re: The Greatest SEC Basketball Programs of All Time

UF has 5 FF and 9EE. And like others have said I don’t think NBA numbers should matter either, but if we’re going to use them, at least let UF have Vernon Maxwell and Neal Walk’s PAR. They would be considerably higher than the guys at the bottom.

Unfortunately the unwritten rule about playing integrated teams possibly cost State two NC’s in 1959 & 1962. Team was 13-1/24-1 overall both seasons winning the SEC and ranked #3 in the final AP poll.
But alas, was not allowed to play in the Tournament.
Throw in the 1961 team that also won the SEC but was denied an opportunity to play in the Tournament and our overall ranking may be a bit higher.
In 1963, the team finally busted the color barrier but lost to Loyola who eventually won the NC that year.

Nm

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Also think Final 4, Elite 8's, etc before the modern era shouldn't count the same. A team getting to the Final 4 when there is only 8 teams is apples to oranges against a 64/68 team field

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Incorrect. Getting to the final four was still an acomplishment back then the only difference is they only let the best teams in so you were immediately playing elite eight games. All the undeserving scrub teams played in the NIT. Dont try to rewrite history just because you have none prior to 1994

I believe UF is #2. Both program’s championships and ultimate best performances are not all that far apart (15 year span or so) and Florida has definitely been the better sec team for the past 30 years. This overshadows whatever Arkansas did in another conference in the 40s and 70s.

When Arkansas came into the SEC they were clearly #2 and proved it. Florida just buckled down and passed them.

But we did have the Kendrick Fox catapult shot, that has to count for something.

Not saying it’s not an accomplishment, just very different than what we know today as a F4 appearance. Even more so with the E8s since there were literally only 8 teams, it’s just an appearance in one of the tournaments.

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Ben Simmons (11,083), Bob Pettit (9,058),

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Ben Simmons is about 10 1st team All-NBAs short of even being mentioned in the same sentence as Bob Pettit, yet you have him rated higher by a good bit. Might want to just remove that weird NBA ratings thing entirely.

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The tourney is all that should really matter for this discussion.

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It's a big factor but it being "all that should really matter" makes no sense when you're ranking overall programs...especially when you consider that NCAA tournament games at most make up only about 5% of the overall games that even really successful college basketball program have played over their program's history.

Only factoring in the tournament is the equivalent of only factoring in a college football program's bowl history/record when making an all time ranking of college football programs.

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NBA doesn't matter, imo.

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Agreed. It's interesting to look at the great players from a school that went on to have great NBA careers but has absolutely no bearing on what each program has actually accomplished on the court.

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Conference Championships don't really matter either, imo

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Why not?

Winning a regular season championship in a P5 conference is a hell of an accomplishment and should absolutely be factored in because it's usually done over a schedule of anywhere from 12 to 20 games each year. I would argue a regular season conference title in college basketball is much more difficult than making it to a Sweet 16 for example. It should be given at least equal weight to a Sweet 16 and arguably even an Elite 8 appearance.

Making it to a Final 4 and/or actually winning a national title is a totally different story though and should be given far and away the most weight. Take Florida for example, if you did this same ranking in the early 90s they'd be ranked last or next to last among SEC programs because up to that point they had accomplished little to nothing as a program. Since then they've won enough regular season SEC titles and SEC tournament titles to get them to around 4th or 5th all time among SEC programs in those categories but they've had such a phenomenal 30+ year run as a program in both the regular season and especially in the postseason with 2 national titles, a runner up finish, and 5 Final 4 appearances that they are rightly now considered right up there with Arkansas as the 2nd best all time program in SEC history behind Kentucky.

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Conference Championships don't really matter either, imo

Why not?

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Team A in a 50 year Period
30 SEC Championships
50 Tournament Appearances
5 Sweet 16 Appearances
0 Elite 8

Team B in a 50 year Period
0 SEC Championships
25 Tournament Appearances
12 Sweet 16 Appearances
8 Elite 8
5 Final 4
2 Runner-Up
1 NC

Which program is better? I just made those numbers up. It doesn't reflect actual teams.

I think it's Team B, and it isn't particularly close.

Make the tournament every other year.
Make the Sweet 16 once every 4 years.
Make the Elite 8 once every 6 years.
Make the Final Four once every 10 years.
Make the Championship Game 3 times in 50 years.

At the end of the day, a Conference Championship in Basketball doesn't mean a whole lot to me, but maybe I'm in the minority.