If I’ve heard it said once this basketball season, I’ve heard it a couple hundred times: “The Southeastern Conference is better than it’s ever been.”

I agree with that statement in one regard. That is, SEC basketball, from top to bottom, is better than ever. The league has more teams, more really good teams, more balance and is more competitive than it has ever been. It is the best league in the country by far.

This week’s Associated Press poll says as much: Three of the top five teams are from the SEC. What’s more, four of the top eight, five of the top 14, and six of the top 15 are all SEC teams.

You could make the case that in order to win this week’s SEC Tournament at Nashville, the eventual champion will have to beat more top shelf teams than it would have to beat to win the NCAA Tournament. The league is that good.

But don’t tell me the quality of SEC basketball is better than it was during a period in the late 20th century when Wimp Sanderson was at Alabama, Sonny Smith at Auburn, Nolan Richardson at Arkansas, Dale Brown at LSU, Joe B. Hall and Rick Pitino at Kentucky and Richard Williams at Mississippi State.

Don’t tell me the SEC has the star power now that it had back when players as splendid as LSU’s Shaquille O’Neal, Auburn’s Charles Barkley, Georgia’s Dominique Wilkins and Kentucky’s Jamal Mashburn played three years of college ball before going pro. That’s the biggest difference. Back then, players stayed in college for at least two or three years. Not now.

When Mississippi State shocked Kentucky (and the college basketball world) and won the 1996 SEC Tournament Championship, 11 of the players in that championship game went on to play in the NBA. Nazr Mohammed, a 6-foot, 11-inch bruiser, could scarcely get off the bench for Kentucky in 1996, but went on to play 18 NBA seasons. My point: In 1996 there were 11 future NBA players in one game. Now, there might not be 11 NBA players the entire conference. 

Another way to say it: The SEC has more good basketball players now than it has ever had. It had more truly great players during the ‘80s and ‘90s. Think about it. Besides those already mentioned, you had Allan Houston at Tennessee, Vernon Maxwell at Florida, Chuck Person at Auburn, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauff (then Chris Jackson) at LSU, Derrick McKee, James “Hollywood” Robinson and Latrell Sprewell at Alabama, and so, so many more.

Heck, Wimp Sanderson had Sprewell, Robinson, Robert Horry, Jason Caffey and Marcus Webb – all future NBA players – on the same team and still somehow found plenty to frown about. 

Richard Williams, still radio analyst for Mississippi State (and recovering nicely from a health scare weeks ago), agrees the league is better, top to bottom, than ever. He says it is by design.

“The commissioner (Greg Sankey) made basketball a priority,” Williams said. “He hired an associate commissioner for basketball and strongly suggested that all SEC members upgrade their schedules, and invest in both facilities and coaches. We’ve seen that happen and now we see them also investing in talent.”

You can do that legally now via NIL. This is not to say some programs weren’t “investing” in players under the table back in the late 20th century.

The SEC Tournament begins Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Mississippi State plays LSU in a first round game Wednesday at 6 p.m. Ole Miss, by virtue of its better league record, doesn’t have to play until Thursday at noon when the Rebels will play the winner of the first round game that matches Arkansas and South Carolina.

Should State beat LSU, the Bulldogs would play Missouri in the second round. Win that one, and Florida would be next. Should Ole Miss win its Thursday game, the Rebels would play top-seed Auburn in the quarterfinals. Clearly, both Mississippi teams face really difficult tasks. Regardless, both will play in the NCAA Tournament.

If you ask me, Auburn, the best overall team, is the odds-on favorite, but Florida, Alabama and Tennessee are all capable of winning the championship. For that matter, all four are capable of winning the national championship. That’s perhaps the best measure of how strong the league is.

Mississippi State sophomore Josh Hubbard won the Bailey Howell Trophy as Mississippi’s top men’s college player, announced Monday at a luncheon at Pearl River Resort in Philadelphia. Ole Miss senior Madison Scott won the Peggie Gillom as the top women’s player.

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