Don't Think the SEC Tournament Matters? Let Me Show You Something...

I am pretty sure that John Calipari has learned his lesson in regard to the SEC Tournament and its importance to the UK fanbase. Probably in his heart though, he still finds the event fairly meaningless and potentially harmful to his team as there is no other circumstance where Kentucky will play three games in three days.

But the reality is that the results this week in Nashville can very much dictate what we should expect next week and hopefully, the weeks after.

Final Four Teams (17 total)
Champions: 1942, 1948, 1949, 1984, 1993, 1997, 1998, 2011, 2015
Runner-Up: 1951, 1996, 2012, 2014
No Tournament Played: 1958, 1966, 1975, 1978

Of the 13 Final Four teams that actually played an SEC Tournament, each and every one of them made the finals of the tournament, with 9 of them winning it.

WHAT ABOUT THE ELITE EIGHT?

Maybe you don’t think the Final Four is a reasonable goal for this team considering the season they’ve had and the seed they are likely to get. Maybe you think the Elite Eight is a more reasonable goal. Well, let’s go back and look at the 20 UK teams who got eliminated in the Elite Eight and see if the numbers match what we see with the Final Four teams.

Elite 8 Teams (20 total)
Champions: 1952, 1986, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2010, 2017
Runner-Up: 2005
Semifinals: 2019
Quarterfinals: 1983
No Tournament Played: 1956, 1957, 1961, 1962, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1977

Of the 11 teams who made the Elite Eight and actually played in an SEC Tournament, only TWO didn’t make the finals of the SEC Tournament. Two!

So combine those numbers with the Final Four teams above and that means there are 24 teams who made the Elite Eight or further and played in an SEC Tournament. Of those 24 teams, 22 of them made the finals of the SEC Tournament, with 17 of them winning the whole thing.

I know that everybody considers this week to be an enjoyable one for the fans in Nashville. But I think the results are very, very important. Drop a game to Vandy Friday or Texas A&M/Auburn/Arkansas Saturday and I don’t think that bodes particularly well for the Cats’ chances in the NCAA Tournament. Every tournament is different and this year the NCAA Tournament looks wide open. Brackets can fall all kinds of ways in the Cats’ favor. But we have to be able to continue to see a team playing at its highest level this week before we can exude confidence about the following three weeks.

The SEC Tournament matters.