2020–21 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season

The 2020–21 Southeastern Conference men's basketball season began with practices in November 2020, followed by the start of the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season on November 25. Conference play started in late December and will end in March, after which 14 member teams will participate in the 2021 SEC tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. The tournament champion is guaranteed a selection to the 2021 NCAA tournament.^[1]

2020–21 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
Regular Season Champions	Alabama
Tournament
Venue	Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee
Champions	Alabama
Runners-up	LSU
Finals MVP	Jahvon Quinerly, Alabama

2020–21 Southeastern Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 5 Alabama†	16	–	2		.889			26	–	7		.788
No. 10 Arkansas	13	–	4		.765			25	–	7		.781
LSU	11	–	6		.647			19	–	10		.655
Tennessee	10	–	7		.588			18	–	9		.667
Florida	9	–	7		.563			15	–	10		.600
Ole Miss	10	–	8		.556			16	–	12		.571
Missouri	8	–	8		.500			16	–	10		.615
Kentucky	8	–	9		.471			9	–	16		.360
Mississippi State	8	–	10		.444			18	–	15		.545
Georgia	7	–	11		.389			14	–	12		.538
Auburn*	7	–	11		.389			13	–	14		.481
South Carolina	4	–	12		.250			6	–	15		.286
Texas A&M	2	–	8		.200			8	–	10		.444
Vanderbilt	3	–	13		.188			9	–	16		.360
† 2021 SEC tournament winner * Ineligible for postseason due to self-imposed postseason ban.

The season was initially slated to begin on November 10, 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prematurely ended the previous season and continues to affect the current one.

Preseason

Tennessee was predicted to win the 2021 SEC championship in voting by a select panel of both SEC and national media members. Florida's Keyontae Johnson was the choice of the media for SEC Men's Basketball Player of the Year.^[1]

Media Day selections

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

Preseason All-SEC teams

Media
Keyontae Johnson, Florida
John Petty Jr., Alabama
BJ Boston, Kentucky
Trendon Watford, LSU
John Fulkerson, Tennessee

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	2	16–15 (.516)	8–10 (.444)	0	0	0
Arkansas	Eric Musselman	Nevada	2	20–12 (.625)	7–11 (.389)	0	0	0
Auburn	Bruce Pearl	Tennessee	7	125–78 (.616)	52–56 (.481)	2	1	0
Florida	Mike White	Louisiana Tech	6	108–65 (.624)	54–36 (.600)	3	0	0
Georgia	Tom Crean	Indiana	3	27–37 (.422)	7–29 (.194)	0	0	0
Kentucky	John Calipari	Memphis	12	330–77 (.811)	151–41 (.786)	9	4	1
LSU	Will Wade	VCU	4	64–30 (.681)	35–18 (.660)	1	0	0
Mississippi State	Ben Howland	UCLA	6	98–67 (.594)	43–47 (.478)	1	0	0
Missouri	Cuonzo Martin	California	4	50–46 (.521)	22–32 (.407)	1	0	0
Ole Miss	Kermit Davis	Middle Tennessee	3	35–30 (.538)	16–20 (.444)	1	0	0
South Carolina	Frank Martin	Kansas State	9	147–119 (.553)	66–78 (.458)	1	1	0
Tennessee	Rick Barnes	Texas	6	105–64 (.621)	51–39 (.567)	2	0	0
Texas A&M	Buzz Williams	Virginia Tech	2	16–14 (.533)	10–8 (.556)	0	0	0
Vanderbilt	Jerry Stackhouse	Memphis Grizzlies (asst.)	2	11–21 (.344)	3–15 (.167)	0	0	0

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

	Alabama	Arkansas	Auburn	Florida	Georgia	Kentucky	LSU	Mississippi State	Missouri	Ole Miss	South Carolina	Tennessee	Texas A&M	Vanderbilt
vs. Alabama	–	1–1	0–2	0–1	0–2	0–2	0–2	0–2	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–1
vs. Arkansas	1–1	–	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–1
vs. Auburn	2–0	2–0	–	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	2–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–1
vs. Florida	1–0	1–0	0–1	–	0–2	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–0	0–2
vs. Georgia	2–0	1–0	1–1	2–0	–	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–1	0–2	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–1
vs. Kentucky	2–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	–	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	0–0	0–2
vs. LSU	2–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	–	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–1
vs. Miss. State	2–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	–	0–1	1–1	0–2	1–0	1–1	1–1
vs. Missouri	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	–	2–0	0–2	1–1	0–1	0–0
vs. Ole Miss	1–0	1–0	0–2	1–0	2–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–2	–	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1
vs. South Carolina	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–2	1–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	–	1–0	0–1	1–0
vs. Tennessee	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–1	–	0–1	0–2
vs. Texas A&M	0–0	1–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	–	0–0
vs. Vanderbilt	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	0–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	0–0	–
Total	16–2	13–4	7–11	9–7	7–11	8–9	11–6	8–10	8–8	10–8	4–12	10–7	2–8	3–13