Tennessee basketball is back in the SEC Tournament Championship on Sunday afternoon for the fourth time in the last seven tournaments.
A highly touted Florida Gator team, who blew past past Missouri and Alabama to make the championship game, is standing in Tennessee’s way of a second tournament title.
Winning a championship is meaningful on it own, but does the game have any value for NCAA Tournament seeding? Most pressingly, would Tennessee jump Florida to grab the final one-seed if the knock off the Gators?
There’s differing opinions.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi says Florida has locked up the final No. 1 seed after its win over Alabama with Tennessee locked in as a two-seed. JRB Bracketology agrees, saying that Florida is the final one-seed no matter what happens on championship Sunday.
Hoops HQ’s Seth Davis disagrees, however, saying the winner of the SEC Championship will be the final one-seed with the other being the top-two seed.
Tennessee basketball enters championship Sunday with a 27-6 record including an 11-6 record in Quad 1 games and a 5-0 record in Quad 2 games. Florida basketball is 29-4 with a 10-4 record in Quad 1 games and a 9-0 record in Quad 2 games.
The Gators also have the two best wins of the two teams’ resumes, winning at both Alabama and Auburn during the regular season.
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While Tennessee and Florida’s resumes will be very similar if the Vols were to win on Sunday, the Gators’ high-level wins and the committee’s hesitancy to change the bracket on Sunday makes it unlikely that the Vols could grab the final one-seed.
However, after entering the week as the second two-seed behind Alabama, the Vols have jumped up to the top two-seed spot. What does that mean for Tennessee?
The Vols will likely be the Midwest Region along with one-seed Houston instead of one-seed Duke. Tennessee’s travel will also be shorter, playing in Lexington the first weekend instead of Cleveland and in Indianapolis the second weekend instead of Newark.
The downside is that the Lexington site begins NCAA Tournament play on Thursday while the Cleveland site begins play on Friday. After playing three days in three games in Nashville, Tennessee would have less time to rest before the NCAA Tournament.
Duke star Cooper Flagg also suffered an injury in the ACC Tournament making his status uncertain for the NCAA Tournament. If Flagg can’t play, it would probably be easier to face Duke as opposed to Houston.
Tipoff between Tennessee and Florida is at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon. ESPN is broadcasting the game.
