SEC Tournament 2023: Men's Bracket, TV Schedule, Dates, Live Stream Info
The Alabama Crimson Tide will try to win their second SEC tournament in three years in Nashville.
Nate Oats' team lost just twice on its way to earning the No. 1 overall seed in the event that starts on Wednesday.
Alabama and the other top-four seeds will not play inside Bridgestone Arena until the quarterfinals on Friday.
The Texas A&M Aggies, who beat Alabama at home on Saturday, headline the opposite side of the bracket as the No. 2 seed.
The Kentucky Wildcats and Missouri Tigers used wins in their respective regular-season finales to join Alabama and Texas A&M in the top four.
The tournament kicks off Wednesday with two games between the four worst programs in the SEC. The Tennessee Volunteers headline the collection of four teams that enter in Thursday's second round.
SEC Tournament Bracket and Schedule
Alabama should be viewed as the strong favorite to cut down the nets on Sunday in Nashville.
The Crimson Tide only lost two games, both on the road, in league play. The second of those two defeats happened on Saturday against Texas A&M after the team already locked up the SEC regular-season title. The other loss came on February 15 at Tennessee.
Nate Oats led the Crimson Tide to the 2021 SEC tournament title as the top seed. The No. 1 seeds have not fared well recently in the event with Alabama being an exception two years ago.
The Auburn Tigers lost their only SEC tournament game as the top seed in 2022. Auburn suffered the same fate in 2018, as did the LSU Tigers in 2019.
Alabama has the best player in the conference in freshman Brandon Miller, who averages 19.6 points and eight rebounds per game.
The projected NBA draft lottery pick will be expected to lead Alabama to the SEC tournament final. The Crimson Tide should be one of the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA men's basketball tournament regardless of what happens in Nashville.
Alabama is one of eight SEC teams projected to be in the March Madness field by ESPN's Joe Lunardi.
The Vanderbilt Commodores have a chance to be the ninth team on that list. Lunardi has Vandy listed as the No. 78 overall team in his projection, so the Commodores have work to do in Nashville.
Jerry Stackhouse's team needs to beat Kentucky for the second time in two weeks to move closer to the bubble. Vandy upset the Wildcats inside Rupp Arena on Wednesday.
Auburn and the Mississippi State Bulldogs need wins on Thursday as well to avoid bad losses from knocking them out of the field. Lunardi has Auburn listed as a No. 10 seed and Mississippi State on the "Last Four In" line.
The Arkansas Razorbacks are in a safer position than Auburn and Mississippi State, but they need a second-round win versus Auburn to boost some confidence after losing three games to finish the regular season.
Arkansas has one of the best freshmen in the conference in Nick Smith, but it failed to beat Alabama, Tennessee or Kentucky with Smith back in the lineup after an injury absence. Smith missed seven weeks with a knee injury.
Tennessee will be closely watched as well on Thursday to see how it deals without Zakai Zeigler, who tore his ACL against Arkansas on Tuesday. The Vols lost to Auburn in their first game without Zeigler.
A weakened Vols team might be the most susceptible to an upset in Nashville if they can't figure out how to deal without one of their top players.
Upsets may be harder to come by after Friday in Nashville. Alabama controlled the conference from the start of league play, Texas A&M lost once since February 1, Kentucky won five of the last six and Missouri is one of the best offensive teams in the SEC. The Tigers rank second behind Alabama in points per game among SEC teams.
One of those four teams should come away with the SEC tournament title, and we could see the top four teams in the semifinals, just like the 2021 event played out when Alabama was the top seed and won.
