WBB: Tournament watch

With just two weeks remaining in the regular season, March Madness is nearly upon us. With the success of the South Carolina women's team in the 2011-12 season, the Gamecocks are in a good position for the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament. How good is their position? GamecockAnthem.com takes a look.

It is a rare occurrence, but in the SEC anything less would be unexpected. Rarely does a team drop in the conference standings after a win, but that is just what happened to South Carolina Sunday evening. South Carolina held off Florida in a 62-58 win Sunday evening, but fell from fourth to fifth in the conference standings due to Vanderbilt's 76-63 loss at #21 Georgia.

The Gamecocks were in a four-way tie with the Commodores, Georgia, and Arkansas and due to its two wins over the Commodores, the Gamecocks sat in fourth place. Now that the Commodores are no longer in the tie, it comes down to Arkansas, Georgia, and Carolina.

Georgia beat Arkansas, Arkansas beat Carolina, and the Gamecocks and Bulldogs will not meet on the court until Thursday night. So Georgia is 1-0 against the teams they are tied with, Arkansas is 1-1, and Carolina is 0-1. So Georgia is third, Arkansas fourth, and Carolina fifth.

Now that may not mean much on the surface, but if the season ended today, Carolina would have to play on the first day instead of getting a bye by virtue of being in the top four.

Ready to really get confused?

Tennessee meets Kentucky Monday night in a huge match-up. Should Kentucky knock of Tennessee for the second time this season, the Volunteers would drop to 8-4 and into a four-way tie for second with the three above teams. To save some time, Tennessee would remain in second with a 3-1 record against the other three teams. South Carolina would jump up to third with a 1-1 record against the other three teams. Georgia would be fourth at 1-2 against the other three, and Arkansas fifth with a 1-2 record.

On behalf of Gamecock Nation, go Cats.

SEC Standings

Kentucky 10-1
Tennessee 8-3
Georgia 8-4
Arkansas 8-4
South Carolina 8-4
Vanderbilt 7-5
LSU 7-5
Florida 6-6
Mississippi State 4-8
Auburn 3-10
Mississippi 2-11
Alabama 1-10

SEC Tournament

March 1st

Game 1 - Mississippi State (9) vs. Florida (8)
Game 2 – Auburn (10) vs. LSU (7)
Game 3 – Alabama (12) vs. South Carolina(5)
Game 4 – Mississippi (11) vs. Vanderbilt (6)

March 2nd

Game 5 – Game 1 winner vs. Kentucky (1)
Game 6 – Game 2 winner vs. Tennessee (2)
Game 7 – Game 3 winner vs. Arkansas (4)
Game 8 – Game 4 winner vs. Georgia (3)

March 3rd

Game 9 – Game 5 vs. Game 7 winner
Game 10 – Game 6 winner vs. Game 8 winner

March 4th

Game 11 – Game 9 winner vs. Game 10 winner