Bruce Pearl, Rick Barnes, Nate Oats on SEC Tourney Semifinals

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Floria clobbered Alabama 104-82 and Tennessee ousted No. 1 Auburn 70-65 Saturday in the Southeastern Conference semifinals to set up a Tennessee-Florida showdown for the tournament title today in Nashville.

The four semifinalists were the top four seeds in the SEC tourney and all are expected to be among the top eight seeds when NCAA Tournament pairings are announced tonight.

Here are some quotes from coaches Bruce Pearl of Auburn, Rick Barnes of Tennessee and Nate Oats of Alabama after their games.

Q. You called your résumé historically strong. How much do you think tournament results should factor into this? Auburn won the whole thing last year and didn’t move a seed line. This year do you feel like your body of work in the regular season was enough?

BRUCE PEARL: They talk about the body of work as much as anything, the wins we had all season long, the strength of the league. We lost to a team that’s fighting for a 1 seed. Obviously I’m very proud of the SEC. Just incredibly proud to be a part of this tournament, to be a part of this league. These four teams that have made it to the championship game on Saturday, I don’t know that historically has there been four stronger teams as far as nationally ranked teams ever in a Final Four of an SEC tournament? I can’t imagine, not even close.
Yeah, it means a lot to us. In other words, to me, this is one of the things I’ve talked to the team about, if you’re the No. 1 overall seed, then basically you had the best regular season from November all the way to March. We’d love to be able to hold onto that. We’ll find out Sunday.

Q. You saw Duke and Houston earlier this season. How do these other three teams here in the semis stack up with those guys?
BRUCE PEARL: Yeah, I mean, whether it be Houston or Duke, probably the two best teams outside of our league that we’ve played. I put them right in there with Florida, Tennessee, Alabama. They’re right there. So there are five or six teams right there that have a chance to get to the Final Four.

Q. With tournament selection likely happening as we speak, do you have a message for the committee about this Tennessee squad, the effort they gave today, how it should be factored in?

RICK BARNES: I don’t think they’re listening, you know? I think they’re sequestered somewhere. I think we let our body of work speak for it. Again, I look at our league. I’ll say it. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t have 14 teams in the NCAA tournament. I think it’s obvious that Auburn and Florida have played themselves into a 1 seed, which they should. I don’t know. Again, I don’t think they listen. I do trust ’em. I think where we are in today’s game, they’re going to do the best job they can to get it right for everybody and be fair. But again, I don’t think they listen, so they’re going to do what they think they need to do.

Q. This idea that the SEC tournament, winning it is tougher than winning the NCAA tournament, true or false?

RICK BARNES: Well, you have to think about it. Yeah, it’s tougher because of the fact if you win it, you have to go three days in a row. You’re not going to have to do that, and you get a day in between. There’s no day in between here.

Such quick turnarounds. It’s tough. I mean, I think as coaches we had our wish, we probably would wish it would end today because tomorrow it’s going to be another hard-fought game for two teams. You turn around, with all the attention heading into March Madness, you got to keep your guys focused and there.

I just think anytime you go in, like these multiple team tournaments that we have early in the year, I think coaches are wanting to get away from the three days. It’s a grind, hard on you, just because of the quick turnarounds, not your normal preparation. It’s really hard to win a conference tournament because… We haven’t been in a three-day all year. We have in the past and it’s tough to do that.

Q. With Selection Sunday tomorrow, what do you want to see tomorrow? What is your message wherever you go to your team?

ALABAMA COACH NATE OATS: Yeah, I mean, it’s the NCAA tournament. Only 68 teams that get in out of, what, 360-some Division I. We’ll be one of the top eight, I would guess we’ll be a 2 seed sent somewhere. It will be set up for us to make a deep run again. We’re going to have to do a little soul searching, see how bad we want to make a deep run.

I mean, the effort I saw in the second half wasn’t what I would have liked to see going into the NCAA tournament, so… We’re going to get back there, watch the selection show, figure out who the first opponent is, figure out who the next two possible ones after that is, get to work as a staff on a scouting report. Our players are going to have to really determine how bad they want to make a run ’cause it’s truly player-led more than anything. With the effort and the toughness I saw the second half tonight, like, it’s not going to get us very far.

I mean, I guess first round will be nice. We’re going to see somebody that won a conference tournament in the first round. Then we’re going to see somebody that’s really good in the second round no matter who it is. It’s going to be a 7 or 10 seed, would be my guess. Those are really good teams. We’re going to have to get our guys back, regrouped, trying to be the hardest, toughest playing team on the floor, because we were not tonight.