GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Eight may be the magic number of Southeastern Conference wins for the LSU men’s basketball team to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2022.
Considering that the SEC as a whole is off to its best start in history with a 157-20 (.887 winning percentage) entering league play and one of the best starts in the history of college basketball, eight would be great. The SEC has 10 teams ranked in the latest Associated Press poll, including No. 1 Tennessee (13-0) and No. 2 Auburn (12-1), and 15 teams in the top 50 of the all-important NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET).
The SEC’s .887 winning percentage in non-conference is best anywhere since the almighty Atlantic Coast Conference had an .882 entering the 2003-04 league season. Every SEC team also currently has a .750 winning percentage or better, marking the first time that has happened since the ACC did it entering its league season in 1984, and it had only eight teams at the time. The new SEC has 16 this season with Texas and Oklahoma joining.
So, LSU (11-2 and No. 52 in the NET rankings) would be wise to get its first win in this titan league, which is what SEC football used to be, in its SEC season opener against Vanderbilt (12-1 and No. 35 in NET) on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ESPN2) at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“What record in league play will be good enough to get into the NCAA Tournament?,” LSU coach Matt McMahon mused Friday after finishing 17-16 overall and 9-9 in the SEC last year, and settling for the NIT. “The last two years, the SEC has had an 8-10 team get in.”
Mississippi State (21-14, 8-10 SEC) was one of eight SEC teams to get in last season and the only one below .500 as it edged out LSU, mainly because the Tigers had a bad non-conference loss to Nicholls State. In the 2022-23 season, two 8-10 SEC teams reached the NCAA Tournament in Arkansas and Mississippi State, joining the SEC field of eight.
“I would think with everyone’s strength of their non-conference resumes, that would be the same again this year, if not more teams,” McMahon said. “I would think we’re on pace for a record number of teams to get in the NCAA Tournament.”
The record is 11 from the Big East in 2011. If the NCAA Tournament started today, LSU would have 12 in, according to Joe Lunardi’s bracketology. LSU is not there yet, but it’s on the bubble. Every SEC team is in the NET top 85 with South Carolina (10-3) also on the bubble and in last at No. 85 and the Tigers are at 15th at No. 52.
So, LSU begins play for the NCAA Tournament now, and this time it enters with no bad losses as it took care of business in non-conference games.
“Our guys have practiced well,” McMahon said. “They clearly understand the importance of league games. Now, here we go. Our guys have prepared well this week. They understand the importance of every night out being ready to go.”
Alabama and Ole Miss didn’t quite get that memo in football, which is why neither correctly did not reach the new 12-team College Football Playoff format.
McMahon is hoping for a crowd of double digits as in his first home SEC game as LSU’s coach on Dec. 28, 2022, when the Tigers upset No. 9 Arkansas, 60-57, in front of 10,428 at the Maravich Assembly Center.
“Want to have a great home court advantage,” he said. “I think back to my first year here against Arkansas, and the P-MAC gets loud. And so we want to have a great environment and want to invite everyone out to create that.”
Call it January-Through-March Madness. That’s SEC basketball this season.
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