One down, two to go. That’s the mindset for the Tigers as we enter tournament week. LSU wrapped up the regular season as champions of the SEC for the first time since 2009 and will try to win the league’s conference tournament in Nashville. Thanks to their 16-2 conference record, LSU gets a double-bye in the tournament and won’t have to play till the quarterfinal round on Friday at noon. That gives the Tigers a bit more time to find some normalcy amidst all the drama surrounding the program. Naz Reid should be good to go after taking a shot to the mouth against Florida. Will Wade and Javonte Smart’s status is an entirely different matter, however. Unless something dramatic happens, expect Tony Benford to continue on as LSU’s interim coach. Onto the bracket. The tournament starts Wednesday evening as the league’s bottom four teams (Missouri vs. Georgia and A&M vs. Vanderbilt) try to put themselves out of their misery. A Vanderbilt loss would complete an unprecedented 0-19 SEC record, so that’s fun. The winners advance to Day Two on Thursday. The Mizzou-Georgia winner plays Auburn, while the Vandy-A&M winner gets Miss State. Tipoff is slated for noon on Thursday so we have a good nine hours of college basketball to carry us through before LSU takes the court on Friday. Days one and two will be carried exclusively on SEC Network. When the Tigers do take the court on Friday, they’ll be the first on the court in the quarterfinal round at noon on ESPN. In a bit of bad luck, the Tigers first opponent in Nashville will be against either Arkansas or Florida, the only two teams to beat LSU in league play this year. But LSU also has wins over both the Hogs and Gators so it could all be much ado about nothing. If LSU makes it out of the quarterfinal round, they’ll get either South Carolina, Auburn or the winner of Georgia-Missouri in the semifinal round on Saturday at noon. That’s where being the one-seed pays major dividends for LSU. The Tigers won’t have to play Tennessee and Kentucky in Nashville, it’ll be one or the other. If things go as expected, Tennessee and Kentucky will play a rubber match Saturday evening, while LSU watches comfortably from their hotel. Both semifinal games will be broadcasted on ESPN. The SEC championship will be played Sunday at noon and also shown on ESPN. Sunday is also Selection Sunday so LSU could be playing for not only a conference tournament title, but a one-seed for the NCAA Tournament. The broadcast crew for LSU’s opening tournament game will include Karl Ravech, Jimmy Dykes and Laura Rutledge. The same crew will be on hand assuming LSU makes the semifinal round on Saturday. But LSU won’t be able to avoid more Dick Vitale finger wagging as he’s slated to call the SEC Championship on Sunday.<doc-sep>The 2019 SEC Tournament is just a few days away! College basketball’s regular season is over, and now it’s time to see who’ll be cutting down the nets in Nashville, Tennessee. This week, from Wednesday-Sunday, the teams of the SEC will be tangled with one another to determine who’ll be known as SEC Tournament Champions. The field this year features quite a few great teams, of course. But the #1 seed will have all the attention that it... probably wasn’t hoping for. The LSU Tigers won the regular season championship on Saturday night, but they have quite the dark cloud around them right now. Head coach Will Wade has been suspended indefinitely by the athletic department, as he is involved in the ongoing FBI sting operation, as it pertains to paying amateur athletes. JaVonte Smart was held out of action against Vanderbilt, as he appears to be the player whose recruitment is under concern. Meanwhile, the Kentucky Wildcats and Tennessee Volunteers should be expected to do big things. Based on how things fell, Kentucky is the 2 seed while Tennessee is the 3. So a matchup featuring two of the best and brightest in the conference this season can only happen in the semifinals based on tiebreakers. If that comes to pass, it should be fun to see play out, as both sides split their regular season meetings. Teams like the Auburn Tigers, Ole Miss Rebels and Mississippi State Bulldogs are pretty safe as it pertains to the NCAA Tournament. But clubs like the Arkansas Razorbacks, Florida Gators and Alabama Crimson Tide will have to probably win at LEAST one game to boost their chances to dance. The South Carolina Gamecocks are the 4 seed, but considering their resume, they’d likely have to go auto-bid or bust. They do have wins over Florida, Mississippi State, Auburn, Ole Miss and Arkansas this season. But their nonconference is so lacking that it’s almost irrelevant. The longest of longshots are of course the four teams playing on Wednesday. The Georgia Bulldogs, Missouri Tigers, Texas A&M Aggies and Vanderbilt Commodores will need to conjure up some magic and win the whole dang thing if they want to go dancing. Vandy, in particular, is in their woes, as they went 0-18 in SEC play. Which is as remarkable as it is unfortunate. BRACKET SCHEDULE (All times ET; games available via WatchESPN) SECOND ROUND Ole Miss vs. Alabama — 7 p.m., SEC Network Mississippi State vs. Texas A&M/Vanderbilt — 9 p.m., SEC Network QUARTERFINALS LSU vs. Florida — 1 p.m., ESPN South Carolina vs. Auburn — 3 p.m., ESPN Kentucky vs. Alabama — 7 p.m., SEC Network Tennessee vs. Mississippi State/Texas A&M — 9 p.m., SEC Network SEMIFINALS Game 7 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner — 1 p.m., ESPN Game 9 Winner vs. Game 10 Winner — 3 p.m., ESPN FINAL Game 11 Winner vs. Game 12 Winner — 1 p.m., ESPN<doc-sep>Missouri won its first-round SEC Tournament matchup with Georgia on Wednesday night, and a winnable contest against South Carolina awaits in the quarterfinals if the Tigers win Thursday. The problem is that Missouri suffered the worst loss of the Cuonzo Martin era earlier this season against its second-round opponent, the No. 22 Auburn Tigers. That 92-58 loss at Auburn Arena came at the end of MU’s worst stretch of the season, which saw the team drop six of its first seven games to start conference play. Expect a better performance from Missouri this time around, but make no mistake, this is not a favorable matchup. Another marquee performance from Geist, who dropped a career-high 30 points against the Bulldogs in Round 1, would certainly help the Tigers’ cause. More important, however, he needs to receive support from Jeremiah Tilmon, Torrence Watson and some of the other impact players who went quiet in the tournament opener. The Details Opponent: No. 22 Auburn Tigers (22-9, 11-7 SEC) Time: About 2:28 p.m. CT Where: Bridgestone Arena; Nashville, Tenn. Is Mizzou Receiving Top 25 Votes? Nope. What Does Vegas Say? Auburn, -9.5 What Does ESPN’s Basketball Power Index Say? Auburn, 87.1% Where To Watch: SEC Network Radio: Tiger Radio Network // Sirius/XM -119/199 Twitter: @MizzouHoops Facebook: Mizzou Men’s Basketball The Review Recap | Geist’s big night carries Tigers past Georgia Links | Missouri gets another chance to (ahem) beat Auburn in the SEC Tournament Study Hall | Mizzou 71, Georgia 61 Dive Cuts | Mizzou basketball turns its eye to the future Five Questions<doc-sep>
How much has changed since Missouri put Georgia in a sleeperhold last week? The day after the Tigers left Athens, Bulldogs combo forward Rayshaun Hammonds underwent surgery to repair a fracture in his right foot, squelching any hopes that an anemic offense would get a booster shot. That prognosis was confirmed on Saturday, when South Carolina treated Tom Crean’s squad as a pinata. While there’s no guarantee MU will inflict a similar flogging today, the SEC tournament opener for both teams doesn’t offer conditions ripe for the Bulldogs to change the ending to this redux. No, Mizzou isn’t going to pass on an opportunity inch closer to .500 overall, but its reward isn’t one that leaves you feeling giddy: a rematch with Auburn. You know, the other set of Tigers that laid a 34-point beating — the worst of Cuonzo Martin’s short tenure — on MU in late January. Now maybe another blowout of UGA is enough to stir some momentum that carries over into Thursday, but as it stands, there’s decent likelihood that the offseason arrives early tomorrow evening. Over the past couple of weeks, Sam Snelling and I have tried to drum the message into heads that the latter stages of this season are about pushing young players as far down the developmental curve as possible. To a degree, that’s panned out. Torrence Watson is shooting the cover off the ball. Xavier Pinson tried to be a catalyst in a loss to Ole Miss. And while Javon Pickett’s back has been bothersome, he’s still a reliable presence in the rotation. This week, Martin told reporters he also expects Mark Smith, who is recovering from his own season-ending surgery, to be back in fighting shape by the time MU starts offseason conditioning. Exiting this season with a quartet of underclassmen fusing into a core counts as progress — regardless of what transpires in Nashville. No one would be opposed to them learning how to cope with a short turnaround and cause some mischief at Bridgestone Arena, but it’s not going to radically alter our assessment of this season. We can fixate on four leads squandered and the resulting opportunities missed, but it’s also worth mentioning that Mizzou’s largely met expectations without Jontay Porter in the fold. Once the sophomore was lost, for example, KenPom’s model adjusted and projected the Tigers to go 15-15 overall and post a 6-12 mark in conference play. They just missed. So the expectations (and excitement) are modest tonight: take care of business and keep whatever momentum exists rolling along. The Details Opponent: Georgia Bulldogs (11-20, 2-16 SEC) Time: 5 p.m. CT Where: Bridgestone Arena; Nashville, Tenn. Is Mizzou Receiving Top 25 Votes? Nope. What Does Vegas Say? Missouri, -3 What Does KenPom Say? Missouri 68, Georgia 65 Where To Watch: SEC Network Radio: Tiger Radio Network // Sirius/XM -119/199 Twitter: @MizzouHoops Facebook: Mizzou Men’s Basketball The Review Recap | Missouri cant’ hang on against Ole Miss Study Hall | Ole Miss 73, Missouri 68 Dive Cuts | Mizzou basketball turns its eye to the future Five Questions