2019–20 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season

The 2019–20 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season began with practices in October 2019, followed by the start of the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Conference play started in early January 2020 and was scheduled to end in March, after which 14 member teams were to participate in the 2020 SEC men's basketball tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. The tournament champion was to have been guaranteed a selection to the 2020 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament,^[1] but the tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

2019–20 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	14
TV partner(s)	CBS, ESPN, SEC Network
Regular Season
2020 SEC Champions	Kentucky
Season MVP	Mason Jones (co-AP) Reggie Perry (co-AP) Immanuel Quickley (Coaches)
Tournament

2019–20 Southeastern Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 8 Kentucky	15	–	3		.833			25	–	6		.806
No. 20 Auburn	12	–	6		.667			25	–	6		.806
LSU	12	–	6		.667			21	–	10		.677
Mississippi State	11	–	7		.611			20	–	11		.645
Florida	11	–	7		.611			19	–	12		.613
South Carolina	10	–	8		.556			18	–	13		.581
Texas A&M	10	–	8		.556			16	–	14		.533
Tennessee	9	–	9		.500			17	–	14		.548
Alabama	8	–	10		.444			16	–	15		.516
Arkansas	7	–	11		.389			20	–	12		.625
Missouri	7	–	11		.389			15	–	16		.484
Ole Miss	6	–	12		.333			15	–	17		.469
Georgia	5	–	13		.278			16	–	16		.500
Vanderbilt	3	–	15		.167			11	–	21		.344
Note: The 2020 SEC tournament was canceled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rankings from AP poll

Preseason

Kentucky was predicted to win the 2020 SEC championship in voting by a select panel of both SEC and national media members. Florida's Kerry Blackshear was the choice of the media for SEC Men's Basketball Player of the Year. Blackshear, Edwards, Hagans, Tyree and Perry were each All-SEC First Team selections.^[2]

Media Day Selections

	Media
1.	Kentucky
2.	Florida
3.	LSU
4.	Auburn
5.	Tennessee
6.	Alabama
7.	Mississippi State
8.	Ole Miss
9.	Georgia
10.	South Carolina
11.	Arkansas
12.	Texas A&M
13.	Missouri
14.	Vanderbilt

() first place votes

Preseason All-SEC teams

Media
Kerry Blackshear Jr. Florida
Anthony Edwards Georgia
Ashton Hagans Kentucky
Breein Tyree Ole Miss
Reggie Perry Mississippi State

• Players in bold are media 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	Season at school	Overall record	SEC record	NCAA Tournaments	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA Championships
Alabama	Nate Oats	Buffalo	1	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0	0	0
Arkansas	Eric Musselman	Nevada	1	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0	0	0
Auburn	Bruce Pearl	Tennessee	6	100–72 (.581)	40–50 (.444)	2	1	0
Florida	Mike White	Louisiana Tech	5	89–53 (.627)	43–29 (.597)	3	0	0
Georgia	Tom Crean	Indiana	2	11–21 (.344)	2–16 (.111)	0	0	0
Kentucky	John Calipari	Memphis	11	305–71 (.811)	136–38 (.782)	9	4	1
LSU	Will Wade	VCU	3	43–20 (.683)	23–12 (.657)	1	0	0
Mississippi State	Ben Howland	UCLA	5	78–56 (.582)	32–40 (.444)	1	0	0
Missouri	Cuonzo Martin	California	3	35–30 (.538)	15–21 (.417)	1	0	0
Ole Miss	Kermit Davis	Middle Tennessee	2	20–13 (.606)	10–8 (.556)	1	0	0
South Carolina	Frank Martin	Kansas State	8	129–106 (.549)	56–70 (.444)	1	1	0
Tennessee	Rick Barnes	Texas	5	88–50 (.638)	42–30 (.583)	2	0	0
Texas A&M	Buzz Williams	Virginia Tech	1	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0	0	0
Vanderbilt	Jerry Stackhouse	Memphis Grizzlies (asst.)	1	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0	0	0

Rankings

Legend

		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week

Main article: 2019–20 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	RV
	C
Arkansas	AP		RV	RV	RV	RV		RV		RV	RV	RV	RV
	C			RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV
Auburn	AP	24	22	19	18	14	12	12	8	8	5	4	16
	C	23	23	18	17	13	10	9	8	7	5	4	16
Florida	AP	6	15	RV	24	RV	RV	RV		RV			RV
	C	6	6	RV	25	RV	RV			RV	RV		RV
Georgia	AP
	C
Kentucky	AP	2	1	9	9	8	8	6	19	17	14	10	15
	C	2	2	10	11	10	9	6	19	14	13	12	14
LSU	AP	22	23	RV	RV		RV	RV				RV	RV
	C	24	24	RV	RV		RV	RV			RV	RV	RV
Mississippi State	AP	RV	RV	RV	RV
	C	RV	RV
Missouri	AP	RV	RV	RV	RV
	C			RV
Ole Miss	AP
	C			RV
South Carolina	AP
	C
Tennessee	AP	RV	RV	20	17	21	19	21	RV
	C	25	25	17	16	20	17	21	RV
Texas A&M	AP
	C
Vanderbilt	AP
	C

Conference matrix

	Alabama	Arkansas	Auburn	Florida	Georgia	Kentucky	LSU	Miss. State	Missouri	Ole Miss	S. Carolina	Tennessee	Texas A&M	Vanderbilt
vs. Alabama	–	0–0	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–1
vs. Arkansas	0–0	–	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–1	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–1
vs. Auburn	1–0	0–0	–	1–0	0–1	0-0	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–1
vs. Florida	0–1	0–0	0–1	–	0–0	0-0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0
vs. Georgia	0-0	0–0	1–0	0–0	–	2–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–0
vs. Kentucky	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–2	–	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	0–1
vs. LSU	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	–	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–1	0–0
vs. Miss. State	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–0	1–0	–	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0
vs. Missouri	1–0	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	–	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–0
vs. Ole Miss	0-0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	0-0	–	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–0
vs. South Carolina	0-0	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	0-0	0–0	–	1–0	0–1	0–1
vs. Tennessee	0-0	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	0–1	–	1–0	0–1
vs. Texas A&M	0-0	1–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	–	0–1
vs. Vanderbilt	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	0-0	0–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	–
Total	4–3	3–4	5–2	4–3	1–6	6–1	7–0	4–3	2–5	1–6	4–3	4–3	4–3	0–7

Postseason

SEC tournament

Main article: 2020 SEC men's basketball tournament

• March 11–15 at the Bridgestone Arena, Nashville. 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.

2019 SEC men's basketball tournament seeds and results
Seed	School	Conf.	Over.	Tiebreaker	First Round March 11	Second Round March 12	Quarterfinals March 13	Semifinals March 14	Championship March 15
1.	‡Kentucky	15–3	25–6		Bye	Bye
2.	†Auburn	12–6	25–6	1–0 vs. LSU	Bye	Bye
3.	†LSU	12–6	21–10	0-1 vs. Auburn	Bye	Bye
4.	†Mississippi State	11–7	20–11	1–0 vs. Florida	Bye	Bye
5.	#Florida	11–7	19–12	0–1 vs. Mississippi State	Bye	vs. #13 Georgia
6.	#South Carolina	10–8	18–13	2–0 vs. Texas A&M	Bye	vs. #11 Arkansas
7.	#Texas A&M	10–8	16–14	0–2 vs, South Carolina	Bye	vs. #10 Missouri
8.	#Tennessee	9–9	17–14		Bye	vs. #9 Alabama
9.	#Alabama	8–10	16–15		Bye	vs. #8 Tennessee
10.	#Missouri	7–11	15–16	1–0 vs. Arkansas	Bye	vs. #7 Texas A&M
11.	Arkansas	7–11	19–12	0–1 vs. Missouri	vs. #14 Vanderbilt W, 86–73	vs. #6 South Carolina
12.	Ole Miss	6–11	15–16		vs. #13 Georgia L, 63–81
13.	Georgia	5–13	15–16		vs. #12 Ole Miss W, 81–63
14.	Vanderbilt	3–15	11–20		vs. #11 Arkansas L, 73–86
‡ – 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.

Honors and awards

All-SEC Awards

Coaches

2020 SEC Men's Basketball Individual Awards [3]
Award	Recipient(s)
Player of the Year	Immanuel Quickley, Kentucky
Coach of the Year	John Calipari, Kentucky
Defensive Player of the Year	Yves Pons, Tennessee
Freshman of the Year	Anthony Edwards, Georgia
Scholar-Athlete of the Year	Skylar Mays, LSU
Sixth Man Award	Tyson Carter, Mississippi State

2020 SEC Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams
First Team	Second Team	All-Freshman Team	All-Defensive Team
Samir Doughty Sr., G, Auburn Keyontae Johnson So., F, Florida Mason Jones Jr., G, Arkansas Kira Lewis Jr. So., G, Alabama Skylar Mays Sr., G, LSU Reggie Perry So., F, Mississippi State Immanuel Quickley So., G, Kentucky Nick Richards Jr., C, Kentucky Breein Tyree Jr., G, Ole Miss	Kerry Blackshear Jr. Sr., F, Florida Anthony Edwards Fr., G, Georgia John Fulkerson Jr., F, Tennessee Maik Kotsar Sr., F, South Carolina Saben Lee Jr., G, Vanderbilt Tyrese Maxey Fr., G, Kentucky Isaac Okoro Fr., F, Auburn John Petty Jr.Jr., G, Alabama	Jermaine Couisnard South Carolina Anthony Edwards Georgia Scottie Lewis Florida Tyrese Maxey Kentucky Isaac Okoro Auburn Scotty Pippen Jr. Vanderbilt Jaden Shackelford Alabama Trendon Watford LSU	Ashton Hagans So., G, Kentucky Herbert Jones Jr., F, Alabama Isaac Okoro Fr., F, Auburn Yves Pons Jr., F, Tennessee Nick Richards Jr., G, Kentucky

AP

2020 SEC Men's Basketball Individual Awards [4]
Award	Recipient(s)
co-Player of the Year	Mason Jones, Arkansas Reggie Perry, Mississippi State
Coach of the Year	Buzz Williams, Texas A&M
Newcomer of the Year	Anthony Edwards, Georgia

2020 SEC Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams
First Team	Second Team
†Mason Jones Jr., G, Arkansas Kira Lewis Jr. So., G, Alabama †Reggie Perry So., F, Mississippi State Immanuel Quickley So., G, Kentucky Nick Richards Jr., C, Kentucky	Samir Doughty Sr., G, Auburn Anthony Edwards Fr., G, Georgia Keyontae Johnson So., F, Florida Skylar Mays Sr., G, LSU Breein Tyree Sr., G, Ole Miss
† - denotes unanimous selection

References

1. "SEC announces Men's Basketball schedule". secsports.com. August 24, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
2. "UK picked to win 2020 SEC Men's Basketball Championship" (Press release). October 15, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
3. "2020 SEC Men's Basketball Awards announced" (Press release). Southeaster Conference. March 10, 2019. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
4. "AP SEC awards, All-SEC team rosters announced". March 10, 2019. Retrieved March 10, 2019.