The SEC was dominated by Alabama during the regular season, the No. 1 seed in the Conference tournament, but are the Crimson Tide starting to show some signs of slowing down?
The Crimson Tide have had to deal with several off-court issues as it relates to star freshman forward Brandon Miller and his involvement in a murder case, and it’s starting to seep into the team’s play.
Can someone knock Alabama off in the SEC Tournament? Let’s get you ready by first checking out the odds:
Here’s the 2023 SEC Conference tournament bracket with Alabama as the top seed while the team that they lost to on Saturday, Texas A&M, the No. 2 seed.
SEC Conference tournament schedule (Dates, time, channel)
The SEC tournament will be televised on SEC Network for the first day on Wednesday, March 8 with South Carolina vs. Ole Miss at 7 p.m. EST, followed by Georgia vs. LSU.
Second round action will be the following day, Thursday, on the SEC Network as well.
The quarterfinals will be on Friday with the early session, starting at 1 p.m. EST and the second game following 30 minutes after, aired on ESPN while the evening double header will be on the SEC Network.
The semifinals will be on Saturday with both games on ESPN at 1 p.m. EST and the other game right after.
Lastly, the finals will be on Sunday on ESPN at 1 p.m. EST.
Before losing to Texas A&M over the weekend, the warning signs have been up for Alabama, who trailed in the second half of each of its past three games prior. So, I think that there’s value in taking some shots against the Crimson Tide from the bottom half of the bracket, who may be a vulnerable favorite.
While Arkansas has been playing competitive basketball against elite competition, I think it’s more prudent to go with either Texas A&M or Kentucky.
As noted above, the Aggies defeated Alabama at home in the regular season finale and have been a top 10 team since February 1, while Kentucky checks in 11th in that metric.
Both teams are dominant on the offense glass, each top 10 nationally in offensive rebounding rate, but I believe that the Aggies style of play is more sustainable with their top five free throw rate in the country and elite guard play in Tyrece Radford and Wade Taylor IV.
While the Aggies lost to Kentucky on the road in SEC play, their lone meeting, I believe that they have been the best team in the league over the past five weeks and are my favorite play to knock off the Crimson Tide and win the SEC tournament.
