2015–16 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season

2015–16 SEC Men's Basketball Season
League NCAA Division I
Sport Basketball
Number of teams 14
TV partner(s) CBS, ESPN, SEC Network
NBA Draft
Regular Season
Tournament
2015–16 Southeastern Conference men's basketball standings
Conf     Overall
Team W   L   PCT     W   L   PCT
#22 Kentucky 9 – 3   .750     19 – 6   .760
LSU 9 – 3   .750     16 – 9   .640
South Carolina 8 – 4   .667     21 – 4   .840
#15 Texas A&M 7 – 5   .583     18 – 7   .720
Florida 7 – 5   .583     16 – 9   .640
Georgia 7 – 5   .583     14 – 9   .609
Vanderbilt 7 – 5   .583     15 – 10   .600
Ole Miss 6 – 6   .500     16 – 9   .640
Alabama 6 – 6   .500     15 – 9   .625
Arkansas 5 – 7   .417     12 – 13   .480
Tennessee 5 – 7   .417     12 – 13   .480
Mississippi State 3 – 9   .250     10 – 14   .417
Auburn 3 – 9   .250     9 – 15   .375
Missouri* 2 – 10   .167     9 – 16   .360
*Ineligible for postseason play due to self-imposed postseason ban.
† 2016 SEC Tournament winner
As of February 10, 2016; Rankings from AP Poll

The 2015–16 SEC men's basketball season will begin with practices in October 2015, followed by the start of the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Conference play will start in early January 2016 and will conclude in March, after which all 14 member teams will participate in the 2016 SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, with the tournament champion being guaranteed selection to the 2016 NCAA Tournament.

Preseason

SEC recruits at the 2015 McDonald's All-American Boys Game
Antonio Blakeney, LSU
Isaiah Briscoe, Kentucky
P. J. Dozier, South Carolina
Malik Newman, Mississippi State
Ben Simmons, LSU

On March 15, 2015, Anthony Grant was fired from Alabama.[1] On April 5, 2015, ESPN reported that Avery Johnson had verbally agreed to become the new head basketball coach at the University of Alabama, replacing Grant.[2] The following day, the university officially announced Johnson's hiring.[3]

On March 21, 2015 Rick Ray was fired by Mississippi State.[4] On March 24, 2015, Ben Howland was hired as the 20th head coach of Mississippi State replacing Ray.[5]

On March 27, 2015, Tennessee fired Donnie Tyndall after the NCAA notified Tennessee officials of possible NCAA violations at Southern Miss. The violations centered around improper financial aid for two players, as well as academic problems with junior college transfers.[6] According to a copy of Tyndall's termination letter, Tyndall had lied to Tennessee officials about the extent of the violations on several occasions, and had also deleted several emails from an old email account even though he was aware he would have been questioned about activity on that account by the NCAA.[7] At a press conference announcing Tyndall's firing, athletics director Dave Hart said that he would have never hired Tyndall had the true extent of the violations at Southern Miss been known.[6] Texas head coach Rick Barnes was named Tyndall's replacement.

On April 30, 2015, Billy Donovan agreed to a $30 million, multi-year deal to coach the Oklahoma City Thunder,[8] replacing Scott Brooks who previously coached the Thunder for seven seasons.[9] On May 7, 2015, Louisiana Tech head coach Mike White was named as Donovan's replacement.

Media Day Selections

Media[10]
1. Kentucky
2. Vanderbilt
3. Texas A&M
4. LSU
5. Georgia
6. Florida
7. South Carolina
8. Mississippi State
9. Ole Miss
10. Auburn
11. Arkansas
12. Tennessee
13. Alabama
14. Missouri

() first place votes

Pre-season All-SEC teams

Media[10]
Danuel House TEXAS A&M
Damian Jones VANDERBILT
Skal Labissière KENTUCKY
Stefan Moody OLE MISS
Ben Simmons LSU
Tyler Ulis KENTUCKY

Head Coaches

Note: Stats shown are before the beginning of the season. Overall and SEC records are from time at current school.

Team Head coach Previous job Seasons at school Overall record SEC record NCAA Tournaments NCAA Final Fours NCAA Championships
Alabama Avery Johnson Brooklyn Nets 1st 0–0 0–0 0 0 0
Arkansas Mike Anderson Missouri 5th 86–48 39–31 1 0 0
Auburn Bruce Pearl Tennessee 2nd 15–20 4–14 0 0 0
Florida Mike White Louisiana Tech 1st 0–0 0–0 0 0 0
Georgia Mark Fox Nevada 7th 105–88 51–51 2 0 0
Kentucky John Calipari Memphis 7th 190–38 82–20 6 4 1
LSU Johnny Jones North Texas 4th 61–37 29–25 1 0 0
Mississippi State Ben Howland UCLA 1st 0–0 0–0 0 0 0
Missouri Kim Anderson Central Missouri 2nd 9–23 3–15 0 0 0
Ole Miss Andy Kennedy Cincinnati 10th 192–114 78–72 2 0 0
South Carolina Frank Martin Kansas State 4th 64–56 21–41 0 0 0
Tennessee Rick Barnes Texas 1st 0–0 0–0 0 0 0
Texas A&M Billy Kennedy Murray State 5th 71–61 26–28 0 0 0
Vanderbilt Kevin Stallings Illinois State 17th 313–206 127–135 6 0 0

Rankings

Legend
  Increase in ranking
  Decrease in ranking
  Not ranked previous week
  Pre Wk
2 		Wk
3 		Wk
4 		Wk
5 		Wk
6 		Wk
7 		Wk
8 		Wk
9 		Wk
10 		Wk
11 		Wk
12 		Wk
13 		Wk
14 		Wk
15 		Wk
16 		Wk
17 		Wk
18 		Wk
19 		Final
Alabama AP
C
Arkansas AP
C
Auburn AP
C
Florida AP RV RV RV RV RV
C RV RV RV RV RV RV
Georgia AP
C
Kentucky AP 2 2 1 1 5 4 12 10 9 14 20
C 1 2 1 1 4 4 11 11 8 13 19
LSU AP 21 23 22 RV
C 19 19 17 RV RV RV
Mississippi State AP
C
Missouri AP
C
Ole Miss AP
C
South Carolina AP RV RV RV 25 24 22 19 25
C RV RV 25 23 20 20 15 23
Tennessee AP
C
Texas A&M AP RV RV 25 18 RV 24 21 20 21 15 8
C RV RV RV 20 25 24 19 19 17 14 8
Vanderbilt AP 18 17 19 16 21 RV RV RV
C 20 17 16 13 16 23 25 RV

SEC Regular Season

On January 13, 2016, Missouri announced that it would not participate in any postseason play in 2016, including the SEC Tournament. At the time, the Tigers were facing an NCAA investigation into major rules violations that occurred under the tenure of former head coach Frank Haith.[11]

Conference Matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

  Alabama Arkansas Auburn Florida Georgia Kentucky LSU MSU Missouri Ole Miss S. Carolina Tennessee Texas A&M Vanderbilt
vs. Alabama – 0–01–00–00–01–00–00–00–01–00–10–00–01–0
vs. Arkansas 0–0 – 0–00–00–01–01–00–10–10–00–00–01–00–1
vs. Auburn 0–10–0 – 0–00–00–10–00–01–00–01–00–10–01–0
vs. Florida 0–00–00–0 – 0–10–00–10–00–00–00–01–01–00–0
vs. Georgia 0–00–00–01–0 – 0–00–00–00–11–00–00–10–00–0
vs. Kentucky 0–10–00–00–00–0 – 1–00–10–00–10–00–00–00–0
vs. LSU 0–00–00–01–00–00–1 – 0–00–00–10–00–00–00–1
vs. Mississippi State 0–01–00–00–00–01–00–0 – 0–00–00–00–01–00–0
vs. Missouri 0–01–00–10–01–00–00–00–0 – 0–00–00–00–00–0
vs. Ole Miss 0–10–00–00–00–11–01–00–00–0 – 0–00–00–00–0
vs. South Carolina 1–00–00–10–00–00–00–00–00–00–0 – 0–00–00–1
vs. Tennessee 0–00–01–00–11–00–00–00–00–00–00–0 – 1–00–0
vs. Texas A&M 0–00–10–00–10–00–00–00–10–00–00–00–1 – 0–0
vs. Vanderbilt 0–01–00–10–00–00–01–00–00–00–01–00–00–0 –
Total 1–2 3–1 1–3 2–2 2–2 3–1 3–1 0–3 1–2 2–2 2–1 1–3 4–0 1–3

Post season

SEC Tournament

The conference tournament is scheduled for Wednesday–Sunday, March 9–13, 2016 at the Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee. Teams will be seeded seeded by conference record, with ties broken by record between the tied teams followed by record against the regular-season champion, if necessary.

The tournament will involve only 13 teams after Missouri self-imposed a postseason ban.

NCAA Tournament

Seed Region School Second Round Third Round Sweet 16 Elite Eight Final Four Championship
0 Bids W-L (%): 0–0 – 0–0 – 0–0 – 0–0 – 0–0 – TOTAL: 0–0 –

National Invitation Tournament

Seed Bracket School First Round Second Round Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
0 Bids W-L (%): 0–0 – 0–0 – 0–0 – 0–0 – TOTAL: 0–0 –

College Basketball Invitational

Seed Bracket School First Round Second Round Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
0 Bid W-L (%): 0–0 – 0–0 – 0–0 – 0–0 – TOTAL: 0–0 –

NBA Draft

Main article: 2016 NBA Draft

Honors and Awards

All-Americans

AP

First Team

 USBWA

First Team

 NABC

First Team

 Sporting News

First Team

All-SEC awards and teams

Coaches

2016 SEC Men's Basketball Individual Awards
Award Recipient(s)
Player of the Year
Coach of the Year
Defensive Player of the Year
Freshman of the Year
Scholar-Athlete of the Year
Sixth Man Award
2016 SEC Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams[12]
First Team Second Team All-Freshman Team All-Defensive Team
† - denotes unanimous selection

References

  1. ↑ Parrish, Gary (15 March 2015). "Alabama fires Anthony Grant". CBS Sports. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Goodman, Jeff (April 5, 2015). "Sources: Avery Johnson to coach Tide". ESPN. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  3. ↑ Smith, Jordan; Dover, Drew (April 6, 2015). "Avery Johnson officially named Alabama men's basketball coach". WBRC. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  4. ↑ http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12530618/rick-ray-fired-mississippi-state-bulldogs-basketball-coach
  5. ↑ "Howland named MSU's 20th head basketball coach". HailState.com. 2015-03-25.
  6. 1 2
  7. ↑ Termination letter at Tennessee
  8. ↑ "Thunder Names Billy Donovan Head Coach". NBA. April 30, 2015. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  9. ↑ Young, Royce (April 30, 2015). "Billy Donovan agrees to coach Thunder". ESPN. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  10. 1 2 "Media picks Kentucky to win SEC" (Press release). Southeastern Conference. October 22, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Major violations found at Missouri; penalties imposed by school". ESPN.com. January 13, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
  12. ↑

External links

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