Alabama Aiming for Back-to-Back Titles at Nashville’s SEC Championships

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The SEC (Southeastern Conference) Tournament is happening in Nashville this year after it was held in Florida last year. Eight teams have a good chance of competing in the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, but Mississippi State might miss out. Five of these teams are ranked, with Alabama leading the way at 4th place. Both Vanderbilt and Arkansas have also received attention from the public.

Alabama is hoping to win both the SEC regular season title and the tournament championship this year, like they did in Nashville last year. But first, they have to work on not starting off slow-they’ve trailed at least 10 points in all of their latest three games, including a 67-61 loss against Texas A&M. Alabama will play its next game on Friday, either against Mississippi State or Florida.

Alabama coach Nate Oats said that he would try to fix the problem if he had the exact answer for it. Tennessee (ranked 17th) is the defending tournament champion after breaking a 41-year long dry spell. The Volunteers are hoping that their experience and playing close to home can help them win a game on the road in SEC, which has been challenging for them lately. Coach Rick Barnes said Tuesday that there’s no more time for any slip-up and every game should be taken as if it was a championship match, whether they have two or ten games left.

“It’s time to do what needs to be done for our team,” Barnes said.

Texas A&M, which is ranked 18th in the nation, and Kentucky, who hasn’t won for three years since 2018 are both up for the same tournament.

The tournament starts on Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena with four teams competing: Mississippi competing against South Carolina and then LSU competing against Georgia. Free tickets are offered for viewers!

KENTUCKY’S DROUGHT

The Wildcasts last won the SEC Tournament title in 2018. During that whole season, they struggled to make it into the NCAA and eventually got a seat as the No. 3 seed. Coach John Calipari has only one day left to figure out who will be their point guard that will play on Friday night.

Sahvir Wheeler had a medical issue that kept him out of the game for a few weeks and then, during their last match, Cason Wallace hurt his left leg too. Kentucky’s coach Calipari hopes all their injured players can practice this week and he wants more from the other players on his team. He said that all of them now have an opportunity to prove themselves.

At the match in Nashville, the teams will not have their full squads. Tennessee’s point guard Zakai Zeigler hurt his knee so badly he’ll have to sit out for the season, and Vanderbilt’s player M Liam Robbins got injured in their last game and has to have surgery, meaning he won’t be playing either.

Colin Castleton, a basketball player from Florida, has not been able to play for the last five games due to an injury on his right hand. The team has done alright during his absence (2 wins, 3 losses). He is one of the top players in the league, as he leads both in points and rebounds and also ranks high with 78 blocked shots (8th in the nation) and three blocks per game (4th best).

Brandon Miller, a freshman from Alabama who was awarded the AP SEC Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year awards, is playing in his hometown Nashville. Though he is back home, fans from opposing teams have been heckling him with mean chants.

In addition, police reported that Miller had given the gun used to shoot Jamea Harris (23 years old) during January, though Miller’s lawyer said he never held it in his hands nor knew that it was going to be used for such purpose.

Coach Jerry Stackhouse is doing a great job at Vanderbilt. They have won 3 games in a row and 8 out of 9, even managing to beat Rupp Arena’s 2007 record and scoring the winning buzzer shot against Tennessee followed by a clean sweep over Florida!

No. 25 Missouri has been smashing it too with 4 victories in coach Dennis Gates’ debut season, while Georgia on the other hand has fallen into a 5-game slump.

Mark Long, Gary B. Graves, and John Zenor wrote this report. To learn more about college basketball updates, you can visit these links: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball , https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll , and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 .