SEC sends four to men's Elite Eight, third league ever with half of regional final field
The Southeastern Conference's memorable March continued into the second weekend of the men's NCAA Tournament as it became the third conference to place a record four teams in the Elite Eight and kept alive the possibility of an all-SEC Final Four.
Auburn, the tournament's top overall seed, became the fourth SEC team to advance to the regional finals with a 78-65 victory against Michigan on Friday night. The Tigers will face second-seeded Michigan State on Sunday in the South Regional final. The Spartans downed Ole Miss from the SEC in the first regional semifinal in Atlanta.
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The 16-school SEC placed a record 14 teams in the field of 68 and was assured of at least three Elite Eight teams coming into Friday night's slate. Alabama and Florida advanced Thursday with victories in the regional semifinals, and Tennessee and Kentucky played in an all-SEC Midwest Regional semifinal in Indianapolis Friday night. The second-seeded Volunteers cruised 78-65 past the Wildcats and will face either Houston or Purdue on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four.
One conference has never had all four national semifinalists in the NCAA Tournament. The SEC could have anywhere from four to none in San Antonio next week.
On Saturday, No. 2 seed Alabama plays No. 1 Duke in the East Regional final in Newark, N.J., and top-seeded Florida faces No. 3 Texas Tech in the West Regional final in San Francisco.
'We've played in a lot of meaningful games against a lot of good teams,' Alabama guard Chris Youngblood said Saturday.
Alabama's last nine games before the NCAA Tournament were against SEC teams ranked in the AP Top 25 at the time of the game, including Auburn, Florida and Kentucky twice each.
'We understand what it takes to win it. We've lost some close games, too, so we understand the value of each possession in high-level games like this. So we'll be ready,' Youngblood said.
The ACC was the last conference to send four teams to the Elite Eight in 2016, when North Carolina, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Virginia made the regional finals. The Big East was the first to do it in 2009 with Louisville, Pittsburgh, UConn and Villanova.
The SEC has twice placed three teams in the round of eight of the men's NCAA Tournament: 2017 (Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky) and 1986 (Kentucky, LSU and Auburn).
Since the first round, when six of the 14 SEC teams were eliminated, the conference is 11-4.
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