for themselves and cutters. Instead, Georgia stopped attacking the paint and settled for jump shots. Georgia attempted 38 3-pointers in the loss to Ole Miss, its most attempts since November from beyond the arc. Changing what’s made you successful is dangerous any time of year. For White and Georgia at the SEC Tournament, that lesson was learned the hard way. But perhaps they’ll learn from it in the NCAA Tournament next week.
Death. Taxes. Rick Barnes squeezing everything out of a basketball team
The narrative on Rick Barnes for a generation has been that he doesn’t win in March.
The narrative increasingly looks like antiquated nonsense.
The latest evidence came Thursday, as Tennessee used an incredible 20-0 run to storm past Auburn 72-62.
down 10 to up 10 in 6:17that's a 20-0 run right there pic.twitter.com/9nATbaRSJD
— Tennessee Basketball (@Vol_Hoops) March 13, 2026The key, of course, was Nate Ament, who returned from injury to pour in 27 points, grab 8 rebounds, and block 3 shots in the comeback victory. Ament was absent from Tennessee’s late season loss at Vanderbilt and did not play in the second half of the loss to Alabama, when the Crimson Tide rallied from a double-digit deficit (grown with Ament) to win on the final possession. With Ament, Tennessee ranks in the top 12 in efficiency since January 1, per Torvik. That’s the second-best figure in that time frame in the SEC, behind only Florida. Tennessee has a frontcourt that can control the glass (1st in America in offensive rebounding percentage, 57th in defensive rebounding) and while the Vols aren’t as prolific as the Zakai Zeigler-led Elite 8 offenses, they are more balanced and efficient than the 2022-23 Volunteers, who reached the Sweet 16.
That balance, along with a budding star in Ament, will make Tennessee a safe bet on the first weekend this March. The Volunteers don’t get the attention of Alabama or Arkansas, led by All-American guards and high octane offenses. But they might be the better bet to reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, an achievement which would undoubtedly delight the great, late Wes Rucker, who left us all too early and is watching the Volunteers from that sun-soaked Rocky Top in the sky.
The SEC Bubble is a mess
It’s tough to make sense of the bubble nationally, which is the weakest in a generation and a loud argument against expanding the Field of 68.
This is the worst bubble in ages and we can’t in good faith expand this tournament.Thanks for attending my TED Talk.
— Neil W. Blackmon (@nwblackmon) March 11, 2026Bubble misery extends to the SEC, where 3 bubble teams have already been sent home from the SEC Tournament.
According to Bracket Matrix, which aggregates bracket projections and ranks the statistical accuracy of bracketologists (Joe Lunardi fares relatively poorly, for what it’s worth), the last 4 teams “In” as of Friday morning are Texas, SMU, VCU, and Santa Clara. Texas, of course, took a Quad 3 loss to Ole Miss on Wednesday night, doing itself no favors in making a last case to the Committee. Another SEC bubble team, Missouri, has played its way into the “Last Four Byes” zone by losing 3 consecutive games down the stretch, including Thursday to Kentucky.
As for Auburn, the most hotly debated team on the bubble, the Tigers probably would have locked up a bid on Thursday by beating Tennessee. Instead, the Tigers took a 16th loss, putting their loss volume in historic territory, given 0 at-large berths have gone to a team with 16 losses or more. Steven Pearl, Auburn’s head coach, made the case for Auburn anyway, insisting the Tigers’ strength of schedule (2nd nationally, per KenPom) should be sufficient with their upper echelon wins.
“If you look at the major metrics that they use —NET, KenPom, KPI, Strength of Record and Wins Above the Bubble — we are better than every team in that group in at least 5 out of the 7 categories, and in a couple of them 6 of the 7,” Pearl said.
Pearl is correct on the data, but the reality is he’s making a better argument against expansion than he is for Auburn’s inclusion.
More likely, Auburn will (rightly, in our view) be left at home, while a team that keeps winning, like Oklahoma, is given the opportunity.
The Sooners can sew up a bid on Friday by upsetting Arkansas, but even if they fail, the Committee may prefer a team like Oklahoma, that’s trending up and has won 8 of its last 10, over a team like Auburn, that showed quality in December and January but has wilted over the final 2 months of the regular season.
In the end, SDS still believes the SEC will get 10 teams. The question is whether that number is now 11, and includes Oklahoma.
5 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after 2 days at the SEC Tournament Saturday Down South.
Hence then, the article about 5 things i m absolutely overreacting to after 2 days at the sec tournament was published today ( ) and is available on SATURDAY DOWN SOUTH ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( 5 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after 2 days at the SEC Tournament )
Also on site :