The SEC Tournament is in full swing, with all four top seeds in action in Nashville.
Most of these teams outside of Ole Miss (who needs to win the championship to make the NCAA Tournament), and Oklahoma, which is on the bubble.
The defending tournament champions got things started against the Wildcats in a physical battle down low, which turned out to be a huge advantage for Florida in getting the win.
Tennessee and Vanderbilt, after a split in the regular season, squared off as the hometown team pulled away late to secure the win.
Both games one and two featured shooting woes from the floor among the four teams.
Game three and game four featured a Cinderella story being told about Ole Miss, with the upset of Alabama in control from the jump.
Game One – 9. Kentucky vs. 1. Florida: Gators dominate down low
From the jump, Florida set the tone in the physical game on the glass and on the block, led by its three-headed monsters of Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu, and Micah Handlogten to win 71-63.
Condon had one of his best games of the season with 22 points on 7-12 from the floor with 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double on the season.
Every time the Cats had a small glimmer of hope, it would turn into a bad spell offensively or a turnover, resulting in 11 turnovers.
The Gators controlled the glass with an almost 2:1 advantage, which ended 50-28.
“I think that’s just our identity. We go out there and win a lot of times by just being more physical and being more aggressive than the other team,” said Handlogten after the game.
Florida played a really sloppy second half, going 8-plus minutes without a field goal, and both teams combined to shoot 8-43 from three.
Thomas Haugh had a near double-double with 13 and eight.
Mo Dioubate and Denzel Aberdeen led the Wildcats with 14 and 17 points apiece to keep the Cats afloat.
Game Two – 5. Tennessee vs. 4. Vanderbilt: Duke Miles and Tyler Tanner carry Dores to victory
In what was a back-and-forth first half between the two teams, it was the guard play of the Commodores that pulled away in the second half.
At one point, Tennessee had led by as much as seven points in the second half until Duke Miles went on to score 12 consecutive points to get back and get the Dores in control.
Miles at one point had been perfect on his first seven shots from the floor, and went on to finish with 30 points on 11-14 shooting.
“I got my groove back,” said Miles.
Tyler Tanner was also clutch with 19 points on the afternoon.
Game Three – 15. Ole Miss vs. 2. Alabama: Rebels hit timely shots to fend off Tide
In three games in three days, Ole Miss has yet to trail and has been unconscious from the floor. Whether it’s tough, contested midrange shots or drawing fouls, the Rebels have done a very good job fending off the Tide.
“I take full ownership of tonight as a leader of this team,” said Houston Mallette after the game.
From the jump, the energy just seemed low, and the Tide seemed to overlook its opponent as it had done a couple of times this season.
Got as much down as 14 and brought it all the way back down to six and even four, but could not get that extra bucket off a stop to get the lead.
Despite being down, the team had a chance to win it after the Rebels missed free throws, but Aiden Sherrell got blocked at the rim.
The trio of Ilia Kamardine, AJ Storr, and Malik Dia hit a timely jumper after a timely jumper to fend off the push in the second half, all of which were heavily contested. The trio combined for 47 points.
Labaron Philon was the only consistent scorer in the second half when the team needed buckets, with 28 points on 5-7 from deep, as the team was ice cold, 9-29.
Aden Holloway did provide that second scorer with 18, but a lot of it came in the first half.
“It looked to me like we didn’t think they were that much better than the first time we played them,” said coach Nate Oats after the loss.
Latrell Wrightsell and Amari Allen struggled for a combined 5 points on 2-13 from the floor and 0-8 from three.
With the loss, the Tide will likely still be a four seed next week in the NCAA Tournament, but will have to get into a rhythm offensively, especially from deep.
Game Four – 11. Oklahoma vs. 3. Arkansas: Darius Acuff Jr. Masterclass
Oklahoma entered the game on the fringe of the tournament in what was a back-and-forth game.
Darius Acuff Jr. did Acuff Jr. things and dominated the whole game with 37 points on the night on 10-19 from the floor and 10-12 from the free throw line.
Oklahoma fought all game, even led for most of the second half, in a game that had nearly 20 lead changes.
Nijel Pack and Derrion Reid led the way for the Sooners with 19 points and 17 points, respectively.
Did Oklahoma do enough to get in? Time will tell.
SEC Basketball Semifinals:
- 4. Vanderbilt vs. 1. Florida – 1 p.m. ET
- 15. Ole Miss vs. 3. Arkansas – 30 minutes after game one