Topics, trends and picks as we head into the heart of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament:
Who’s hot (team): LSU. The league’s regular-season champion (16-2) has won five straight and nine of its last 10. The Tigers were a perfect 9-0 in conference road games. That’s hard to do. Given all the chaos going on in Baton Rouge right now — see “Biggest mystery” category — maybe we should say that technically speaking LSU is the hottest team in the league.
Who’s not (team): Alabama. After beating Vanderbilt on Feb. 9, Avery Johnson’s club was 15-8 overall, 6-4 in the SEC and in good shape to make the NCAA Tournament.