2015–16 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season explained

2015–16 SEC Men's Basketball Season
Color:	1D427D
Color Text:	FFD24F
League:	NCAA Division I
Sport:	Basketball
Pixels:	125px
No Of Teams:	14
Tv:	CBS, ESPN, SEC Network
Season:	Regular Season
Season Champs:	Kentucky and Texas A&M
Season Champ Name:	2016 SEC Champions
Mvp:	Tyler Ulis, Kentucky
Mvp Link:	Southeastern Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year
Top Scorer:	Stefan Moody
Finals:	Tournament
Finals Link:	2016 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament
Finals Champ:	Kentucky
Finals Runner-Up:	Texas A&M
Finals Mvp:	Tyler Ulis, Kentucky
Finals Mvp Link:	SEC Men's Basketball Tournament#Champions
Seasonslistnames:	Basketball
Prevseason Link:	2014–15 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season
Prevseason Year:	2014–15
Nextseason Link:	2016–17 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season
Nextseason Year:	2016–17

The 2015–16 SEC men's basketball season began with practices in October 2015, followed by the start of the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Conference play started in early January 2016 and concluding in March, after which 13 member teams had participated in the 2016 SEC tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, with the tournament champion being guaranteed selection to the 2016 NCAA tournament.

Preseason

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. 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.^[6] 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. 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,^[7] replacing Scott Brooks who previously coached the Thunder for seven seasons.^[8] On May 7, 2015, Louisiana Tech head coach Mike White was named as Donovan's replacement.

Media Day selections

	Media^[9]
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

Preseason All-SEC teams

• Coaches select 8 players
• Players in bold are choices for SEC Player of the Year

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	5	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

See main article: 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings.

	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																			RV	RV
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	23	20	20	22	14	16	22	16	10
C	1	2	1	1	4	4	11	11	8	13	19	19	19	21	14	14	19	16	13	16
LSU	AP	21	23	22	RV
C	19	19	17	RV	RV	RV					RV	RV		RV	RV	RV
Mississippi State	AP
C
Missouri	AP
C
Ole Miss	AP
C
South Carolina	AP				RV	RV	RV	25	24	22	19	24	RV	25	RV	RV	RV
C				RV	RV	25	23	20	20	15	23	22	23	20	23	RV	RV	RV
Tennessee	AP
C
Texas A&M	AP	RV	RV	25	18	RV	24	21	20	21	15	10	5	8	15	RV	21	20
C	RV	RV	RV	20	25	24	19	19	17	14	8	5	8	13	24	21	18	17	15
Vanderbilt	AP	18	17	19	16	21	RV	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.^[10]

Conference matrix

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

	Alabama	Arkansas	Auburn	Florida	Georgia	Kentucky	LSU	Mississippi State	Missouri	Ole Miss	South Carolina	Tennessee	Texas A&M	Vanderbilt
ARK	AUB	UF	UGA	UK	LSU	MSU	MU	MISS	USC	TENN	A&M	VANDY -->	vs. Alabama	–	1–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	0–1	1–0
vs. Arkansas	0–1	–	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–0	1–0	0–2	1–0	0–1
vs. Auburn	1–1	0–1	–	1–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	2–0
vs. Florida	1–0	0–1	0–1	–	0–2	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	0–2	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0
vs. Georgia	0–1	0–1	0–2	2–0	–	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–0
vs. Kentucky	0–2	0–1	1–0	0–2	0–1	–	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–1
vs. LSU	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	–	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–1
vs. Miss. State	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	–	0–1	0–2	1–1	1–0	2–0	0–1
vs. Missouri	1–0	2–0	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	–	2–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	1–0
vs. Ole Miss	0–1	0–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–0	0–2	–	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1
vs. South Carolina	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	2–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	–	1–1	0–1	0–1
vs. Tennessee	1–0	2–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	–	1–0	2–0
vs. Texas A&M	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	0–2	0–2	0–1	1–0	0–1	–	1–1
vs. Vanderbilt	0–1	1–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–2	1–1	–	ARK	AUB	UF	UGA	UK	LSU	MSU	MU	MISS	USC	TENN	A&M	VANDY -->
Total	8–10	9–9	5–13	9–9	10–8	13–5	11–7	7–11	3–15	10–8	11–7	6–12	13–5	11–7

Postseason

SEC Tournament

See main article: 2016 SEC men's basketball tournament.

The conference tournament is scheduled for Wednesday–Sunday, March 9–13, 2016 at the Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee. Teams will be 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.

2016 SEC men's basketball tournament seeds and results
Seed	School	Conf.	Over.	Tiebreaker	First round March 9	Second round March 10	Quarterfinals March 11	Semifinals March 12	Championship March 13
1.	‡Texas A&M	13–5	24–7	1–0 vs. Kentucky	Bye	Bye	vs. #8 Florida W, 72–66	vs. #4 LSU W, 71–38	vs. #2 Kentucky L, 77–82^OT
2.	†Kentucky	13–5	23–8	0–1 vs. Texas A&M	Bye	Bye	vs. #10 Alabama W, 85–59	vs. #6 Georgia W, 93–80	vs. #1 Texas A&M<br/>W, 82–77^OT
3.	†South Carolina	11–7	24–7	2–0 vs. LSU/Vanderbilt	Bye	Bye	vs. #6 Georgia L, 64–65
4.	†LSU	11–7	18–13	1–1 vs. S. Carolina/Vanderbilt	Bye	Bye	vs. #12 Tennessee W, 84–75	vs. #1 Texas A&M<br/>L, 38–71
5.	Vanderbilt	11–7	19–13	0–2 vs. South Carolina/LSU	Bye	vs. #12 Tennessee L, 65–67
6.	Georgia	10–8	17–12	2–0 vs. South Carolina	Bye	vs. #11 Mississippi State W, 79–69	vs. #3 South Carolina W, 65–64	vs. #2 Kentucky L, 80–93
7.		Ole Miss	10–8	20–11	0–1 vs. South Carolina	Bye	vs. #10 Alabama L, 73–81
8.	Florida	9–9	19–13	1–0 vs. Arkansas	Bye	vs. #9 Arkansas W, 68-61	vs. #1 Texas A&M<br/>L, 66-72
9.	Arkansas	9–9	16–16	0–1 vs. Florida	Bye	vs. #8 Florida L, 61-68
10.	Alabama	8–10	17–13		Bye	vs. #7 Ole Miss W, 83-71	vs. #2 Kentucky L, 59-85
11.	Mississippi St.	7–11	14–16		Bye	vs. #6 Georgia L, 69-79
12.	Tennessee	6–12	15–18		vs. #13 Auburn W, 97–59	vs. #5 Vanderbilt W, 67–65	vs. #4 LSU L, 75-84
13.	Auburn	5–13	11–19		vs. #12 Tennessee L, 59–97
‡ – SEC regular season champions, and tournament No. 1 seed. † – Received a double-Bye in the conference tournament. # – Received a single-Bye in the conference tournament. Overall records include all games played in the SEC tournament.

NCAA tournament

See main article: 2016 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First round	Second round	Sweet 16	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
3	West	Texas A&M		vs. #14 Green Bay W, 92–65 (Oklahoma City)	vs. #11 Northern Iowa W, 92–88 (Oklahoma City)	vs. #2 Oklahoma L 63–77 (Anaheim)
4	East	Kentucky		vs. #13 Stony Brook W, 85–67 (Des Moines)	vs. #5 Indiana L, 67–73 (Des Moines)
11	South	Vanderbilt	vs. #11 Wichita State L, 50–70 (Dayton)
	3 Bids	W-L (%):	0–1	2–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	TOTAL: 3–3

National Invitation Tournament

See main article: 2016 National Invitation Tournament.

Seed	Bracket	School	First round	Second round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
1	South Carolina/San Diego State Quadrant	South Carolina	vs. #8 High Point W, 88–66 (Columbia)	vs. #4 Georgia Tech (Columbia)
2	Monmouth/Florida Quadrant	Florida	vs. #7 North Florida W, 97–68 (Jacksonville)	vs. #3 Ohio State W, 74–66 (Columbus)	vs. #4 George Washington L, 77–82 (Washington D.C.)
3	Valparaiso/Saint Mary's Quadrant	Georgia	vs. #6 Belmont W, 93–84 (Athens)	vs. #2 St. Mary's L, 65–77 (Moraga)
5	St. Bonaventure/BYU Quadrant	Alabama	vs. #4 Creighton L, 54–72 (Omaha)
	4 Bids	W-L (%):	3–1	1–2	0–1	0–0	TOTAL: 4–4

NBA draft

See main article: 2016 NBA draft.

Honors and awards

All-Americans

See main article: 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans.

Starting on March 6, the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans were released for 2015–16 season, based upon selections by the four major syndicates. The four syndicates include the Associated Press, USBWA, NABC, and Sporting News.

AP
First Team

USBWA
First Team

• Ben Simmons, LSU

Second Team

• Tyler Ulis, Kentucky

NABC
First Team

Sporting News
First Team

• Tyler Ulis, Kentucky

Second Team

• Ben Simmons, LSU

All-SEC awards and teams

Coaches

2016 SEC Men's Basketball Individual Awards^[11]
Award	Recipient(s)
Player of the Year	Tyler Ulis, So., G, Kentucky
Coach of the Year	Billy Kennedy, Texas A&M</small>
Defensive Player of the Year	Tyler Ulis, So., G, Kentucky
Freshman of the Year<	--This is the title for the coaches' award.-->	Ben Simmons, F, LSU
Scholar-Athlete of the Year	Retin Obasohan, Sr., G, Alabama
Sixth Man Award	Duane Notice, Jr., G, South Carolina

2016 SEC Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams
First Team	Second Team	All-Freshman Team	All-Defensive Team
Michael Carrera Sr., F, South Carolina Jalen Jones Sr., F, Texas A&M</small> Damian Jones Jr., F, Vanderbilt Stefan Moody Sr., G, Ole Miss Jamal Murray Fr., G, Kentucky Ben Simmons Fr., F, LSU Retin Obasohan Sr., G, Alabama Tyler Ulis So., G, Kentucky	Wade Baldwin So., G, Vanderbilt Alex Caruso Sr., F, Texas A&M</small> Dorian Finney-Smith Sr., F, Florida J. J. Frazier Sr., G, Georgia Danuel House Sr., F, Texas A&M</small> Moses Kingsley Jr., C, Arkansas Yante Maten So., F, Georgia Kevin Punter Jr., G, Tennessee	KeVaughn Allen Florida Antonio Blakeney LSU Tyler Davis Texas A&M</small> D. J. Hogg Texas A&M</small> Jamal Murray Kentucky Kevin Puryear Missouri Ben Simmons LSU Quinndary Weatherspoon Miss. State	Alex Caruso Sr., F, Texas A&M</small> Luke Kornet Jr., F, Vanderbilt Moses Kingsley Jr., C, Arkansas Retin Obasohan Sr., G, Alabama Sindarius Thornwell Jr., G, South Carolina Tyler Ulis So., G, Kentucky
† - denotes unanimous selection

External links

• SEC website

Notes and References

1. News: Parrish. Gary. Alabama fires Anthony Grant . 15 March 2015. CBS Sports. 15 March 2015.
2. News: Sources: Avery Johnson to coach Tide. Jeff . Goodman . ESPN . April 5, 2015 . April 5, 2015.
3. News: Avery Johnson officially named Alabama men's basketball coach . Jordan . Smith . Drew . Dover . . April 6, 2015 . April 6, 2015 . April 12, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150412042738/http://www.myfoxal.com/story/28725315/avery-johnson-officially-named-alabama-mens-basketball-coach . dead .
4. Web site: Rick Ray fired as Mississippi State Bulldogs basketball coach.
5. Web site: Howland named MSU's 20th head basketball coach. HailState.com. 2015-03-25.
6. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1696473-uts-termination-letter-for-donnie-tyndall.html Termination letter at Tennessee
7. Web site: Thunder Names Billy Donovan Head Coach. NBA. April 30, 2015. April 30, 2015.
8. Web site: Billy Donovan agrees to coach Thunder . ESPN. April 30, 2015. Royce. Young. April 30, 2015.
9. Media picks Kentucky to win SEC . Southeastern Conference . October 22, 2014 . October 21, 2015.
10. News: Major violations found at Missouri; penalties imposed by school . ESPN.com . January 13, 2016 . January 14, 2016.
11. http://www.secsports.com/article/14925031/2016-sec-men-basketball-awards-announced 2016 SEC Men’s Basketball Awards Announced