The end of 2022 nears, and today begins conference play in the SEC. The conference is poised to be one of the more competitive conferences, at least at the top. Despite having six teams make the NCAA Tournament a season ago with four teams earning top-16 overall seeds, the SEC struggled in the dance.
Its regular season and conference champions, Auburn and Tennessee, fell in the Round-of-32 while six-seeds Alabama and LSU fell in the first round, and, of course, Kentucky’s loss to Saint Peter’s will never be forgotten. It was Eric Musselman’s Arkansas Razorbacks who shined brightest for the SEC, advancing to the Elite Eight, beating top seed Gonzaga in the process, before ultimately falling to Duke.