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SEC Tournament Notebook: Chalky Friday gives way to an epic Semifinal Saturday
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NASHVILLE — After the greatest season in SEC basketball history, it comes down to the 4 teams that were the best in America’s best hoops conference the whole season.
Auburn, Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee all won Friday quarterfinals, creating an SEC Semifinal Saturday for the ages.
Isn’t it fitting that just steps from the bright lights of Broadway, a southern basketball symphony awaits Saturday in the Music City?
While many in the throngs of fans from 8 programs that descended on Bridgestone Arena Friday morning may have hoped for something different, the way one whimsically hopes a tomato sandwich will taste just as good in the dead of winter as it does during harvest season, the fates and basketball gods in their infinite wisdom have intervened, giving all of us one last parting gift in a season where the weekends kept on giving.
The styles that made all 4 SEC semifinalists showed out on Friday.
Auburn rediscovered the brand of relentless, hounding defense and grit that seemed to elude it in the final week of the regular season, vanquishing a strong Ole Miss team 67-62 in the first quarterfinal and passing a significant toughness test in the process.
“The book is out on Auburn,” Bruce Pearl said when his team failed a toughness test at Texas A&M just a week and a half ago. “When we’ve lost, we’ve been punched in the mouth and failed to match the physicality of other teams. We will see if that continues. We aren’t good enough to be outworked.”
The Tigers outworked Ole Miss for 40 minutes on Friday. Auburn won the rebounding battle 38-28, won the battle of the benches, 17-11, and dove for loose balls with the bullish determination of a bubble team fighting for its lives. Auburn wasn’t perfect, but Johni Broome nearly was. The SEC Player of the Year scored 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, providing the offensive punch Auburn required on a day the Tigers shot just 6-21 (28.5%) from beyond the arc. And of course, when Auburn needed it most, Chaney Johnson made a big 3, the type of winning play by a role player that helped Auburn to the greatest regular season résumé in the history of the sport.
“Man, that was a big shot,” Auburn guard Denver Jones, who finished a game high plus 11 in box-plus minus and scored 13 points, said after the victory. “I feel like we had a little slow stretch, especially with a lot of foul calls against us. They were shooting a lot of free throws. They tied the game. And then Chaney was there for that big opportunity and knocked down the shot.”
Win 28 for Auburn, their 16th in Quadrant 1 and 22nd in Quadrants 1 and 2, should erase any lingering doubt as to who will be the No. 1 overall seed when the bracket is revealed Sunday. But it’s the Auburn team that held an outstanding Ole Miss offense to 22 points in the opening half that makes Auburn a prohibitive favorite to at least reach the program’s second Final Four. Pearl knew it, and said it starts with the willingness of his team to guard inside and out, regardless of switches or mismatches.
“Our 3-point field defense is pretty elite,” Pearl said after Ole Miss shot just 4-23 from deep in defeat. “I’ve got bigs that can get out there and guard the perimeter. I’ve got guards that can lock you down inside, that are physically able to handle some things. When you hold a good offensive team like Ole Miss to 22 points in the first half, you obviously deserve victory. Denver was great. He’s always the best defensive player out there. Then Johni carries us. He puts us on his shoulders in the second half and is one of the best competitors I’ve ever met. He hates to lose at everything. It was a good team effort.”
Auburn will face Tennessee Saturday, a rematch of one of the SEC’s signature games of the regular season, a 53-51 rock fight won by Auburn on January 25 at Neville Arena.
The Volunteers overwhelmed Texas, imposing their will on the game with their physical brand of defense and bruising pindowns and ball screens on offense. Chaz Lanier set the tone early, scoring 17 points in the opening half to give Tennessee the offense it needed before the wear and tear of 3 games in 3 days caught up with the Longhorns in the second half. That’s when Zakai Zeigler took over, hounding Tre Johnson, Jordan Pope, and Tramon Mark on the perimeter and leading an efficient Vols offense that shot 50% from the field and averaged 1.32 points per possession on the afternoon. Texas fought gamely, but the Volunteers were never truly threatened. Tennessee led for 37 minutes, and Zeigler’s 6 assists put him to 228 on the season, a testament to just how efficient this Volunteers team, known for its tenacious defense, can be on the other end of the court, too. This is Rocky Top’s best shot at finally reaching the Final Four.
The other semifinal will be a rematch of a game played in Tuscaloosa just 2 weeks ago, when Florida went into Coleman Coliseum and spoiled senior night for Alabama legend Mark Sears with a 99-94 win.
Both the Gators and Tide snuffed out shorthanded opponents in the Friday night session.
First, the Gators dropped 95 points on Missouri, shooting an absurd 62% from the field to vanquish 1 of their only 4 losses on the season. Missouri played without Mark Mitchell and missed him terribly in the second half, when Florida’s frontcourt depth simply overwhelmed the foul-plagued Tigers. Thomas Haugh, snubbed earlier in the week for SEC 6th Man of the Year honors despite being one of the top 10 most efficient players in America in computer analytical models, took the game over down the stretch. Haugh scored 16 points, pulled down 7 rebounds, and dished out 5 assists, most of that in the second half, to help the Gators pull away from a testy Missouri team that will give opponents fits in the Big Dance if, hopefully, Mitchell can return and is healthy.
The Gators come at you in waves, with the nation’s best backcourt led by All-American Walter Clayton Jr. (18 points, 6 assists, 2 steals), Will Richard (17 points, game high plus 26 box-plus minus), and defensive guru Alijah Martin (17 points, 3 assists). Martin suffocated SEC Sixth Man of the Year winner Caleb Grill all evening, limiting Grill to just 3-10 shooting and a quiet 11 points. Florida’s depth and versatility make it terribly difficult to beat, even when teams play well and force mistakes, as Missouri did in forcing a 16 Florida turnovers. Multiple ways to win comes in handy in March.
Alabama knows that well, and the Crimson Tide looked like a Final Four team in blasting shorthanded Kentucky 99-70 in the final Friday quarterfinal. Yes, Big Blue is not the same without Lamont Butler, the key to the defensive revival that has made Kentucky a second weekend and beyond threat down the stretch this season. But it’s an injustice to Alabama’s coaching, depth, and talent to suggest the Crimson Tide’s third win over Kentucky this season was about playing Kentucky shorthanded.
On a night when All-American Mark Sears was cold from the floor, the Crimson Tide showed that even when Sears isn’t his best, they can whip you anyway.
Alabama freshman Labaron Philon was magnificent, scoring 21 points, snagging 3 steals, and adding 4 assists to help Alabama break a close game at halftime wide open in the second session.
When Philon hit the 3-pointer above, the camera panned to a Kentucky fan, hands clasped and head bowed, presumably in prayer.
It’s March, and there’s certainly no shame in seeking the Lord’s favor for your team, even if you are asking for his favor at the same precise moment the scoundrels from the other team’s fans are also asking for God’s favor. What I’ve found, though, in my years of hooping, is that God, all things being equal, favors the team that takes care of the basketball, defends the 3-point line, scores at the rim, and spaces the floor to create open jump shots.
Nate Oats’ program epitomizes success in that regard, and they’ll have a strong argument for a No. 1 seed if they win a semifinal game against Florida on Saturday.
That doesn’t mean the Gators case isn’t strong, too. Florida ranks an incredible 10th in the KenPom Era (1997) in Net Rating, meaning that if the Gators aren’t given a 1 on Selection Sunday, they’ll be the first team in the top 20 in KenPom historical Net Rating to be anything but a 1-seed. Is that fair? Perhaps not, but a fair is where a pony gets a ribbon. Fairness has never seemed the north star in the rugged SEC, and in a year where 4 SEC teams merit 1-seed consideration, someone will likely be unhappy come Selection Sunday.
Let’s worry about that later.
There’s the greatest SEC Semifinal Saturday in history to play itself out first.
Neil Blackmon covers Florida football and the SEC for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
