SEC Basketball 2023 Season In Review

This coming Sunday, the Southeastern Conference’s tournament champion will be crowned in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena hours before the NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed. The 2023 running of the SEC Tournament tips off Wednesday with all 14 league institutions set to compete in a single-elimination bracket for Sunday’s grand prize, beginning with the four lowest-seeded schools in a Wednesday evening doubleheader to set up Thursday’s four-game slate.

Before the tournament tips off, catch up on all things SEC Basketball with an end-of-year review of it just meaning more in the regular season when Alabama was crowned the SEC’s champ with a two-loss record. In second, Texas A&M made a surprise run from seventh in the preseason poll to runner-up in the final standings.

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SEC BASKETBALL SEASON IN REVIEW

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Final Standings

	CONF	OVERALL	HOME	ROAD	NEUTRAL	PF	PA	STRK
Alabama	16-2	26-5	15-0	9-3	2-2	2568	2156	L-1
Texas A&M	15-3	23-8	15-1	7-4	1-3	2273	2033	W2
Kentucky	12-6	21-10	14-4	6-4	1-2	2329	2097	W1
Missouri	11-7	23-8	16-3	5-5	2-0	2483	2318	W4
Tennessee	11-7	22-9	14-2	4-6	4-1	2228	1781	L-1
Vanderbilt	11-7	18-13	12-5	5-6	1-2	2233	2223	W3
Auburn	10-8	20-11	14-2	4-8	2-1	2254	2070	W1
Florida	9-9	16-15	10-5	4-7	2-3	2234	2128	W2
Mississippi State	8-10	20-11	12-4	4-6	4-1	2057	1873	L-1
Arkansas	8-10	19-12	14-3	2-8	3-1	2319	2084	L-3
Georgia	6-12	16-15	13-4	1-10	2-1	2126	2217	L-5
South Carolina	4-14	11-20	7-8	4-8	0-4	1998	2257	W1
Ole Miss	3-15	11-20	7-10	2-9	2-1	2105	2148	L-2
LSU	2-16	13-18	10-8	0-9	3-1	2091	2190	L-3

Final Standings vs. Preseason Poll

	FINAL	PRESEASON
1.	Alabama	Kentucky
2.	Texas A&M	Arkansas
3.	Kentucky	Tennessee
4.	Missouri	Auburn
5.	Tennessee	Alabama
6.	Vanderbilt	Texas A&M
7.	Auburn	Florida
8.	Florida	LSU
9.	Mississippi State	Ole Miss
10.	Arkansas	Mississippi State
11.	Georgia	Missouri
12.	South Carolina	Vanderbilt
13.	Ole Miss	Georgia
14.	LSU	South Carolina

SEC in the NET

The SEC has two of the top three teams in the NCAA’s current NET Rankings. One of them is the SEC Tournament’s No. 5 seed, oddly.

2. Alabama
3. Tennessee
18. Arkansas
20. Kentucky
23. Texas A&M
32. Auburn
46. Mississippi State
48. Missouri
60. Florida
82. Vanderbilt
130. Ole Miss
152. Georgia
155. LSU
229. South Carolina

SEC in the projected NCAA Tournament field

From ESPN’s latest Bracketology (3/7), eight league teams are in a good spot to earn a bid on Selection Sunday:

Alabama — No. 1 seed, South
Tennessee — No. 3 seed, East
Kentucky — No. 6 seed, West
Texas A&M — No. 7 seed, Midwest
Missouri — No. 8 seed, Midwest
Arkansas — No. 9 seed, East
Auburn — No. 9 seed, West
Mississippi State — No. 11 seed, Midwest (Last Four In)

Plays of the Year

The Play of the Year honor is shared by Vanderbilt’s Tyrin Lawrence and Missouri’s DeAndre Gholston after they both hit buzzer-beaters to beat sixth-ranked Tennessee in the same week.

First, Lawrence stunned Tennessee in Nashville:

Three days later, Missouri beat the Vols at the buzzer in Knoxville in a similar heartbreaking collapse:

Top 10 Scorers

1. Brandon Miller, Alabama – 19.6 ppg
2. KJ Williams, LSU – 17.4 ppg
3. Ricky Council IV, Arkansas – 16.5 ppg
4. Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky – 16.4 ppg
5. Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M – 16.3 ppg
6. Colin Castleton, Florida – 16.0 ppg
7. Kobe Brown, Missouri – 15.9 ppg
8. Tolu Smith, Mississippi State – 15.4 ppg
9. GG Jackson, South Carolina – 15.1 ppg
10. Liam Robbins, Vanderbilt – 15.0 ppg

Top 10 Rebounders

1. Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky – 13.1 rpg
2. Johni Broome, Auburn – 8.4 rpg
3. Tolu Smith, Mississippi State – 8.3 rpg
4. Noah Clowney, Alabama – 8.2 rpg
5. Brandon Miller, Alabama – 8.0 rpg
6. Colin Castleton, Florida – 7.7 rpg
7. KJ Williams, LSU – 7.6 rpg
8. Liam Robbins, Vanderbilt – 6.8 ppg
9. Jacob Toppin, Kentucky – 6.8 rpg
10. Josh Gray, South Carolina – 6.3 rpg

Read more statistic leaders.

SEC Player and Freshman of the Week Tracker

	PLAYER OF THE WEEK		FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
Nov. 14	Tolu Smith	Ole Miss	Gregory “GG” Jackson II	South Carolina
Nov. 21	D’Moi Hodge	Missouri	Brandon Miller	Alabama
Nov. 28	Santiago Vescovi	Tennessee	Anthony Black, Amaree Abram	Arkansas, Ole Miss
Dec. 5	Ricky Council IV	Arkansas	Noah Clowney	Alabama
Dec. 12	KJ Williams	LSU	Noah Clowney, Nick Smith Jr.	Alabama, Arkansas
Dec. 19	Braelen Bridges	Georgia	Brandon Miller	Alabama
Dec. 26	Kobe Brown	Missouri	Cason Wallace	Kentucky
Jan. 2	Trae Hannibal	LSU	Brandon Miller	Alabama
Jan. 9	Julius Marble	Texas A&M	Brandon Miller	Alabama
Jan. 16	Colin Castleton	Florida	Brandon Miller	Alabama
Jan. 23	Oscar Tshiebwe	Kentucky	Julian Phillips	Tennessee
Jan. 30	Zakai Zeigler	Tennessee	Cason Wallace	Kentucky
Feb. 6	Tolu Smith	Mississippi State	Cason Wallace	Kentucky
Feb. 13	Liam Robbins	Vanderbilt	Brandon Miller	Alabama
Feb. 20	Wade Taylor IV	Texas A&M	Chris Livingston	Kentucky
Feb. 27	Oscar Tshiebwe	Kentucky	Nick Smith Jr.	Arkansas
Mar. 6	Jordan Wright	Vanderbilt	Riley Kugel	Florida

SEC Player of the Year

Alabama’s Brandon Miller is the SEC Player of the Year for leading the Crimson Tide with 19.6 points per game, the best scoring average in the SEC and sixth-best among Power 5 players. The 6-foot-9 forward is only the fourth freshman in the last 50 years to lead the conference in scoring. He also hit an SEC-best 92 three-pointers on over 40 percent shooting for the season while averaging eight rebounds per contest.

Miller is expected to be the first player picked in the NBA Draft from the NCAA talent pool, somewhere behind Victor Wembanyama in the top five.

SEC Coach of the Year

Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams was named Coach of the Year by both the AP and the league’s coaches for guiding the Aggies to a second-place finish in the conference and a No. 18 ranking in the final AP poll of the regular season.

In the coaches’ voting, Williams shared the award with Jerry Stackhouse at Vanderbilt after the Commodores won eight of nine to end the season.

Other SEC Awards

First Team All-SEC

• Brandon Miller, Alabama
• Colin Castleton, Florida
• Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky
• Tolu Smith, Mississippi State
• Kobe Brown, Missouri
• Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee
• Wade Taylor IV, Texas A&M
• Liam Robbins, Vanderbilt

Second Team All-SEC

• Mark Sears, Alabama
• Anthony Black, Arkansas
• Ricky Council IV, Arkansas
• Johni Broome, Auburn
• Wendell Green Jr., Auburn
• KJ Williams, LSU
• Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
• Tyrece Radford, Texas A&M

All-Freshman Team

• Jaden Bradley, Alabama
• Noah Clowney, Alabama
• Brandon Miller, Alabama
• Anthony Black, Arkansas
• Riley Kugel, Florida
• Chris Livingston, Kentucky
• Cason Wallace, Kentucky
• Gregory “GG” Jackson II, South Carolina
• Julian Phillips, Tennessee

All-Defensive Team

• Charles Bediako, Alabama,
• Davonte Davis, Arkansas
• Colin Castleton, Florida
• Zakai Zeigler, Tennessee
• Liam Robbins, Vanderbilt

Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Kobe Brown, Missouri

Freshman of the Year: Brandon Miller, Alabama

Co-Sixth-Man of the Year: Jahvon Quinerly, Alabama; Antonio Reeves, Kentucky

Defensive Player of the Year: Liam Robbins, Vanderbilt

Five Major Storylines

Brandon Miller, Nate Oats under scrutiny: Hovering over Alabama’s 26-win season is the black cloud of the program’s off-the-court troubles, specifically Brandon Miller’s involvement in a January shooting (that also involved former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles, who was immediately kicked off the team and charged with murder). On Feb. 21 in the middle of Miller’s Player of the Year campaign, police testified Miller had a non-criminal role in the night of Jamea Harris’ murder, and Miller’s coach, Oats, is under fire for his reaction and for not suspending Miller whatsoever for Miller’s involvement. “Wrong spot at the wrong time,” Oats infamously said of the situation.

Kermit Davis out at Ole Miss: The league welcomed six new coaches in 2022-23, but said goodbye to one, Kermit Davis, before the year ended. Ole Miss fired Davis on Feb. 24 with over a week left in Davis’ fifth season. Ole Miss was 10-18 overall and 2-13 in the conference at the time of his firing. The Rebels haven’t seen the NCAA Tournament since 2019, Davis’ first season as head coach.

Injury bug bit some of the league’s best: Unfortunately, not every player makes it through an entire season in good health, and this year the league saw some of its best go down with significant injuries. Right now, Florida is without its star player, Colin Castleton, for the season; Vanderbilt doesn’t have its best player, Liam Robbins, for the rest of the season; Kentucky lost Sahvir Wheeler for the season; and Tennessee lost its starting point guard, Zakai Zeigler, to a torn ACL in the home finale. That’s not to mention Kentucky’s short-term concerns with star Cason Wallace and reserve CJ Fredrick in an already thin backcourt, or that Arkansas had to play 21 games without Nick Smith Jr., a projected top-10 pick in the draft.

11 of 14 teams received top 25 votes: To show the strength of the conference, 11 different SEC schools received votes in the polls at some point in the regular season, with two teams–Alabama and Tennessee–each climbing all the way to No. 1.

Goodbye, Big 12… Hello, ACC: The SEC played its last round of SEC/Big 12 Challenge games in January because ESPN announced the series will die in 2023 after 10 years. Moving forward, the SEC will do all of its challenges against the ACC in the brand new SEC/ACC Challenge beginning next season.

SEC Tournament Viewing Schedule

Wednesday, March 8
12 South Carolina vs. 13 Ole Miss | SEC Network | 7:00 pm
11 Georgia vs. 14 LSU | SEC Network | 9:00 pm

Thursday, March 9
8 Florida vs. 9 Mississippi State | SEC Network | 1:00 pm
5 Tennessee vs. Game 1 winner | SEC Network | 3:00 pm
7 Auburn vs. 10 Arkansas | SEC Network | 7:00 pm
6 Vanderbilt vs. Game 2 winner | SEC Network | 9:00 pm

Friday, March 10
1 Alabama vs. Game 3 winner | ESPN | 1:00 pm
4 Missouri vs. Game 4 winner | ESPN | 3:00 pm
2 Texas A&M vs. Game 5 winner | SEC Network | 7:00 pm
3 Kentucky vs. Game 6 winner | SEC Network | 9:00 pm

Saturday, March 11
SEC Tournament Semifinal | ESPN | 1:00 pm
SEC Tournament Semifinal | ESPN | 3:00 pm

Sunday, March 12
Championship Game | ESPN | 1:00 pm