Rick Barnes dishes serious criticism of SEC Tournament schedule

There has been a lot of criticism coming out of the SEC Tournament, but most of that was directed towards the NCAA Tournament selection committee. Many believe that Texas A&M, who was left out of the field, deserved to be in, and that the Tennessee Volunteers deserved to be a two seed rather than a three. Additionally, Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes isn’t happy about the schedule between the SEC Tournament and the beginning of the Round of 64.

For Tennessee and Barnes, they wrapped up the SEC Tournament Championship Game on Sunday afternoon. The Vols then traveled home, but have a quick turnaround before packing up and heading to Indianapolis for their game against Longwood on Thursday.

Barnes wants to see the SEC Tournament end on Saturday, rather than Sunday, moving forward. Some tournaments end on Saturday, but a couple still wrap up play on Sundays.

“Our guys I think have learned how to adapt to that quickly,” Barnes said of the postseason schedule. “But we’ll get busy with it (Tuesday) again. I wish our (SEC) Tournament would end on Saturday. I mean you think about it, we end on Sunday late, get back here. We were flying through the selection show, then we turn around and we get put in an early afternoon game. But that’s the way it is.

“And that’s why I wish as a league, we’d look at moving our tournament to Saturday, which will be hard to do because it’s been brought up so many times. But I think everybody in our league – I know the coaches certainly would like it to be that way.”

Barnes is frustrated with the apparent lack of significance the SEC Tournament held with the selection committee

Entering the SEC Tournament, Tennessee was likely already on the three line. The Vols then, despite winning the tournament, remained on the three line and did not move up. That, paired with the lack of consideration for Texas A&M after the Aggies’ run, leads Barnes to believe that the SEC Tournament doesn’t really mean that much in the end.

“And when you look at it, everybody said that we were a three seed going into the SEC Tournament,” Barnes said. “So it doesn’t look like the tournament helped us. Certainly I don’t understand a team in the SEC that wins 12 games like Texas A&M and playing great basketball at the end not being in the tournament. It just baffles me, it really does.

“If that’s the way it’s going to be, if the conference tournament doesn’t mean anything and the teams that are already slotted to be in the tournament can’t improve their seeding, we should stay at home and let the teams that are trying to get in the tournament fight for that one bid. Give our league a chance to get more.”

The First Four takes place beginning on Tuesday night, carrying into Wednesday. The First Round then begins on Thursday.