My theory on that

Posted on: March 24, 2017 at 09:11:06 CT

The SEC almost always year in and year out has the best athletes. That was the initial shock when we joined the conference, and I think the reason we struggled even under Haith. We had a Big 12 caliber of athlete and were simply getting pushed around to a degree.

The SEC also does not have very strong coaching. And so early in the season the SEC almost always performs poorly in non-con play, because they are not close to being a finished product at that point. When things start to gel, the teams have already entered SEC play and the perception is set. Given the way college basketball metrics work and the way the sport is now driven by them, when you get in conference play with a low conference overall metric all you can do is play each other and hurt each other's perceptions. Its very hard for the league as a whole to improve its perception during conference play.

So the SEC is always underseeded or under-represented, because there is always a perception and the metrics back it up that it is a weak league. But then the tourney starts and its members start out athleting the opposition that it got tripped up by in non-con play when they were much less of a finished product.