Here’s how past SEC teams have fared in the Final Four
Alabama is the latest SEC team to reach the NCAA Men’s Final Four, the ninth different conference member to reach the national semifinal for the first time.
The Crimson Tide meets defending national champion UConn on Saturday night at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., the second of two Final Four games after North Carolina State meets Purdue earlier in the day. The two winners play for the national championship on Monday night, also at State Farm Stadium.
Eight other SEC programs have combined for a total of 32 previous trips to the Final Four (spoiler alert: mostly by Kentucky). Eleven of those (again, mostly Kentucky) have won national championships.
Five current members of the SEC have never made a Final Four. Missouri, Tennessee and Vanderbilt have never advanced farther than the Elite Eight; Ole Miss and Texas A&M have never been past the Sweet 16.
NOTE: This list does not include Arkansas’ four trips to the Final Four before joining the SEC in 1991. Nor does it include Georgia Tech, whose two Final Four trips came after the Yellow Jackets left in the SEC in the mid-1960s. Also not included are Texas and Oklahoma, who don’t officially join the SEC until this summer.
Those caveats out of the way, here are the 32 times an SEC team has made the NCAA tournament Final Four and how it turned out for them (listed in chronological order):
1. Kentucky (1942)
Coach: Adolph Rupp
Top players: Ermal Allen, James King
Tournament seed: N/A
Final Four results: Lost to Dartmouth 47-28 in national semifinal
Final record: 19-6
Notable: Only eight teams made the NCAA tournament at the time, with a 4-team East Regional in New Orleans and a 4-team West Regional in Kansas City. Stanford beat Dartmouth for the NCAA championship.
2. Kentucky (1948)
Coach: Adolph Rupp
Top players: Ralph Beard, Alex Groza, Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones
Tournament seed: None
Final Four results: Beat Holy Cross 60-52 in national semifinal; beat Baylor 58-42 in championship game
Final record: 36-3
Notable: With Cliff Barker and Kenny Rollins, Beard, Groza and Jones formed the “Fabulous Five,” who not only won the 1948 national championship, but teamed up to lead the United States to an Olympic gold medal that summer in London.
3. Kentucky (1949)
Coach: Adolph Rupp
Top players: Ralph Beard, Alex Groza, Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones
Tournament seed: None
Final Four results: Beat Illinois 76-47 in national semifinal; beat Oklahoma A&M 46-36 in championship game
Final record: 32-2
Notable: Rollins had graduated, but the other four members of the “Fabulous Five” returned and repeated as SEC and national champions. Groza, Beard and teammate Dale Barnstable were later implicated in a points-shaving scandal that caused them to be banned for life from the NBA.
Adolph Rupp’s “Fabulous Five” won back-to-back national championships in 1948 and 1949. (AP Photo/Paul Wagner, File)AP
4. Kentucky (1951)
Coach: Adolph Rupp
Top players: Bill Spivey, Shelby Linville, Cliff Hagan
Tournament seed: None
Final Four results: Beat Illinois 76-74 in national semifinal; beat Kansas State 68-58 in national championship game
Final record: 32-2
Notable: This was the first NCAA tournament with a 16-team field (up from 8). The 7-foot Spivey was also accused of point-shaving, and was also banned from the NBA despite his denials. Another notable player on this Wildcats team was C.M. Newton, who went on to be coach at Alabama in the 1970s and athletics director at alma mater in the 1980s and 90s.
5. LSU (1953)
Coach: Harry Rabenhorst
Top players: Bob Pettit, Norman Magee, Ned Clark
Tournament seed: None
Final Four results: Lost to Indiana 80-67 in national semifinal; lost to Washington 88-69 in third-place game
Final record: 22-3
Notable: With Kentucky forced by the NCAA to cancel its season amid the points-shaving scandal and other violations, LSU stepped into the SEC void. The 6-foot-9 Pettit, one of the more dominant players in college basketball history and a future Hall-of-Famer, averaged 24.9 points and 12.7 rebounds per game.
6. Kentucky (1958)
Coach: Adolph Rupp
Top players: Vernon Hatten, Johnny Cox, John Crigler
Tournament seed: None
Final Four results: Beat Temple 61-60 in national semifinal; beat Seattle 84-72 in national championship game
Final record: 23-6
Notable: Known as the “Fiddlin’ Five,” this Kentucky team restored the program to glory after scandal earlier in the decade. The Wildcats overcame an 11-point deficit to beat a Seattle team led by Elgin Baylor in the championship game, held in the newly completed Freedom Hall in Louisville.
Kentucky’s national championship in 1958 was the fourth for Adolph Rupp’s Wildcats in an 11-year period. (AP Photo/File)AP
7. Kentucky (1966)
Coach: Adolph Rupp
Top players: Pat Riley, Louie Dampier, Larry Conley
Tournament seed: None
Final Four results: Beat Duke 83-79 in national semifinal; Lost to Texas Western 72-65 in national championship game
Final record: 27-7
Notable: Known as “Rupp’s Runts,” the Wildcats had no players taller than 6-foot-5. Of course, this Kentucky team and this tournament are best remembered for sociological reasons, as a Texas Western team with five black starters beat the all-white Wildcats in the title game.
8. Kentucky (1975)
Coach: Joe B. Hall
Top players: Kevin Grevey, Jimmy Dan Conner, Rick Robey
Tournament seed: None
Final Four results: Beat Syracuse 95-79 in national semifinal; lost to UCLA 92-85 in national championship game
Final record: 26-5
Notable: Rupp retired at the end of the 1971-72 season, and Hall led the Wildcats back to the Final Four three years later. The first 32-team NCAA tournament was also the last for legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, who stepped down after winning his 10th national championship.
9. Kentucky (1978)
Coach: Joe B. Hall
Top players: Jack Givens, Rick Robey, Kyle Macy
Tournament seed: No. 1 in Mideast Region
Final Four results: Beat Arkansas 64-59 in national semifinal; beat Duke 94-88 in national championship game
Final record: 30-2
Notable: The first seeded tournament, this was also the last with 32 teams. The field was expanded to 40 in 1979, 48 in 1980, 52 in 1983, 64 in 1985, 65 in 1999 and to its current 68 in 2011. After reaching the Final Four as freshmen, Robey and Givens — who had 41 points in the championship game — led the Wildcats to their first title in 20 years as seniors.
Jack “Goose” Givens scored 41 points in Kentucky’s 94-88 victory over Duke in the 1978 NCAA championship game. (AP Photo)AP
10. LSU (1981)
Coach: Dale Brown
Top players: Howard Carter, Rudy Macklin, Leonard Mitchell
Tournament seed: No. 1 in Midwest Region
Final Four results: Lost to Indiana 67-49 in national semifinal; lost to Virginia 78-74 in third-place game
Final record: 31-5
Notable: The Tigers won their first 17 SEC games (and 26 straight games overall) before losing to Kentucky in the regular season finale. LSU’s offense failed in the Final Four, shooting just 32% in a blowout loss to Isiah Thomas and the eventual national champion Hoosiers. This was also the last NCAA tournament with a third-place game.
11. Georgia (1983)
Coach: Hugh Durham
Top players: Vern Fleming, Terry Fair, James Banks
Tournament seed: No. 4 in East Region
Final Four results: Lost to North Carolina State 67-60 in national semifinal
Final record: 24-10
Notable: The Bulldogs won the SEC tournament in Birmingham and made their first Final Four a year after superstar Dominique Wilkins left for the NBA. They then knocked off the top two seeds in their region — St. John’s and North Carolina — to reach the national semifinals, but could not get past Jim Valvano’s Wolfpack “Team of Destiny.”
12. Kentucky (1984)
Coach: Joe B. Hall
Top players: Melvin Turpin, Kenny Walker, Sam Bowie
Tournament seed: No. 1 in Mideast Region
Final Four results: Lost to Georgetown 53-40 in national semifinal
Final record: 29-5
Notable: After narrowly beating Alabama and Auburn to win the SEC tournament, the Wildcats got the benefit of playing their Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games on their home court in Lexington (the NCAA shortly thereafter passed a rule banning future teams from doing so). But they were smothered by Patrick Ewing and the Hoyas’ defense in the Final Four, shooting just 26% as a team and going nearly 10 minutes without scoring to begin the second half.
In 1986, Dale Brown and LSU were the first team to reach the NCAA tournament Final Four as an 11-seed. (AP Photo/David Longstreath, File)AP
13. LSU (1986)
Coach: Dale Brown
Top players: John Williams, Derrick Taylor, Don Redden
Tournament seed: No. 11 in Southeast Region
Final Four results: Lost to Louisville 88-77 in national semifinal
Final record: 26-12
Notable: One of the more unlikely teams to challenge for a national title, LSU finished fifth in the 10-team SEC during the regular season. The Tigers also lost to Kentucky three times before beating them 59-57 on Ricky Blanton’s game-winner in the regional final in Atlanta. The 1986 LSU team remains tied for the lowest seed ever to reach the Final Four, where they fell to freshman phenom “Never Nervous” Pervis Ellison and the eventual national champion Cardinals.
14. Kentucky (1993)
Coach: Rick Pitino
Top players: Jamal Mashburn, Travis Ford, Dale Brown
Tournament seed: No. 1 in Southeast Region
Final Four results: Lost to Michigan 81-78 in OT in national semifinal
Final record: 30-5
Notable: A year after losing in a regional final to Christian Laettner and Duke in one of the most-famous games ever, Pitino’s Wildcats won their first four NCAA tournament games by an average of 31 points and reached the Final Four for the first time in nine years. There they ran into Michigan’s Fab 5, and lost another heartbreaker after Mashburn fouled out with 3:23 left in overtime.
15. Arkansas (1994)
Coach: Nolan Richardson
Top players: Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman, Corey Beck
Tournament seed: No. 1 in Midwest Region
Final Four results: Beat Arizona 91-82 in national semifinal; beat Duke 76-72 in national championship game
Final record: 31-3
Notable: Led by Richardson’s famed “40 Minutes of Hell” defense, the Razorbacks took over the SEC for a brief time in the mid-90s and gave the league its first national championship in 16 years and its first not won by Kentucky. Thurman’s 3-pointer as the shot clock ran down in the final minute of the championship game clinched the title for Arkansas.
Known for its “40 Minutes of Hell” defense, Arkansas won the 1994 NCAA tournament championship. The Razorbacks were the first SEC team other than Kentucky to do so. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)AP
16. Florida (1994)
Coach: Lon Kruger
Top players: Dan Cross, Craig Brown, Andrew DeClercq
Tournament seed: No. 3 in East Regional
Final Four results: Lost to Duke 70-65 in national semifinals
Final record: 29-8
Notable: The Gators joined Arkansas in the 1994 Final Four, giving the league two teams in the national semifinals for the first time ever (but not the last). After Boston College upset top-seeded North Carolina in the second round, Florida’s path to the Final Four was cleared somewhat. They led the Blue Devils by 13 in the second half, but could not hold on.
17. Arkansas (1995)
Coach: Nolan Richardson
Top players: Corliss Williamson, Scotty Thurman, Corey Beck
Tournament seed: No. 2 in Midwest Region
Final Four results: Beat North Carolina 75-68 in national semifinal; lost to UCLA 89-78 in national championship game
Final record: 32-7
Notable: The Razorbacks returned largely the same team from its national title run the previous year, but showed some cracks early in the tournament. Arkansas beat 15-seed Texas Southern by one in the opening round, then got taken to overtime by both Syracuse and Memphis. In the championship game, Ed O’Bannon scored 30 points and grabbed 17 rebounds as UCLA won its first title since 1975 and denied Arkansas and the SEC a second straight trophy.
18. Kentucky (1996)
Coach: Rick Pitino
Top players: Tony Delk, Antoine Walker, Walter McCarty
Tournament seed: No. 1 in Midwest Region
Final Four results: Beat UMass 81-74 in national semifinal; beat Syracuse 76-67 in national championship game.
Final record: 34-2
Notable: One of the more dominant teams in modern college basketball history, the Wildcats won 27 straight games at one stretch and eventually sent nine players to the NBA. Kentucky went unbeaten in the SEC during the regular season, but lost the tournament title game to Mississippi State. The Wildcats rolled through the NCAA tournament, however, avenging one of its two losses in the national semifinal before winning the title game behind seven 3-pointers from Delk. The championship was Kentucky’s sixth, but first since 1978.
Rick Pitino’s 1996 Kentucky Wildcats were one of the more dominant college basketball teams of the modern era, going undefeated in the SEC during the regular season and sending nine players to the NBA. (AP Photo/John Reed)AP
19. Mississippi State (1996)
Coach: Richard Williams
Top players: Darryl Wilson, Dontae’ Jones, Erick Dampier
Tournament seed: No. 5 in Southeast Region
Final Four results: Lost to Syracuse 77-69 in national semifinal
Final record: 26-8
Notable: The Bulldogs overcame a slow start to conference play, but turned it on down the stretch, including an upset of Kentucky in the SEC tournament championship game. They then beat top-seeded Connecticut in the Sweet 16 and No. 2 Cincinnati in the regional final to give the SEC two Final Four teams for the second time in three years. In the Final Four vs. John Wallace and the Orangemen, State turned the ball over 21 times to fall into a 15-point hole and never recovered.
20. Kentucky (1997)
Coach: Rick Pitino
Top players: Ron Mercer, Derek Anderson, Anthony Epps
Tournament seed: No. 1 in West Region
Final Four results: Beat Minnesota 78-69 in national semifinal; lost to Arizona 84-79 in overtime in national championship game
Final record: 35-5
Notable: Seeking to repeat as national champion for the first time since the 1940s, the Wildcats were not quite as dominant and actually lost twice to upstart South Carolina during the regular season. But they won the SEC tournament, and made it to the Final Four in Indianapolis with relative ease. They then ran into Miles Simon, Mike Bibby and surprising Arizona in the championship game, losing in overtime in what proved to be Pitino’s swan song at Kentucky before his ill-fated tenure with the Boston Celtics.
21. Kentucky (1998)
Coach: Tubby Smith
Top players: Jeff Sheppard, Nazr Mohammed, Scott Padgett
Tournament seed: No. 2 in South Region
Final Four results: Beat Stanford 86-85 in overtime in national semifinal; beat Utah 78-69 in national championship game
Final record: 35-4
Notable: A coaching change made little difference for the Wildcats, who again were the class of the SEC and reached the national championship game for the third straight year. They had some close calls in the tournament, however, surviving a failed buzzer-beater by Duke in the Elite Eight and outlasting Stanford in the Final Four behind a career-high 27 points from Sheppard. Kentucky then overcame a 10-point halftime deficit in the title game, scoring 47 points in the second half to win their seventh championship overall and second in three years.
Kentucky won the 1998 NCAA tournament championship under first-year coach Tubby Smith. It was second title for the Wildcats in three years. (AP Photo/Eric Draper, FIle)AP
22. Florida (2000)
Coach: Billy Donovan
Top players: Mike Miller, Udonis Haslem, Donnell Harvey
Tournament seed: No. 5 in East Region
Final Four results: Beat North Carolina 71-59 in national semifinal; lost to Michigan State 89-76 in national championship game
Final record: 29-8
Notable: Donovan’s first outstanding Florida team tied Kentucky and Tennessee for the SEC East title, then beat top-seeded Duke in the Sweet 16 on the way to its second-ever Final Four. After getting past North Carolina in the national semifinal, the Gators never really threatened against a powerhouse Michigan State team in the championship game despite Haslem’s 27 points.
23. Florida (2006)
Coach: Billy Donovan
Top players: Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Al Horford
Tournament seed: No. 3 in Minneapolis Region
Final Four results: Beat George Mason 73-58 in national semifinal; beat UCLA 73-58 in national championship game
Final record: 33-6
Notable: All the pieces were finally in place for Donovan’s Gators, who won the SEC tournament and then cruised to the Final Four with only one relatively close game (57-53 over Georgetown in the Sweet 16) along the way. Florida then throttled Cinderella upstart George Mason in the semifinals before overwhelming UCLA in the title game. Noah dominated in the championship game, scoring 16 points, grabbing nine rebounds and recording six blocks.
24. LSU (2006)
Coach: John Brady
Top players: Glen Davis, Darrel Mitchell, Tasmin Mitchell
Tournament seed: No. 4 in Atlanta Region
Final Four results: Lost 59-45 to UCLA in national semifinal
Final record: 27-9
Notable: The Tigers lost to Florida in the SEC tournament semifinals, but won four straight NCAA tournament games to give the league two teams in the Final Four for the third time. LSU survived Texas in overtime in the regional final before running into UCLA’s defensive brick wall in the national semifinal. The Tigers shot just 32% as a team, and Davis made only 5 of 17 shots and 4 of 10 free throws.
Florida won its second straight national championship in 2007, returning all five starters from the previous year’s title team. With Kentucky in 1948-49, the Gators are one of two SEC teams to win back-to-back NCAA tournament championships. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)AP
25. Florida (2007)
Coach: Billy Donovan
Top players: Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Al Horford
Tournament seed: No. 1 in Midwest Region
Final Four results: Beat UCLA 76-66 in national semifinal; beat Ohio State 84-75 in national championship game
Final record: 35-5
Notable: The Gators bucked a trend by “running it back” from the 2006 title team, as Noah, Brewer, Horford and fellow junior Taurean Green all put off the NBA for another shot at March Madness glory. Florida cruised to the SEC regular season and tournament championships, then blitzed through the NCAA field on the way to a second straight national title. With 18 points and 12 rebounds, Horford was the star of the title game this time, helping the Gators become just the second SEC team (after 1948-49 Kentucky) to repeat as national champions.
26. Kentucky (2011)
Coach: John Calipari
Top players: Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, Doron Lamb
Tournament seed: No. 4 in East Region
Final Four results: Lost to Connecticut 56-55 in national semifinal
Final record: 29-9
Notable: After a team led by freshmen John Wall, Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins had failed to reach the Final Four in 2010, Calipari’s second group of first-year stars got the Wildcats back in the national semifinals for the first time since 1998. There they met eventual national champion UConn and Kemba Walker, who did just enough to send Kentucky home with a one-point loss after DeAndre Liggins’ last-second 3-pointer came up short.
27. Kentucky (2012)
Coach: John Calipari
Top players: Anthony Davis, Doron Lamb, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Tournament seed: No. 1 in South Region
Final Four results: Beat Louisville 69-61 in national semifinal; beat Kansas 67-59 in national championship game
Final record: 38-2
Notable: Led by arguably the most-dominant one-year player in SEC basketball history, the Wildcats lost at Indiana in December and in the SEC championship game to Vanderbilt but easily handled most other competition on the way to their eighth national championship. The national player of the year, Davis averaged 15.2 points, 11.2 rebounds and 4.6 blocks in Kentucky’s six NCAA tournament games. Lamb, a sophomore, scored 22 as the Wildcats led wire-to-wire in the championship game.
Led by freshman superstar Anthony Davis, left, Kentucky won its eighth NCAA tournament championship in 2012. (AP Photo/Bill Haber, File)AP
28. Florida (2014)
Coach: Billy Donovan
Top players: Casey Prather, Michael Frazier, Scottie Wilbekin
Tournament seed: No. 1 in South Region
Final Four results: Lost to Connecticut 63-53 in national semifinal
Final record: 36-3
Notable: A Florida team that was definitely greater than the sum of its parts got back to the Final Four for the first time in seven years after three straight defeats in the Elite Eight. The Gators won 30 consecutive games at one point, including all 18 in the SEC during the regular season and three in the conference tournament. Florida’s winning streak was finally snapped by the upstart Huskies, who eventually rolled to the national championship as a 7-seed.
29. Kentucky (2014)
Coach: John Calipari
Top players: Julius Randle, James Young, Aaron Harrison
Tournament seed: No. 8 in Midwest Region
Final Four results: Beat Wisconsin 74-73 in national semifinal; lost to Connecticut 60-54 in national championship game
Final record: 29-11
Notable: One of Calipari’s weaker teams record-wise (at least to that point) actually got within six points of a national championship in what was a strange NCAA tournament. The Wildcats lost three of their last four during the regular season and then fell to Florida in the SEC title game by a single point before reeling off five straight NCAA tournament wins by total of 7, 2, 5, 3 and 1 point. Kentucky missed 11 free throws in the title game, sealing their fate against Shabazz Napier and UConn.
30. Kentucky (2015)
Coach: John Calipari
Top players: Aaron Harrison, Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker
Tournament seed: No. 1 in Midwest Region
Final Four results: Lost to Wisconsin 71-64 in national semifinal
Final record: 38-1
Notable: Maybe the best team at Kentucky (or anywhere else) that didn’t win a championship rolled through the regular season, SEC tournament and four rounds of the NCAA tournament, looking all the while like it might pull off the sport’s first undefeated season since 1976 Indiana. But Frank “The Tank” Kaminsky and Wisconsin had other ideas in the Final Four, taking the lead for good with 1:42 left and sending the Wildcats home, two wins short of perfection.
Karl-Anthony Towns (12) and Kentucky won their first 38 games during the 2014-15 season before falling to Frank Kaminsky, left, and Wisconsin in the Final Four. (Chris Steppig/NCAA Photos via AP, Pool, File)AP
31. South Carolina (2017)
Coach: Frank Martin
Top players: Sindarius Thornwell, PJ Dozier, Chris Silva
Tournament seed: No. 7 in East Region
Final Four results: Lost to Gonzaga 77-73 in national semifinal
Final record: 26-11
Notable: If 1986 LSU wasn’t the most-unlikely SEC team to make a Final Four run, then these Gamecocks were. They lost four of their last six regular-season games and then went one-and-done in the SEC tournament. But they beat the 2, 3 and 4 seeds in their region — Duke, Baylor and Florida — to make it to the national semifinals. South Carolina gave a 37-1 Gonzaga team everything it could handle, with the Bulldogs not putting the game away until a pair of made free throws in the final seconds.
32. Auburn (2019)
Coach: Bruce Pearl
Top players: Bryce Brown, Jared Harper, Chuma Okeke
Tournament seed: No. 5 in Midwest Region
Final Four results: Lost to Virginia 63-62 in national semifinal
Final record: 30-10
Notable: In maybe the most painful loss by an SEC team in Final Four history, the Tigers were victimized by one egregious non-call and one questionable whistle in the final seconds vs. the eventual national champion Cavaliers. Auburn had won 12 straight games to that point, including the SEC tournament title and victories over bluebloods Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky in the NCAA tournament. In the Final Four, the Tigers led Virginia by two with less than 10 seconds left, when the Cavaliers’ Ty Jerome appeared to get away with a double-dribble. Auburn’s Samir Doughty then fouled Kyle Guy on a 3-point attempt with 0.6 seconds remaining (on a very close call), and Guy made all three free throws to win it for Virginia.
So that’s the complete list of SEC teams to make a Final Four. Alabama will add to the league’s Final Four legacy beginning on Saturday night.
Creg Stephenson has worked for AL.com since 2010 and has covered SEC sports for a variety of publications since 1994. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter/X at @CregStephenson.