Where South Carolina WBB stands in SEC race: Road to Greenville could include coin toss
With one week remaining in the women’s college basketball regular season, the race for the top seed in the SEC Tournament is going down to the wire.
No. 6 South Carolina and newly crowned No. 1 Texas remain tied for the top spot in the SEC standings as of Tuesday morning.
Both the Gamecocks and the Longhorns have 13-1 records in conference play. Each team’s lone loss came against the other.
And each SEC team has two conference games remaining on its schedule. The full tournament bracket won’t be officially finalized until after the final SEC game on Sunday is played (LSU and Ole Miss tip off at 4 p.m.).
This year’s tournament is March 5-9 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville.
SEC Tournament seeding if the season ended today
T-1. Texas (*) 13-1
T-1. South Carolina (*) 13-1
3. LSU 12-2
4. Kentucky 10-4
T-5. Alabama (%) 9-5
T-5. Oklahoma (%) 9-5
7. Ole Miss (%) 9-5
8. Tennessee 8-6
9. Mississippi State (^) 6-8
10. Vanderbilt (^) 6-8
11. Florida 5-9
12. Auburn (@) 3-11
13. Texas A&M (@) 3-11
14. Georgia (#) 2-12
T-15. Missouri (#) 2-12
T-15. Arkansas (#) 2-12
Current tie-breaker scenarios:
Explaining the projections, in the words of the SEC:
- “(*) Texas and South Carolina split their games and have defeated all other opponents, therefore the tie cannot be broken at this time.”
- “(%) Alabama and Oklahoma have not played but both defeated Ole Miss, therefore Alabama and Oklahoma cannot be broken, but Ole Miss would be No. 7 seed.”
- “(^) Mississippi State defeated Vanderbilt head to head, making the Bulldogs the No. 9 seed.”
- “(@) Auburn defeated Texas A&M head to head, therefore is the No. 12 seed.”
- “(#) Georgia defeated Missouri and Arkansas head to head, which makes Georgia No. 14 seed. Missouri and Arkansas have not played yet, therefore that tie cannot be broken.”
A closer look at the race between South Carolina-Texas
South Carolina and Texas both have a relatively easy road to finishing the season tied atop the SEC standings.
The Gamecocks have a matchup with Ole Miss (9-5 SEC) on Thursday but a sneaky challenging game with Kentucky (10-4) on Sunday. The Longhorns play Mississippi State (6-8 SEC) on Thursday and Florida (5-9 SEC) on Sunday.
Assuming both teams win out, they’d be named SEC regular season co-champions. Since the two have split the season series, and in this hypothetical scenario won their final two games of the season, the only way to break the tie for the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament would be via a coin flip.
If South Carolina and Texas are still tied heading into Sunday the league will put out official information about the coin toss, but not before then, GamecockScoop reported.
The No. 1 seed would give South Carolina a favorable matchup schedule in the SEC Tournament. The Gamecocks would play their first game of the tournament at noon on Friday against either the No. 16, No. 9 or No. 8 seeds. A win in the quarterfinals game would likely set South Carolina up against the No. 4 seed in the semifinals at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
If South Carolina is the No. 2 seed, it would start its SEC Tournament run at 6 p.m. against either the No. 15, No. 10 or No. 7 seeds. A win in that hypothetical quarterfinals game would set South Carolina up against the No. 3 seed in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Basically, having the No. 1 seed would mean South Carolina would have to go through a team such as, hypothetically, Kentucky as opposed to LSU to get into the SEC championship game.
