Greg Saney expects 14 NCAA tournament offers for “Unicorn” sec

Nashville, Tenn. -The SEC is about to broke the record for most NCAA tournament offers through a conference.

The question that refers to the selection on Sunday: How many other offers do the SEC receive as the current record of 11, which will be determined by the Big East in 2011?

The SEC projects announced up to 14 teams and league commission Greg Sankey on Friday evening that this number will be “justified” when you consider how the league occurred this season.

“It is currently a Unicorn league,” said Saney to Espn. “We won't change our name, but we are historically alone. And I think that is rewarded.”

Texas, which projects as the final team of the NCAA tournament in Joe Lundardi's latest bracketology, would be the 14th team of the SEC. The Longhorns could have given a significant thrust against No. 8 Tennessee on Friday, but they fell 83-72.

After that, Vols coach Rick Barnes said that “no doubt” that Texas (19-15) is a NCAA team.

“I think we should have 14 teams in the NCAA tournament,” said Barnes.

The strengthening of the SEC for 14 NCAA offers includes a non-conference plan that is statistically one of the best in the history of sport. This includes a 30-4 record against the ACC, a 14: 2 record against BIG 12 and a 10: 9 record against the big ten.

The overall percent of the SEC in the non-conference game was 0.889, which meant that a Bubble team like Texas had seven quad 1 victories.

Sankey did not mention North Carolina, but he seemed to refer the Tar Heels tournament profile of a 1-12 record in Quad-1 games.

“You have someone who has a nice network (ranking), but a quad 1 win.

He added: “We went 30-4 against the acc. Put their high-end teams in our league and they are in a completely different place. They do this with the Big 12, they are in a completely different place.”

Sankey referred to the Seclate on March 1, the No. 1 Auburn in No. 17 Kentucky, No. 12, Texas A & M in No. 3 Florida and No. 6 Alabama in Tennessee. It was the first time in the history of college basketball that every conference had three top 20 games in one day.

“This is the unicorn we created this year,” said Saney. “And I hope our coaches are proud. I hope our athletics directors are proud. We had a great visit to our presidents and chancellors, in which I made some graphics in which we were from 2006 to 2015 and then in 2016 and beyond.

From 2012-13 to 2015-16, the SEC had three NCAA bids in three of these seasons. The league was offered in this four -year period of 14, the same number as this year. The SEC has grown from 14 to 16 schools since then, but the basketball turn in less than a decade was remarkable.

“We went 30-4 against the ACC. The high-end teams brought to our league and they are in a completely different place. They do this with the Big 12, they are in a completely different place.”

SEC commissioner Greg Saney

Sankey said he informed his employees in January that all talks about the number of school schools in the tournament should be on at least 14 schools.

“We should never talk about less than 14,” said Saney. “We literally said that every expectation we communicate has at least 14 and maybe more, depending on how the season is going on. And I think that was completely justified at the time. And I think it is still justified.

“And I feel good at breaking the recording. We have to trust the committee with decisions. But if you wins in the conference against great teams, the number of quad -1 experiences, the quad -2 experience and the number of victories with our 14 teams that are incomparable, they are incomparable.”

In the mid-1980s, Sankey High School-Basketball trained at the Auburn High School in the state of New York, where he worked as an assistant. He remembered how the then coach Rick Pitino and others drive to the east coast in a clinic in Rochester in St. John Fisher and the east coast in clinics.

He remembered talks about coaches who, in the last four four four, were given a room and received tickets from the NABC as something cool and aspiration.

“How cool that would be,” recalled Saney, as he thought. He said he always takes a moment when it takes part in the NCAA tournament to appreciate the moment, and this perspective brings with it a strong appreciation for this run.

“So I'm really proud of everyone here and what you have achieved,” he said, “but it is this personal awe in the one you deal with.”