Eight Southeastern Conference men’s basketball teams made the 2024 NCAA Tournament, tying the Big 12 for the most representatives from one league.
Eight SEC teams made the 2023 NCAA Tournament, tying the Big Ten for the most.
Last season, the 92 former SEC players on NBA rosters were the most among collegiate conferences.
Alabama made the Final Four last season, becoming the ninth SEC program to reach the mecca of the sport.
But here’s the status of the basketball league the Oklahoma Sooners have joined as of last week: the SEC is hoping to do better. Much better.
“With an already iconic brand that is the Southeastern Conference, SEC basketball is still a growing story,” Garth Glissman, the league’s associate commissioner for men’s basketball, told the Tulsa World. “That excites me.
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“The challenge in men’s basketball is to reach the level that SEC football, SEC baseball, SEC women’s basketball have already reached. We have the ability to do that. But we still have room to grow.”
Uh-oh. That’s not what the struggling Sooners need to hear as they move into the SEC. OU has struggled in Porter Moser’s three seasons as coach, going 54-45 with nary an NCAA Tournament bid.
This is just the second three-year March Madness void since for OU the 1979 Sooners broke a 30-year absence from the NCAAs. And those two other instances (1980-82; 2010-12) were notable for coaching changes, from Dave Bliss to Billy Tubbs in 1980 and from Jeff Capel to Lon Kruger in 2011.
Moser takes another overhauled roster into the SEC. He has lost five of his six top players from last season, with only forward Jalon Moore returning. Also back are centers Sam Godwin and Luke Northweather.
Moser figured to be one of the few OU coaches who caught a competitive break with the move to the SEC. The Big 12 has been the acclaimed best basketball league in America. But there’s nothing easy about SEC basketball.
Oklahoma’s Porter Moser coaches his team in a 2021 game against new SEC rival Arkansas at the BOK Center. Both OU and its new conference aim to improve on their recent men’s basketball results.
Kentucky is the SEC’s Kansas. Tennessee has become a national power under former Texas coach Rick Barnes. Alabama is riding high. Auburn is a load with Bruce Pearl. Arkansas just hired John Calipari.
And remember, Texas is coming along to the SEC, too.
Moser said he’s no hypocrite. He’s been touting the Big 12 as America’s best league. Moser won’t besmirch the Big 12. But he’s now flying the SEC banner.
“I think they’re unbelievable leagues,” Moser said of both conferences. “I look at what the SEC is doing, who they’re recruiting. Now I’m going to be trumpeting that league.”
Big 12 basketball is known for its physicality. SEC basketball is known for its athletic ability. Moser said he’s been recruiting for that.
“We tried last year to play way more athletic, way more uptempo,” Moser said. “I thought we did really good in getting guys that are efficient and can shoot.”
Moser will be one of six SEC coaches who have taken teams to the Final Four. Moser went with Loyola-Chicago. Calipari took both Kentucky and Massachusetts. Beard led Texas Tech to the 2019 NCAA finals. Barnes coached Texas to the Final Four way back in 2003. Auburn’s Pearl and Alabama’s Nate Oats went with their current schools.
“We’ve got a lot of alphas in the head coach’s room,” Glissman said. “Strong, dynamic personalities. Hall of Famers.”
But the SEC has won just one NCAA title since 2007 — Kentucky, with Anthony Davis, in 2012. Since 1978, the SEC’s other national champions are Arkansas 1994, Kentucky 1996 and 1998, and Florida’s back-to-back titles under Billy Donovan, 2006 and 2007.
Alabama last season was the first SEC team since 2019 Auburn to make the Final Four.
“So much of college basketball is how you perform in March,” Glissman said. “Admittedly, our teams and coaches would be the first to tell you, we need to perform better in the tournament.
“When you add Texas and Oklahoma, the base is broadened. The depth of competition is there. Now we need some teams to break through.”
OU has 42 NCAA Tournament victories all-time. Texas has 40. Upon entering the SEC, they rank fourth and fifth, respectively, in the conference, behind only Kentucky (132), Florida (50) and Arkansas (48).
Glissman grew up in Nebraska — he was a non-scholarship player in both football and basketball for the Cornhuskers in the early 2000s — and knows the OU hoops tradition.
“I’m old enough and enough of a sports fan, as a kid, I go back to the Billy Tubbs era,” Glissman said.
“When I talk about the SEC being a growth story, Oklahoma and Texas are very much a part of that. Anytime you add two programs with the tradition in all sports, in particular men’s basketball, it’s really exciting. Two iconic brands.”
If the Sooners can be part of raising the SEC’s basketball stock, that’s a runaway success story. But if the SEC’s basketball stock rises without OU’s help, Porter Moser’s job is just as difficult as it was in the Big 12.
