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Starting Five: Auburn is still the 1, unless it’s Duke

Mar 30, 2025 | 9:52 PM

By Chris Marler

Survive and Advance. Period. All the stats, rankings, metrics, and resumé-making wins from the regular season don’t matter. 

Survive. Advance. Period. 

Seven SEC teams came into the weekend. Only two remain. Here’s our Sunday night Starting Five recapping the weekend in SEC basketball. 

 

  1. Should’ve known all along 

The depth and dominance of this conference has been talked about all year long. 

The SEC had the most teams in the NCAA tournament of all-time. 

The SEC had at least four teams ranked in the top ten all year long. 

The SEC was the best conference in the history of college basketball. 

However, even with all that depth and top-tier teams, there were only two whose ability to win a title was never in question – Auburn and Florida. 

Alabama had a ton of defensive issues and some streaky shooting at times. Tennessee had offensive issues and struggled to beat some of the best teams in the conference, especially Kentucky. The biggest question for Auburn and Florida heading into the tournament was travel costs for the fans. 

The two most consistent teams all season are the only two still standing. Who could’ve seen that coming? 

 

  1. Heartbreak for the Hogs, again 

It feels like I’m in the minority of most non-Arkansas fans around the country when I say this, but I felt for Arkansas and John Calipari after their overtime loss to Texas Tech that sent them home early. 

Coach Cal is one of the most polarizing people in the sport and has been for decades. Kentucky fans obviously have strong feelings on the subject, but to the casual fan it felt like the story of this year’s Arkansas team was one we could all get behind. 

Arkansas was decimated by multiple injuries to their best players for most of the season. Things started to click for this team in the last few weeks of the season and they won when they needed to most. Just getting to the tournament was a much bigger accomplishment than people want to give Calipari credit for. Then the team that was “lucky” to be there had a dream opening weekend.  The Hogs beat preseason No. 1 Kansas in round one and Coach Cal’s white whale, Rick Pitino, and St. Johns in round two. 

For 36 minutes on Thursday night, it looked like the Razorbacks were going to hit the snooze button and keep the dream going.

Then came the nightmare.

Texas Tech came back from 17 points down and then were able to put the Hogs (Back) to sleep in overtime with a one point win. The shock, sadness, and emotional disarray that came across the faces of every Arkansas player walking off the court in San Francisco was tough to see. 

This loss is just another copy, paste core memory of Arkansas blowing a big game in horrific fashion. Arkansas fans have collected too many of those over the last several years in all sports. 

 

  1. Too Rocky at the Top 

Death. Taxes. And, Tennessee choking in March. 

It’s hard to pinpoint what goes wrong every year for Tennessee when they get to this month. Most people love Spring. It brings daylight savings, better weather, and day drinking becomes socially acceptable again. However, Rick Barnes and Tennessee basketball fans look at March on the calendar like the Grinch looks at a kid on Christmas. Hate, hate, hate. 

Tennessee has been one of the best basketball programs in the SEC over the last decade. They’ve made seven straight NCAA tournaments and have been a No. 2 or No. 3 seed in five of them. They’ve lost to two 11-Seeds, a 12 seed, and despite being ranked No. 1 in the country at some point in each of the last two seasons, have still never reached a Final Four. 

This year’s team felt different than last year’s. Tennessee made the SEC Tournament championship game and then proceeded to win their first three tournament games by an average of 12 points per game, including a blowout win over Kentucky. They came into their Elite Eight game against Houston as a two-point underdog. 

The Vols lost by 19, and the game was over in the first eight minutes. The 15 points in the first half was the fewest of any 1 or 2 Seed in the tournament history. It didn’t get much better in the second half as Houston clinched a seventh trip to the Final Four while Tennessee fans immediately became baseball fans again.

 

  1. Marler’s Baller MVP of the Weekend: Dylan Cardwell 

Cooper Flagg was awesome in both games for Duke this weekend. Mark Sears set an NCAA record with ten three pointers against BYU on Thursday. Johni Broome had one of the most heroic performances you’ll ever see on Sunday. 

However, the MVP of the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 rounds this weekend was Auburn center Dylan Cardwell. 

Cardwell will never be an offensive weapon. He averaged less than five points per game this year, shoots 32 percent from the free throw line, and has scored more than ten points once since January, spanning the last 24 games. Broome had 16 points and 11 rebounds at halftime against Michigan State. Cardwell has 15 points in four games this tournament. 

There’s a reason Cardwell is one of the most beloved players in Auburn program history despite never lighting up a stat sheet. He’s the ultimate team guy. Considering how little impact he has scoring, it speaks volumes to how valuable he is that he is still a starter on this team. 

Cardwell does everything you can ask of a player. And, while he doesn’t score a ton, he puts up Wilt Chamberlain numbers with his plus/minus impact on the game. 

 

  1. Duke is Elite

There, I said it. 

It doesn’t change the fact that they played one ranked team in 101 days from December to March before the tournament though.