SEC Tournament Championship Takeaways: Tennessee 'Knox' out Aggies for title

After five days of play at the Southeastern Conference Tournament, the league has a new champion. The Tennessee Volunteers defeated Texas A&M 65-50 for their first conference tournament title in 43 years. The loss ends a four-day run by the Aggies that, even without the automatic bid, likely saved their season moving forward. After four games in as many days, though, their legs finally caught up to them in the end.

𝐒𝐄𝐂 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

🏆 @Vol_Hoops #SECMBB x #SECTourney pic.twitter.com/LMPOARLB68

— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) March 13, 2022

Meanwhile, Tennessee has cemented their status as one of the best teams in the country with their current run. Today was their seventh straight win and their 15th over their last 17 games. For a team that relies so heavily on their defense, their offense has finally kicked into another gear. That’s especially true from deep, where the Volunteers made 12 on 43% shooting today.

This wasn’t much of a game after a 14-0 onslaught to start from Tennessee. Their lead would remain at double-digits for the vast majority of this one with their largest lead at 18. The Aggies were just as physical as they’d been all week, but their fatigue showed as they just couldn’t get to that next gear they needed to be at in order to really compete in this one.

Texas A&M: Await Your Fate

If you’re Texas A&M, you have nothing to be ashamed about today. The run the Aggies made during the SEC Tournament in Tampa should be more than enough to get them back into the NCAA Tournament field. The security of the auto-bid and the first conference title would have been great. But even so, there will be a ton of opposition if Texas A&M is snubbed from the 68 teams in the tournament. They did plenty of heavy lifting this week to get them in this discussion. Now all they can do is wait for the bracket to come out and find out if it was enough.

Tennessee: Rocky on Top

Playing your best heading into and during the postseason is vital to winning a championship. Of all the teams in the field, not many, if any at all, are playing better than the Volunteers.

Of all the Tennessee teams under Rick Barnes so far, this one feels different. Not just in the sense that they’re playing their best at this moment, but because the guard play is kicking in at the perfect time. Kennedy Chandler, Santiago Vescovi, Josiah-Jordan James and Zakai Zegler are already one of the better backcourt groups in the country. On top of that, I challenge you to find a backcourt group that’s playing better on both ends right now than what the Vols trot out. Getting yourselves in position to win titles depends on your guard play in the biggest moments. It won them one title today and it might them win another one if they keep it up for six more games.