Saturday Takeaways: NCAA Tournament hopes dwindle

By Chris Marler

As the SEC basketball season nears its conclusion, the race for NCAA Tournament bids is tightening, and reality is setting in—history may not be made after all. The conference’s hopes of sending a record-breaking 13 teams to the tournament are fading, with several bubble teams struggling down the stretch. Meanwhile, South Carolina finally broke through with its first SEC win, Jordan Butler found himself on the right side of history, and Chad Baker-Mazara continues to toe the line between competitor and liability.

Here’s a look at the biggest storylines from the weekend.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news

It doesn’t seem like the SEC is going to get those 13 teams in the tournament, after all. It’s been a really fun storyline about the depth of this league and how they could potentially get 13 (or more) teams in the tournament, which would be the most of any conference in the history of the sport. However, as the season has progressed there’s been one massive disadvantage teams in the SEC have had working against them – playing in the SEC. 

As of this weekend, Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Texas were all on the fringe of getting into the 68 team field. Three of those four teams lost this weekend. Georgia has lost nine of their last 11 games. Texas had a really bad loss to 0-13 South Carolina. Arkansas feels like the only tournament worthy team of that bunch, as of right now, and they are skating on the thinnest ice imaginable. 

Good for Jordan Butler 

South Carolina got their first conference win of the season against Texas Saturday night. No one was happier than 7-foot sophomore forward Jordan Butler. Butler transferred to South Carolina from Missouri. The Tigers finished last season 0-18 in the SEC. South Carolina was 0-13 in league play before Saturday night. 

Butler’s teams are now 1-31 over the last two seasons, but last night had to feel good. 

Chad Baker Bizarre-a

Chad Baker-Mazara is the quintessential “love him if he’s on your team and hate him if he’s not” player in the SEC this year. The 25-year-old forward doesn’t have a ton of flaws in his game, but his biggest flaw is definitely acting his age on the court. For what seems like the millionth time in his career, Mazara got a technical foul for something stupid. Remember, Mazara got ejected from Auburn’s first round game a year ago against Yale just five minutes into the game. 

Saturday was the second straight game that he received a technical for an incident with an opposing player or bench. Whether it’s his fault, the officials being too sensitive and looking for it, or something in between is not the point. The point is that Auburn is going to need him come tournament time, so at some point, it’s time to grow up.