2009 SEC Basketball Tournament

Printable & Viewable Bracket Link: 2009 SEC Mens Basketball Tournament Bracket

Participants/Overview: On Thursday March 12th the 50th year anniversary of the Southeastern Conference will tip off. All 12 SEC schools will be in action with Tennessee, Auburn, South Carolina and LSU all earning the coveted first round byes.

For those of you that haven't been following the SEC basketball season here is a quick recap. The league is down, way down. There is a chance that only 2 Southeastern Conference schools will even make the NCAA tournament which in this day and age is a complete disgrace. The SEC should be ashamed of itself. At this point the LSU Tigers and the Tennessee Volunteers are the only 2 teams that are solidly in the field.

The LSU Tigers finished the season with a 13-3 conference record and a 25-6 overall season record. LSU earned the #1 seed from the Western Division by starting out fast and but have cooled off as of late losing 2 straight against Vanderbilt and Auburn to end the season. They are one of only 2 schools with a winning road record in SEC play. LSU is led by 2 future NBAers in Marcus Thorton and Tasmin Mitchell. The Tigers do all the little things to win games like rebound the basketball and not turn the ball over. These fundamental traits are the reason why LSU could make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

The Tennessee Volunteers finished the season with a 10-6 record in league play tying with South Carolina for the top spot in the Eastern Division. Although both teams had identical conference records and the Gamecocks have 2 more overall wins than Tennessee the Vols are clearly the better team because of strength of schedule and quality wins. It is another Bruce Pearl type team that scores a ton but doesn't play much defense.

On the bubble include the South Carolina Gamecocks and Florida Gators. Both have feasted on teams that come to play them at their campus gym with South Carolina going 16-2 at home and Florida posting a 16-1 record at home. The reason both are on the bubble is the lack of quality road wins, as the combined road record between the 2 clubs is 11-11. Both will need at least 1 win and Florida will likely need to get to the finals and look impressive doing so to be assured an at large bid.

What about Kentucky you ask? They are out of the at large talk in our opinion, the Wildcats won't be dancing unless they win the SEC tourney title, and if they dont and get an at large bid over a more deserving team like Creighton, St, Mary's, or San Diego State, there really is problems with the system.

Our pick to win is the LSU Tigers, although there isn't much faith behind it. This conference is mediocre at best and expect a ton of parity and upsets along the way. When it doubt go with the favorite. In has been almost 30 years since LSU won an SEC tournament title but this team has all the right tools to win 3 games in 3 days.

Venue: St. Pete Times Forum

Sponsor: Dr. Pepper

Dates: March 12th-March 15th

TV: The early rounds of the tournament will be broadcast on Raycom Sports Network. With the tournament championship game being nationally televised on CBS at 1:00 eastern time Sunday March 15th.

SEC Tournament Schedule
March 12th - Opening Round
March 13th - Quarterfinals
March 14th - Semifinals
March 15th - Championship
Click here for the updated SEC tournament bracket

Last Years Winner
Georgia Bulldogs. A writer couldn't have wrote a better script for a movie. The #6 seeded Georgia Bulldogs pulled off the most miraculous conference tournament run in the history of college basketball. Not only was Georgia the worst regular season SEC team in the conference tourney, what they had to endure to even get to the final was a story in itself.

Georgia had to endure a tornado in the semifinals, canceling play moving the game to Georgia Tech's campus, then had to play a double header within a matter of 6 hours, all this while being the worst team in the conference. After the double header on Saturday, in the finals running on just adrenaline they beat Arkansas 66-57 to finish the improbable run.

The Bulldogs only recorded 4 wins in conference play, the only other SEC to have 4 or fewer wins and play in a conference final was Tennessee who lost to Alabama in 1991.

Previous Years SEC Tournament Bracket
2008 Champion: Georgia
2007 Champion: Florida
2006 Champion: Florida
2005 Champion: Florida
2004 Champion: Kentucky

Off Site Links
SEC Conference Official Website

March madness 2009 coverage at Maddux Sports! From every bracket upset to all march madness picks, we have you locked and loaded for the tournament.