COLUMBIA, MO. Three weeks from Sunday the mens basketball NCAA Tournament bracket will be revealed, a day the Southeastern Conference hopes will mark tangible progress for a sport the league keeps trying to improve with only subtle results.

If the tournament field is the ultimate measure of a leagues fitness, the SEC has fallen behind on Selection Sunday. The league has landed only three teams in the NCAA bracket three of the last four years. With 14 selections overall the last four years, the SECs total ranks seventh among Division I conferences, behind the Big Ten (27), Big 12 (26), Pac-12 (25), ACC (23), Big East (23) and Atlantic 10 (15). Eight of those 14 SEC teams won no more than one game in their tournament appearances from 2013-16.

ESPNs latest bracket projection has four SEC teams in the field Kentucky and Florida as 3 seeds, South Carolina as a 7 and Arkansas as an 11 but thats still behind the countrys top conferences. ESPN predicts the ACC with nine teams, the Big 12 and Big Ten with seven, the Big East with six and the Pac-12 with five.

However the bracket unfolds on March 12, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey believes the leagues efforts to upgrade the sport have made progress.

This year you look at the fact we have three ranked teams at this time of the year and, the number varies, but about six in the top 50, Sankey said in a phone interview this week. Thats a step forward from where we were last year. Thats not our destination, but its a step forward. Our teams, our coaches, our campus leaders deserve a lot of credit.

What would the SEC consider a satisfactory number of NCAA bids?

I guess 14 is too lofty a goal, Sankey joked. A step forward would be four, but I dont predict thats a destination. Weve still got a lot of basketball to play. Over time I think our expectation ought to be much higher.

In the past year the SEC has addressed the sport with a number of moves. Last year, Dan Leibovitz was hired as associate commissioner for basketball and former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese as a special consultant. The SEC also mandated nonconference scheduling measures based on RPI rankings. Teams upgraded their schedules this year but still struggled against the other power conferences. SEC teams are 19-35 against the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East and Pac-12. Thanks to 5-5 split in the recent SEC/Big 12 Challenge, the conference owns an 8-7 season record against the Big 12.

Earlier this year, SEC teams lost 20 nonconference games to teams outside of the six major conferences, though some were to perennial mid-major powers: Florida and Tennessee lost to Gonzaga; Alabama and Vanderbilt lost to Dayton; Louisiana State lost to Virginia Commonwealth and Wichita State. SEC teams also lost nonconference games to teams with triple-digit RPI rankings: Lehigh, UCF and Oakland. Then theres Missouri. The Tigers own the leagues worst nonconference losses, three to teams with RPI rankings of 184 or worse: Lipscomb, Eastern Illinois and North Carolina Central.

It still bothers me that I dont think our league gets the respect that it deserves, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said earlier this month. We talk about it at our coaches meetings: We need people talking up our league. When I was in the Big 12 (at Texas) we needed announcers talking up our league.

At the beginning of the year, he added, everyone kept asking, Are we a year or two away? We were close a year ago. Coming down the stretch with two or three weeks (left) there were seven teams mentioned for the tournament. Because the league was good enough to beat up on each other and the perception was the league wasnt good enough it seemed to hurt the league.

Barnes, whose Volunteers (14-12, 6-7) host Missouri (7-18, 2-11) at noon Saturday, is one of four second-year coaches around the league whos delivered progress. With one more win, the Vols will match their total from last year. Tennessee is among the first four bubble teams just outside the bracket in ESPNs latest projections. Florida (21-5) and Mississippi State (14-11) have matched their win totals from last season under second-year coaches Mike White and Ben Howland, respectively. Alabama (15-10) has five SEC road wins under second-year coach Avery Johnson and needs three wins overall to match last years total.

With more SEC teams making splashy hires Barnes and Howland arrived as established power conference head coaches last year other schools that enter the coaching market figure to feel pressure to follow suit. Missouri and Louisiana State could be making changes this offseason. Mizzous Kim Anderson is just 8-41 against SEC foes in three seasons, while Johnny Jones has LSU (9-16, 1-12) at the bottom of the league standings a year after failing to capitalize on the addition of Ben Simmons, the No. 1 pick in last summers NBA draft.

Whatever happens next at both schools, the SEC will be watching closely from its home offices in Birmingham, Ala.

Our coaching hires are critically important, Sankey said. In one way stability and continuity is of great value, but the reality is coaches change. You look at Bruce Pearl, whos building a program at Auburn. Rick Barnes is in his second year at Tennessee. Ben Howland, Mike White, Bryce Drew (at Vanderbilt) and Avery Johnson as being the most recent and have all shown progress. Theres a building effort.

MISSOURI at TENNESSEE

When Noon

Where Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tenn.

Series Missouri leads 6-5; last meeting: Feb. 13, 2016, MU 75, Tennessee 64

TV, radio SEC Network, KTRS (550 AM)

Records: Missouri is 7-18, 2-11 SEC; Tennessee is 14-12, 7-5

About the Tigers Mizzou takes its 32-game road losing streak to Knoxville, where its 2-3 all-time and 0-2 since joining the SEC. The Tigers are coming off Wednesdays 57-54 home loss to Alabama, which snapped a two-game winning streak at Mizzou Arena. Junior forward Jordan Barnett had scored 23 points in consecutive games before scoring just five against Alabama while missing 10 of 12 shots. Barnes played one season at Texas (2014-15) under current Tennessee coach Rick Barnes. For the first time in SEC play sophomore guard Terrence Phillips finished with just one assist in Wednesdays game. He scored six points and turned the ball over three times. Sophomore forward Kevin Puryear is shooting a team-best 43.5 percent from 3-point range in SEC games, which would rank No. 3 in the league if qualified for the rankings with more attempts.

About the Volunteers Against one of the nations toughest schedules, Tennessee is one win away form last years total and last month logged impressive wins against Kentucky and Kansas State. The Vols have since lost three of four, including Tuesdays 25-point loss at Kentucky. Senior guard Robert Hubbs III leads the Vols with 14 points per game. Freshman forward Grant Williams adds 12.3 points per game and a team-best 5.4 rebounds. UT ranks No. 296 in Division I in average height and starts only one player taller than 6-5. Barnes is 11-8 all-time against Missouri: 1-0 at Clemson, 10-7 at Texas and 0-1 at Tennessee.

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SEC basketball shows progress but has room for growth - STLtoday.com