[CatDawg]

By Cam Huffman - Sports Editor
Credit where credit is due

Monday night while the Florida Gators were celebrating their NCAA Championship and CBS was airing its annual video tribute to March Madness, I suddenly began to hear a different tune.
While I knew that “One Shining Moment” was blasting out of my television’s speakers, what kept ringing in my ears was one line from an old Sawyer Brown tune. Every time Florida’s Joakim Noah blocked a shot or Lee Humphrey nailed another jumper, lead singer Mark Miller would sing, “I’ve got to give credit where credit is due.”
It didn’t take long to determine the meaning of the message. All season long I have pumped up the Big East Conference, even going as far as to call it the best basketball conference in the history of the game. I labeled the new league as the country’s best basketball conference time and time again, stating it not as an opinion but an established fact.
But as I looked back on the 2005-06 basketball season when everything was said and done Monday night, I couldn’t help but re-evaluate that assessment. Maybe while Dick Vitale, Digger Phelps and I were trying to separate the Big East from the ACC, the best basketball around was really right under our nose in the heart of football country.
As Sawyer Brown explained to me over and over Monday night, you have to give credit where it belongs, and the Southeastern Conference deserves some recognition.
I base this belief not on Florida’s run to the championship alone — although the Gators were quite impressive and never really challenged along the way — but instead on the conference’s play overall this postseason.
While many predicted that the Big East would put as many as three teams into the Final Four and almost every “expert” picked either Duke, Connecticut or Villanova to win the trophy, the SEC quietly went about its business of knocking down everything in its path.
While the Big East set a record by placing eight teams in this year’s 65-team field — and I do feel that eight deserved to be included, although Seton Hall likely should have been left out in favor of Cincinnati — the SEC flew in a little under the radar with six.
In the end, though, the mighty Big East did not put even one of its eight in the Final Four, while the SEC sent both LSU and Florida to Indianapolis.
I can hear Hampshire head baseball coach Steve Ujcic yelling already — not that yelling is anything new for the fiery coach — “What about the ACC?” Ujcic was screaming the same thing just one day before Georgetown ended Duke’s winning streak during the regular season, and he hasn’t stopped since.
Well Mr. Ujcic, the ACC, the other supposed basketball powerhouse, put just three teams in the tournament field, and only Duke made any sort of run at all. The Blue Devils, though, were eliminated in the Sweet 16 by LSU. What conference does LSU represent? If you said the SEC, give yourself five points.
I think it is clear that the SEC came out on top in this year’s tournament.
The next obvious argument concerns which league is best from top to bottom. Although it is difficult to argue against a Big East Conference that placed eight teams in the NCAA Tournament and four other members in the NIT for a total of 12 schools involved in postseason play, the SEC has a case there as well.
Besides its six NCAA Tournament representatives, the SEC sent two more member schools to the NIT. Again, these teams made some noise.
For the second straight year South Carolina took its NIT berth as far as it would go, winning the entire tournament. During their five-game path to the title the Gamecocks knocked off Western Kentucky, Florida State (ACC), Cincinnati (Big East) and Louisville (Big East) before handling Michigan 76-64 in the championship game.
Overall in postseason play, SEC teams finished 5-1 against Big East opponents and 2-0 against ACC foes.
Taking all of these factors into consideration, it is impossible not to add a little salt and pepper for flavor and go ahead and eat my words. Neither the Big East or the ACC will be put on life support anytime soon, but for at least another six months — until college basketball starts again in November — the SEC deserves the bragging rights.

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