by LeAnne Harrington, SECWB.com
The regular season is over and the real fun begins for fans of women’s basketball, played SEC style. The 2008 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament returns to Nashville, TN March 6-9, with all games being played at the Sommet Center. There are four games on tap for Thursday, March 6 when the #5 through #12 seeds take each other on in first round action. The top four seeds (LSU, UT, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky) get a first round bye and will hit the hardwood on Friday, March 7 where they will face the winners of Thursday’s games. The semifinals will be played on Saturday, March 8, and the SEC Tournament Championship game will be played Sunday evening, March 9. All games will be televised on Fox SportSouth, with the exception of the final, which can be seen on ESPN2.
It has been said many times that it is easier to win a National Championship than it is to win an SEC Championship, and some years that may very well be true. One need look no further than seven-time NCAA champs Tennessee. In 1987, the year the Lady Vols captured their first NCAA Championship, they fell in the semifinal round of the SEC Tournament to eventual tournament champ Auburn. In 1989, UT won the SEC Championship, again playing Auburn, in a game that proved to be a preview of the National Championship game played a few weeks later, where UT prevailed against Auburn for their second national title. In 1991, UT fell in the SEC finals to an LSU team led by talented point guard Pokey Chatman and coached by the legendary Sue Gunter, but UT went on to win their third national title in 5 years just a few weeks later. During UT’s amazing run of 3 straight NCAA championships from 1996 through 1998 during the Chamique Holdsclaw/Tamika Catchings/Semeka Randall era (affectionately known as “the “Meeks“), UT won SEC tourney titles in 1996 and 1998, but were upset in the semifinals in 1997 by none other than… you guessed it: Auburn. And last year’s National Championship team, UT’s 7th, was upset in the semifinals of the SEC tourney by LSU, who fell in the SEC finals to Vanderbilt, who won their fifth SEC Tournament title. All of this just goes to show that it’s anybody’s tournament to win.
Having attended 15 of the last 19 tournaments, I can attest to the fact that the quality of basketball played during the 11 games of the 4-day SEC Tournament will exceed almost every NCAA Tournament game up to, and sometimes including, the Sweet Sixteen. I have seen an astounding number of startling upsets during the past two decades at the SECs, which just shows you that on any given day, anybody can beat anybody else. There are usually a couple of lower seeds that pull off wins during the Thursday games, but Friday’s games are notorious for upsets. Take one particular SEC tourney in Chattanooga a few years ago for example. Three of the four teams which won in the first round went on to upset their higher ranked opponent in the second round games, with only Vanderbilt winning according to seed in the nightcap game on the second day. Vandy played out the next two days and won their first-ever SEC Tournament title on the way to their first (and so far only) appearance in the Final Four. The year? 1993. Another amazing run in the SEC tourney was the 1997 Auburn Tigers, led by tourney MVP Laticia Morris. Auburn entered the SECs as a #9 seed, and after posting a win over Ole Miss on the first day, went on to defeat three straight Top Ten teams - Georgia, Tennessee and Florida - en route to winning the SEC Tournament. With that tournament title, Auburn set standards for being the lowest seed to ever win an SEC Tournament title, and the first champion to survive four days of tournament play. Vanderbilt repeated that feat by winning four games in four days when they won the SEC Tournament title in 2004, defeating Georgia 62-56 after trailing by 18 points in the second half.
This year’s SEC Tournament should be exciting. I think there may be a few upsets on Day One, as I pick #9 seed Mississippi State to pull off a win against #8 seed Ole Miss. I’m also predicting that #10 seed South Carolina will beat #7 seed Florida. Florida is hurting for depth in the post, and South Carolina’s coach Susan Walvius knows she needs to eek out another win or two to keep her head off the coaches’ chopping block. I look for #5 seed Georgia to easily handle #12 Alabama (with Stephanie Smith feeling a little heat herself), and I think #6 Auburn will dispense of #11 Arkansas in the nightcap on Thursday. When seeds #1 through #4 play on Friday, I think games will go according to seed until Georgia plays Kentucky. I think Andy Landers is still smarting from having to settle for a #5 seed, and I think his Georgia Lady Dawgs will take it out on Kentucky in a big way. Vanderbilt may have their hands full against Auburn, but if they jump to a big lead early, as has been their habit of late, they should have no real problems advancing. Of note is the fact that Vanderbilt is the last team to hit the floor in the SEC Tournament yet again. The Commodores are making a mini-tradition of debuting in tournament play in the last slot of the tournament’s second day. It has set well with them so far: they played the final game on the second day of the tournament in 1993, 1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007, and won the SEC Tournament title 4 of those 8 years. Will this year’s SEC Tournament hold any surprises? I, for one, can’t wait to find out.
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) so thanks in advance for your patience!