SEC Tournament 2016: Bracket Seeds, Odds, Matchups and Predictions

In recent years, the main storyline for SEC college basketball has been watching Kentucky or Florida (usually both) stomp all over the conference and terrify the rest of the NCAA in the process.

This trend hasn't always carried over to the SEC tournament, with a third-seeded Ole Miss winning the championship in 2013 and and third-seed Vanderbilt doing the same the year before.

The 2015-16 season has proved to be something of a down campaign for the SEC as a whole, making this year's postseason tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, particularly intriguing and incredibly important to those squads looking to play their way into the NCAA tournament.

Only four teams finished the season with at least 20 wins. One of those teams, Ole Miss, went just 10-8 in conference play. Kentucky and Texas A&M earned shares of the regular-season title.

They are the only two teams from the SEC that are represented in the Associated Press Top 25 and the only locks for the NCAA tournament, though South Carolina is almost guaranteed to make it in as well The likes of Vanderbilt, Florida and—if you squint hard enough—LSU are on the bubble.

For a quick summary of all things SEC tournament, here's a look at the tournament schedule, conference standings, odds and a couple of predictions to boot. 

Date	Game No.	Matchup	Time (ET)	TV
March 9	1	No. 12 Tennessee vs. No. 13 Auburn	8 p.m.	SEC Network
March 10	2	No. 8 Florida vs. No. 9 Arkansas	1 p.m.	SEC Network
March 10	3	No. 5 Vanderbilt vs. Game 1 winner	3 p.m.	SEC Network
March 10	4	No. 7 Ole Miss vs. No. 10 Alabama	7 p.m.	SEC Network
March 10	5	No. 6 Georgia vs. No. 11 Mississippi State	9 p.m.	SEC Network
March 11	6	No. 1 Texas A&M vs. Game 2 winner	1 p.m.	SEC Network
March 11	7	No. 4 LSU vs. Game 3 winner	3 p.m.	SEC Network
March 11	8	No. 2 Kentucky vs. Game 4 winner	7 p.m.	SEC Network
March 11	9	No. 3 South Carolina vs. Game 5 winner	9 p.m.	SEC Network
March 12	10	Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner	1 p.m.	ESPN
March 12	11	Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner	3 p.m.	ESPN
March 13	12	Championship Game	1 p.m.	ESPN

Team	Odds
No. 2 Kentucky	+100
No. 5 Vanderbilt	+350
No. 1 Texas A&M	+375
No. 8 Florida	+1000
No. 3 South Carolina	+1200
No. 4 LSU	+1800
Field	+2000
No. 7 Ole Miss	+3300
No. 9 Arkansas	+3300

Team	Conference W-L	Conference %	Overall W-L	Overall %
No. 17 Texas A&M	13-5	.722	24-7	.774
No. 16 Kentucky	13-5	.722	23-8	.742
South Carolina	11-7	.611	24-7	.774
LSU	11-7	.611	18-13	.581
Vanderbilt	11-7	.611	19-12	.613
Ole Miss	10-8	.556	20-11	.645
Georgia	10-8	.556	17-12	.586
Florida	9-9	.500	18-13	.581
Arkansas	9-9	.500	16-15	.516
Alabama	8-10	.444	17-13	.567
Mississippi State	7-11	.389	14-16	.467
Tennessee	6-12	.333	13-18	.419
Auburn	5-13	.278	11-19	.367
Missouri	3-15	.167	10-21	.323

Predictions

Ben Simmons Stops Vanderbilt's Conference Run

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Vanderbilt should have it easy in its first game of the tournament. The Commodores will take on the winner of Tennessee vs. Auburn, whom they are a combined 4-0 against this year.

A win on Thursday means a date with LSU on Friday, and even though the Commodores won six of their last eight games and have the second-best odds to win the tournament, they could lose because they don't have the best player on the floor. 

LSU's Ben Simmons has proved himself as one of the most talented players in college basketball, averaging 19.6 points, 11.9 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game.

Alas, it hasn't been enough to turn LSU into one of the SEC's best, to say nothing of making the NCAA tournament, where freshmen phenoms can ensure themselves millions of NBA dollars with strong performances. 

After a 9-3 start in SEC play, the Tigers stumbled in the final weeks, losing four of their last six games, including a depressing 94-77 beatdown from Kentucky on Saturday. Simmons knows an SEC tournament crown is his team's ticket to the Big Dance.

"We've got to win it," Simmons said after the loss to Kentucky, per ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman.

Simmons is also facing scrutiny and criticism for his academic struggles, which is why LSU didn't make him eligible for the Wooden Award, per a source to Goodman.

Of course, Simmons is still a lottery pick in this year's NBA draft, but he surely won't to drop a notch or two in scouts' eyes because of a lackluster finish to the season and questions about his tenacity and commitment, both on the court and off.

One way to remedy that would be leading his embattled team by example with a monster performance on Thursday night. There is certainly precedent for this.

When LSU played Vanderbilt on Jan. 2, Simmons poured in 36 points and snagged 14 rebounds. It was Simmons' SEC debut, and there was no sign of hesitancy or nerves. After the game, he was brimming with confidence.

"I knew the bigs couldn't guard me," Simmons said, per ESPN.com.

Simmons will be similarly unfazed by the spotlight of his SEC tournament debut and will lead LSU to another win over Vandy. Whether this propels LSU to the finals and perhaps a shot at the NCAA tournament is another question, but one more big game is in the cards for the Tigers.

Kentucky Will Beat Texas A&M to win 2016 SEC Tournament

James Crisp/Associated Press

The top seed in the tournament, Texas A&M should be able to make it through its side of the bracket and into the championship game.

A second-round game against the winner of Florida-Arkansas could prove tricky; the Aggies are 1-1 against Arkansas and only beat Florida by three points in their lone meeting in January.

However, Texas A&M is on a six-game win streak entering the tournament, the best form of any team in the SEC. Senior guard Jalen Jones has been playing very well over the team's last three games, scoring 20 points against Missouri on Feb. 27 and putting up 17 points and 11 boards against Vanderbilt on Saturday.

Sam Craft/Associated Press

Freshman center Tyler Davis has also upped his game lately, recently sharing SEC Freshman of the Week honors with Kentucky's Skal Labissiere, per Kentucky.com's Jerry Tipton.

Texas A&M went 1-1 against both LSU and Vanderbilt. They can take heart in holding the Tigers to below their scoring average in both contests, including a 71-57 beatdown on Jan. 19, and the 76-67 win over the Commodores on Saturday will certainly have the Aggies feeling confident should Vanderbilt meet them in the semifinals.

As for Kentucky, well, the seedings couldn't have worked out better for them. They are a perfect 6-0 this year against teams on their side of the bracket.

The Wildcats did lose two of their last five games this year, but overall they have been prolific down the stretch. Kentucky has scored at least 80 points in nine of its last 12 games, and the 94 points scored against LSU on Saturday was the team's best output of the season.

James Crisp/Associated Press

As noted above, the highly touted Labissiere has improved his play at a crucial time for Kentucky. He racked up 18 points, nine boards and six blocks against LSU, with CBS Sports' Sam Vecenie pointing out the team is doing a better job of playing to the the 7-footer's strengths on offense:

"

The last two games of Kentucky's season have felt like the first two where they've truly played to Labissiere's strengths in the pick-and-roll. He's better there than he is as a low-post scorer, and he has looked much more comfortable and assertive when put into pick-and-pops. Having said that, he did knock down a nice little right-handed hook shot on his first possession in the game from the post.

"

The continued excellence of freshman Jamal Murray and sophomore Tyler Ulis bodes well for Kentucky. Murray is averaging 20 points per game this year—an astonishing take on a John Calipari team, as they're typically chock-full of offensive talent—while Ulis is liable to do a Rajon Rondo impersonation at any time, notes SEC Network:

This iteration of Kentucky hasn't quite been the juggernaut of years past, but it could be that Calipari just needed more time than usual to figure out how to best utilize and play to his squad's myriad abilities.

With Labissiere rounding into form on the inside and the Ulis-Murray combination showing no signs of faltering on the perimeter, Kentucky should win the SEC tournament title and roll into the NCAA tournament with plenty of confidence.

In what has been a strange year for the SEC, perhaps there is one result that most would consider completely predictable.

Note: SEC tournament odds courtesy of Odds Shark and updated as of Monday.