Rick Barnes: SEC is the best basketball league in the country and it's not close

Rick Barnes and Tennessee suffered an 85-69 loss to Texas A&M over the weekend to fall to 7-3 in SEC play. The Aggies have had an up-and-down year but have been playing well lately and have now won three straight games.

Barnes was asked after the game if he believes Texas A&M is an NCAA Tournament team. He didn’t hold back as far as his thoughts on the Aggies and the SEC as a whole.

“There’s no doubt,” Rick Barnes said. “I think we’ve got, right now, 10 or 11 teams that, when it’s all said and done, are NCAA teams. I think we’ve got the best basketball league in the country, and I don’t think it’s close.”

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently has nine SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament in his latest Bracketology, which is tied with the Big 12 for the most in the country.

Barnes feels that at least that many teams should go to the Big Dance.

It’s been an interesting year in the SEC thus far. Alabama and South Carolina are tied atop the SEC standings at 9-2, while Auburn is a game back at 8-3. Barnes’ Tennessee squad is 1.5 games behind the Crimson Tide and Gamecocks with about a month left in the regular season.

“I don’t care what anybody says, right now, the SEC is the best basketball league in the country,” Barnes said. “And every league’s tough. It is. Every league is tough. But there’s a case for nine or 10 teams right now. And there’s a lot of basketball left to play. It’ll work out. It’ll show itself in the end. But there’s no doubt right now that that’s where my thoughts are with this league. I think it’s that good.”

Rick Barnes reacts to Texas A&M fans chanting ‘overrated’ at Tennessee

The Texas A&M faithful showed up in droves to watch the Aggies defeat No. 6 Tennessee 85-69 on Saturday. As fans watched the final seconds tick off the clock, a battle cry rang through the stands: “Overrated.” After the game, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes addressed the fans’ accusation.

“I think someone should teach ’em about overrated because I think it takes away from your win,” Barnes said. “They’re a good basketball team. When you start chanting overrated, you’re diminishing the fact that their team just played a heck of a basketball game and beat a good team.

“If we’re overrated, what does that say about their team? But they’ve been doing that for, how long ago I’ve been coming here? Twenty-five years. So, maybe you should write it and tell them.”

On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this report