‘The best conference in the world’: Gamecocks’ title is just part of SEC’s new swagger

South Carolina is the defending NCAA champion. Mississippi State is the national runner-up. Six other SEC teams made their way to the NCAA tournament last season.

In other words, the Southeastern Conference is as good as it has it ever been, and just about everyone is convinced this year will be even better.

Speaking at SEC media day in Nashville, Tennessee, coaches up and down the league expressed optimism about the upcoming season, with even the squads picked to finish in the bottom tier saying they thought they could make the NCAA tournament.

Ole Miss coach Matt Insell said he has programmed his Amazon Echo smart speaker to remind him every day of his team’s goal: the Big Dance. Florida coach Cam Newbauer said he thought the team could send nine teams to the postseason and said the league is the best for women’s basketball in the world. LSU coach Nikki Fargas said there could be even more. Georgia coach Joni Taylor said the race for the conference title is open to “anybody.”

All of those teams ranked outside the top 6 in the SEC preseason media poll.

A large part of that, several coaches said, was the presence of South Carolina and Mississippi State in the national championship game last season, the first time since 2008 the SEC has had two teams make the Final Four and the first time since 1989 two teams made it to the championship game.

Moreover, both the Gamecocks and the Bulldogs are less than a decade removed from multiple losing season, highlighting for many coaches that a team’s fortunes can change rapidly.

“You look at a South Carolina, you look at a Mississippi State, and and five years, six years ago, they were at the bottom of the league, and that’s the beauty of this league,” Taylor said.

“Every game is a battle. You can never chill,” LSU star guard Raigyne Moncrief of life in the SEC. As a result, many coaches and players said, teams that come out of the SEC are prepared for the postseason.

Or, as Tennessee coach Holly Warlick bluntly put it, “The SEC ... is the best. It’s competitive, it’s athletic, and I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

This story was originally published October 19, 2017 at 3:31 PM with the headline "‘The best conference in the world’: Gamecocks’ title is just part of SEC’s new swagger."