2018–19 Southeastern Conference women's basketball season

2018–19 SEC women's basketball season
2018–19 SEC women's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	14
WNBA Draft
Regular Season
2019 SEC Champions	Mississippi State
Season MVP	Teaira McCowan, Mississippi State
Tournament
Basketball seasons
	← 2017–18 2019–20 →

2018–19 SEC women's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 4 Mississippi State †	15	–	1	.938	33	–	3	.917
No. 15 South Carolina	13	–	3	.813	23	–	9	.719
No. 14 Texas A&M	12	–	4	.750	26	–	7	.788
No. 17 Kentucky	11	–	5	.688	25	–	8	.758
Missouri	10	–	6	.625	24	–	11	.686
Auburn	9	–	7	.563	22	–	10	.688
Georgia	9	–	7	.563	18	–	12	.600
Tennessee	7	–	9	.438	19	–	13	.594
LSU	7	–	9	.438	16	–	13	.552
Arkansas	6	–	10	.375	22	–	15	.595
Alabama	5	–	11	.313	14	–	17	.452
Ole Miss	3	–	13	.188	9	–	22	.290
Florida	3	–	13	.188	8	–	23	.258
Vanderbilt	2	–	14	.125	7	–	23	.233

† 2019 SEC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

The 2018–19 SEC women's basketball season began with practices in October 2018, followed by the start of the 2018–19 NCAA Division I women's basketball season in November. Conference play started in early January 2019 and concluded in February, followed by the 2019 SEC women's basketball tournament at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina, in March.^[1]

Pre-season

Pre-season team predictions

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

Pre-season All-SEC teams

Media^[2]	Coaches^[3]
Teiera McCowan Mississippi State	McCowan
Caliya Robinson Georgia	Robinson
Anriel Howard Mississippi State	Howard
Sophie Cunningham Missouri	Cunningham
Rennia Davis Tennessee	Davis
Chennedy Carter Texas A&M	Carter
Alexis Jennings South Carolina	Tyasha Harris South Carolina
	Maci Morris Kentucky

Coaches select eight players
Players in bold are choices for SEC Player of the Year

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	Seasons at school	Overall record	SEC record	NCAA tournaments	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA championships
Alabama	Kristy Curry	Texas Tech	6th	84–79	71–74	9	1	0
Arkansas	Mike Neighbors	Washington	2nd	13–18	3–13	3	1	0
Auburn	Terri Williams-Flournoy	Georgetown	7th	102–91	35–63	4	0	0
Florida	Cameron Newbauer	Belmont	2nd	11–19	3–13	2	0	0
Georgia	Joni Taylor	Georgia (ass't)	4th	63–32	28–20	2	0	0
Kentucky	Matthew Mitchell	Morehead State	12th	256–117	108–64	8	0	0
LSU	Nikki Fargas	UCLA	8th	132–93	59–51	8	0	0
Mississippi State	Vic Schaefer	Sam Houston State	7th	161–53	61–35	4	2	0
Missouri	Robin Pingeton	Illinois State	9th	147–108	47–45	5	0	0
Ole Miss	Yolett McPhee-McCuin	Jacksonville	1st	–	–	0	0	0
South Carolina	Dawn Staley	Temple	11th	250–87	109–49	13	2	1
Tennessee	Holly Warlick	Tennessee (ass't)	7th	153–54	71–25	6	0	0
Texas A&M	Gary Blair	Arkansas	16th	758–314	62–32	24	2	1
Vanderbilt	Stephanie White	Indiana	3rd	21–40	11–36	0	0	0

Weekly rankings

**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week. RV=Received votes. NR=No rank/vote.
		Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Final
Alabama	AP	NR
Alabama	C	NR
Arkansas	AP	NR
Arkansas	C	NR										RV	RV	NR
Auburn	AP	NR								RV	NR	RV	NR
Auburn	C	NR
Florida	AP	NR
Florida	C	NR
Georgia	AP	14	14	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	NR			RV	NR
Georgia	C	13	24	RV	NR
Kentucky	AP	NR	NR	NR	25	19	18	18	18	16	16	16	15	19	19	17	16	11	13	18
Kentucky	C	NR	RV	25	19	20	18	17	15	16	15	12	15	17	18	17
LSU	AP	NR	NR	NR	RV	NR
LSU	C	NR
Mississippi State	AP	6	6	6	6	6	5	4	8	7	7	7	7	6	6	5	6	5	5	4
Mississippi State	C	6	6	6	6	5	4	7	6	6	5	5	5	5	5	6
Missouri	AP	16	16	21	RV	23	22	RV	NR	RV	RV	RV	25	RV	RV	RV	RV
Missouri	C	14	18	RV	25	24	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	25
Ole Miss	AP	NR
Ole Miss	C	NR
South Carolina	AP	10	10	13	18	22	25	25	25	23	21	15	19	16	12	11	13	14	12	16
South Carolina	C	11	12	19	24	RV	RV	RV	RV	25	20	20	18	13	14	13
Tennessee	AP	11	12	11	11	9	9	9	10	10	13	20	RV	NR
Tennessee	C	12	11	11	9	9	8	10	10	13	17	RV	NR
Texas A&M	AP	20	20	20	17	RV	RV	23	23	21	RV	RV	24	20	18	22	21	19	15	17
Texas A&M	C	22	21	16	RV	RV	24	24	21	RV	RV	25	24	22	23	22
Vanderbilt	AP	NR
Vanderbilt	C	NR

Regular season matrix

Total	5–11	6–10	9–7	3–13	9–7	11–5	7–9	15–1	10–6	3–13	13–3	7–9	12–4	2–13
	Alabama	Arkansas	Auburn	Florida	Georgia	Kentucky	LSU	Miss. State	Missouri	Ole Miss	S. Carolina	Tennessee	Texas A&M	Vanderbilt
vs. Alabama	–	1-0	2-0	1–1	0–1	1-0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1
vs. Arkansas	0–1	–	1-0	0–1	2–0	1-0	1–0	1–0	2–0	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1
vs. Auburn	0-2	0–1	–	0–1	0–1	1-0	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	0–1
vs. Florida	1-1	1–0	1–0	–	1–0	1-0	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	0–1
vs. Georgia	1-1	0–2	1–0	0–2	–	1-1	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1
vs. Kentucky	0-1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	–	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	0–1
vs. LSU	0-1	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	2–0	–	2–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–1
vs. Miss. State	0-1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–2	–	1–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–0
vs. Missouri	0-1	0–2	1–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	–	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–1
vs. Ole Miss	1-0	2–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	2–0	1-0	–	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–1
vs. South Carolina	0-1	0–1	0–1	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–1	2–0	0-1	0–1	–	0–1	0–1	0–1
vs. Tennessee	1-0	1–0	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	1-1	0–1	1–0	–	1–0	1–1
vs. Texas A&M	0-1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–2	1–1	1–0	1-0	0–1	1–0	0–1	–	0–2
vs. Vanderbilt	1-0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1-0	1–1	1–0	1–1	2-0	–

Postseason

SEC tournament

March 6–10 at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. Teams were seeded by conference record, with ties broken by record between the tied teams followed by record against the regular-season champion.

Seed	School	Conf.	Over.	Tiebreaker	First round March 6	Second round March 7	Quarterfinals March 8	Semifinals March 9	Championship March 10
2019 SEC women's basketball tournament seeds and results
1	‡†Mississippi State	15–1	30–2		Bye	Bye	vs. #8 Tennessee W, 83–68	vs. #5 Missouri W, 71–56	vs. #10 Arkansas W, 101–70
2	†South Carolina	13–3	21–9		Bye	Bye	vs. #10 Arkansas L, 89–95
3	†Texas A&M	12–4	24–7		Bye	Bye	vs. #6 Auburn W, 64–62	vs. #10 Arkansas L, 51–58
4	†Kentucky	12–5	24–7		Bye	Bye	vs. #5 Missouri L, 68–70 (OT)
5	#Missouri	11–6	23–10		Bye	vs. #13 Florida W, 87–56	vs. #4 Kentucky W, 70–68 (OT)	vs. #1 Mississippi State L, 56–71
6	#Auburn	10–7	22–9	1–0 vs. UGA	Bye	vs. #11 Alabama W, 53–52	vs. #6 Texas A&M L, 62–64
7	#Georgia	9–8	18–12	0–1 vs. AUB	Bye	vs. #10 Arkansas L, 76–86
8	#Tennessee	8–9	19–12	1–0 vs. LSU	Bye	vs. #9 LSU W, 69–66	vs. #1 Mississippi State L, 68–83
9	#LSU	7–10	16–13	0–1 vs. TENN	Bye	vs. #8 Tennessee L, 66–69
10	#Arkansas	7–10	20–14		Bye	vs. #7 Georgia W, 86–76	vs. #2 South Carolina W, 95–89	vs. #3 Texas A&M W, 58–51	vs. #1 Mississippi State L, 70–101
11	Alabama	5–12	14–17		vs. #14 Vanderbilt W, 74–57	vs. #6 Auburn L, 52–53
12	Ole Miss	3–13	9–22	1–0 vs. UF	vs. #13 Florida L, 57–64
13	Florida	3–14	8–23	0–1 vs. MISS	vs. #12 Ole Miss W, 64–57	vs. #5 Missouri L, 56–87
14	Vanderbilt	2–14	7–23		vs. #11 Alabama L, 57–74
‡ – SEC regular-season champions, and tournament No. 1 seed † – Received a double bye in the conference tournament # – Received a single bye in the conference tournament Overall records include all games played in the tournament.

NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament

Seed	Bracket	School	First round	Second round	Sweet 16	Elite 8
1	Portland	Mississippi State	vs. #16 Southern W, 103–46	vs. #9 Clemson W, 85–61	vs. #5 Arizona State W, 76–53	vs. #2 Oregon L, 84–88
4	Chicago	Texas A&M	vs. #11 Wright State W, 84–61	vs. #5 Marquette W, 78–76	vs. #1 Notre Dame L, 80–87
4	Greensboro	South Carolina	vs. #13 Belmont W, 74–52	vs. #5 Florida State W, 72–64	vs. #1 Baylor L, 68–93
6	Greensboro	Kentucky	vs. #11 Princeton W, 82–77	vs. #3 NC State L, 57–72
7	Greensboro	Missouri	vs. #10 Drake W, 77–76 (OT)	vs. #2 Iowa L, 52–68
10	Chicago	Auburn	vs. #7 BYU L, 64–73
11	Albany	Tennessee	vs. #6 UCLA W, 77–89
# Bids: 7	W-L (%):	TOTAL: 9–7 (.563)	5–2 (.714)	3–2 (.600)	1–2 (.333)	0–1 (.000)

Women's National Invitation Tournament

School	First round	Second round	Third round
Arkansas (2–1)	vs. Houston W, 88–80 (OT)	vs. UAB W, 100–52	vs. TCU L, 78–82

WNBA draft

Player	Team	Round	Pick #	School
Teaira McCowan	Indiana Fever	1	3	Mississippi State
Sophie Cunningham	Phoenix Mercury	2	13	Missouri
Anriel Howard	Seattle Storm	2	24	Mississippi State
Caliya Robinson	Indiana Fever	3	28	Georgia

References

^ "SEC announces 2019 Women's Basketball schedule" (Press release). Southeastern Conference. August 23, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
^ ^a ^b "Media picks Mississippi State as SEC Women's Champion" (Press release). Southeastern Conference. October 16, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
^ ^a ^b "Coaches tab Mississippi State as 2018 SEC women's basketball champs" (Press release). Southeastern Conference. October 30, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2024.

[1] "SEC announces 2019 Women's Basketball schedule" (Press release). Southeastern Conference. August 23, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2024.

[Preseason_media-2] "Media picks Mississippi State as SEC Women's Champion" (Press release). Southeastern Conference. October 16, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2024.

[Preseason_coaches-3] "Coaches tab Mississippi State as 2018 SEC women's basketball champs" (Press release). Southeastern Conference. October 30, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2024.

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t e Southeastern Conference women's basketball
Teams	Alabama Crimson Tide Arkansas Razorbacks Auburn Tigers Florida Gators Georgia Lady Bulldogs Kentucky Wildcats LSU Tigers Mississippi State Bulldogs Missouri Tigers Oklahoma Sooners Ole Miss Rebels South Carolina Gamecocks Tennessee Lady Volunteers Texas Longhorns Texas A&M Aggies Vanderbilt Commodores
Championships & awards	SEC women's basketball tournament Player of the Year
Conference challenges	Big 12/SEC Women's Challenge (2013–2023) ACC–SEC Challenge (2023–present) Coast-to-Coast Challenge (2024-present)
Seasons	1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25