SEC Tournament 2010 Day 1 Preview

The SEC tournament 2010 is among the most unique in basketball. Today’s SEC tournament 2010 opener has the bottom four teams from each division facing off. This conference is one of the few major ones still separated by divisions, although one division may be much more powerful than the other. The Eastern Division has the three best teams in the conference, but only one will play in the first round today. The SEC tournament 2010 schedule for day 1 has two notable games – although the conference’s real bubble teams don’t play until tomorrow.

The first game on tap is the East’s fifth seed, South Carolina, against Western fourth seed Alabama at 1 pm est. The Gamecocks, of course, are best known for giving Kentucky their first loss, but have done little otherwise. But if they win, they get another shot at Kentucky tomorrow.

That first SEC tournament 2010 game has no NCAA implications, while the second game has one tournament lock. Tennessee has to play the first round because they were only third in the SEC East, whereas they would have gotten a bye without divisions. Nevertheless, the Volunteers get a supposedly easy opener against last place LSU, at around 3:15 pm est.

The night portion of the schedule has one big game for the NCAA bubble. The Florida Gators haven’t made the NCAA tournament since winning two titles in a row, and things aren’t looking good right now. The East’s fourth seed needs to beat the West’s fifth seed, Auburn, to stay alive, and then need to beat Western top seed Mississippi State tomorrow.

The final game of the SEC tournament 2010 schedule today has Georgia against Arkansas. The Bulldogs are the last place team in the East, yet everyone remembers their miracle run to the title in 2008. Still, the odds of another string of upsets are even longer than two years ago.

There isn’t too much to decide today for March Madness, although the really big games may be tomorrow. Despite being the West’s 1 and 2 seeds, Mississippi State and Ole Miss are bubble teams, speaking to the unbalance between East and West. They each need one win, or maybe two, to get in – with a potential Florida-Mississippi State quarterfinal as a play-in game for both.

Ole Miss would have an even tougher task, since Tennessee would play them if they beat LSU. The SEC tournament 2010 is expected to be run by Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Tennessee, who have controlled the conference all year. However, Kentucky has been the dominant team all year, as their resurgence has made the SEC a power conference again.

After a few years of mediocrity in this conference, the SEC tournament 2010 could actually feature teams that will make noise in March. Kentucky and Vanderbilt will get more rest, however, as Tennessee leads the way today in Nashville.

Sources

College Basketball Examiner- “2010 SEC Tournament Preview”