Latest Alabama Crimson Tide Bracketology and projected SEC Tourney seeding
By Ronald Evans
Alabama Basketball's championship goals took a hit from the Saturday night loss to Tennessee. The Vols now lead the SEC standings at 13-3. Alabama (along with South Carolina) is a game back at 12-4.
Based on the current standings Alabama would be a 2-seed in the SEC Tournament, having beaten South Carolina in January. The 2-seed opens its SEC Tournament play on Friday night Mar. 15, against the winner of the 7-seed vs. 10-seed game. The current 7-seed is Mississippi State and the current 10-seed is Ole Miss. Ole Miss and Texas A&M, both with 7-9, SEC records play each other on Mar. 9
Winning its opener as the 2-seed would pair the Crimson Tide against a probably advancing 3-seed. Based on current standings, the 3-seed would be South Carolina.
A long list of SEC Tournament seed tie-breakers are provided below.
SEC Tournament Tiebreakers
Teams will be seeded No. 1 through No. 14 in the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament bracket based upon the final regular season Conference standings. Teams that finished No. 1 through No. 4 in the final regular season standings shall receive a "bye" on the first and second days of the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament.
Two-Team Tie
The following procedure will be used in the following order until the tie is broken:
1) Won-lost results of head-to-head competition between the two teams.
2) Won-lost record of the two teams versus the No. 1 seed (and proceeding through the No. 14 seed, if necessary).
3) Coin flip by the Commissioner.
Three-Team Tie (or more)
When three or more teams are tied, the following procedure will be used in the following order until the tie is broken. If two teams re- main tied after a tiebreaker provision, the two-team tiebreaker formula will be used.
1) Best winning percentage of games played among the tied teams (Example: Team A is 3-1, Team B is 2-2 and Team C is 1-3 - Team A would be seeded highest, Team B second-highest and Team C lowest of the three).
2) Best winning percentage of the tied teams versus the No. 1 seed (and proceed- ing through the No. 14 seed, if necessary).
3) If two teams remain, coin flip by the Commissioner.
4) If three or more teams remain, draw by the Commissioner.
Alabama Crimson Tide Big Dance Bracketology
Jerry Palm's Sunday Mar. 3 projected Big Dance bracket has seven SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament field. They are Tennessee (1-seed), Auburn (4-seed, above Bama in the S-Curve), Alabama (4-seed), South Carolina (5-seed), Kentucky (5-seed), Florida (8-seed) and Mississippi State (10-seed).
Based on ESPN's BPI, the SEC teams with the best chances to advance to the Big Dance Elite Eight are Tennessee at 50.7%, Alabama at 43.3% and Auburn at 41.7%.