We're all believers in the SEC now
An opening weekend performance that netted seven teams in the Sweet 16 leaves us no choice but to agree: It Just Means more on the hardwood right now.
MILWAUKEE — Kentucky coach Mark Pope hugged his athletic director, Mitch Barnhardt, entered his Wildcats locker room, then asked his players a rhetorical question.
“DID YOU SEE THAT?!”
“DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!”
Yes, we sure did.
Kentucky handily beat Illinois, 84-75, jumping out to an early lead and never relenting.
What we saw in the game immediately afterward at Fiserv Forum was even more cutthroat.
Ole Miss obliterated Iowa State, 91-78, in a game that was not nearly as close as the final score would indicate.
Two games here on Sunday. Two winners from one conference. Two teams that were — inexplicably — underdogs in their respective matchups.
Then again, who could blame the oddsmakers? Kentucky finished in sixth place in the SEC. Ole Miss finished in seventh.
Neither team made so much as the semifinals of its conference tournament.
The SEC couldn’t be that good and deep, could it?