Tennessee Tournament Thoughts

Honest gut feeling?  U. Tennessee's basketball team played themselves out of the Tournament yesterday with their loss to Alabama.  Maybe even with their second half against Mississippi State.  They looked tired.  They looked like they'd somehow lost the momentum that carried them through the second half of the SEC season.  

More than the shaky performances, the inconsistency, and the just plain weird losses to the Georgias of the world that will keep them out of the tournament?

The fact that they play their ball in the SEC.

And this year, that's not every really a knock on the NCAA officials who want to cut Big 10, ACC and Big East teams more slack than they do SEC teams.  

The SEC is filled with a lot of shaky performers.  Even as a fan, I can't sit here and tell you that Tennessee deserves to be in the tournament so much more than Ole Miss, or even Alabama.  I think they're significantly better than Kentucky now that Nerlens is out, but with the big man, I'd have marked Kentucky slightly better than Tennessee.  Lots of Bubble Teams.  Lots.  I don't think any of them are in.  Except maybe Kentucky.  Because they're Kentucky...