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Paul Finebaum praises SEC’s NCAA Tournament success as ‘football-esque’
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Paul Finebaum is shutting down any talk that SEC basketball was overrated this season. The latest NCAA Tournament results point to that fact, the longtime SEC host claims.
Finebaum made his regular appearance for “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning” on Monday, and he was asked if he had ever seen a basketball season like the current one produced by the SEC. He admitted it had “never” happened before and had a unique way of describing the hoops success of the league.
“This is ‘football-esque.’ We’ve had a couple of SEC vs. SEC championship games… but this is really remarkable, to have 7 teams in the Sweet 16,” praised Finebaum. “I know a lot of people last week were going ‘something’s wrong here, the SEC doesn’t deserve 14 (teams).’ And I know on Thursday and Friday, the Danny Kanell’s of the world were jumping off their Twitter feed by talking about the teams that were going out.
“That’s going to happen when you have that many, but a couple of significant things happened… Ole Miss and Arkansas wins were extremely significant because very few if any saw that happening. And then there were 2 other games that I think really helped the SEC the most.”
Finebaum specifically pointed to Arkansas upsetting St. John’s and legendary head coach Rick Pitino in the Round of 32 as a victory that helped further put the SEC “on notice.” Then, Florida beating UConn and putting a 3-peat attempt to bed further solidified the SEC is for real.
“That on top of everything else has just shattered the myth that the SEC is overrated… Now it’s just a matter of getting to the final weekend and cutting down the nets,” said Finebaum.
As for the March Madness odds, Duke is still the title favorite at ESPN Bet with the Blue Devils leading the pack at +225. Florida (+310), Houston (+500) and Auburn (+550) round out the top 4.
At the end of the day, that is still a scary proposition for the SEC. Even if the league shatters records for each round of the tournament, it will be hard to describe the season as a true success if an SEC team is not the last one standing in April.
We’ll see how the second weekend shakes out when the Sweet 16 gets rolling.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
