Evaluating Vanderbilt women's basketball's March Madness résumé after SEC tournament loss

Vanderbilt women's basketball made a furious comeback attempt late but couldn't overcome a 12-0 run by Florida in the second quarter of the opening SEC tournament game, losing 62-59 Thursday in Greenville, South Carolina.

Now the Commodores (22-9) must wait until March 17, the day of the NCAA tournament selection show, to find out their March Madness fate.

Vanderbilt was listed among the last four teams in the tournament by most bracketology projections entering Thursday. ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme said on the broadcast that the loss wouldn't necessarily take the Commodores out of the tournament picture because the teams behind them on the bubble also had not done much.

Creme still had Vanderbilt in the "last four in" in his bracket projection released Friday morning.

But the loss makes Vanderbilt's position more precarious, especially because it will not have an opportunity to face Ole Miss and try to get another marquee win.

"The simple fact that we finished top six in the SEC," Commodores guard Iyana Moore said when asked why Vanderbilt should get a bid. "Like (coach Shea Ralph) said, this isn't the game that says how our season went. We played hard. We fought throughout the whole season. We finished top six."

There are three other SEC teams on the bubble: Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Auburn. The Aggies beat Mississippi State in their opening tournament game and advanced to take on South Carolina, while Auburn beat Arkansas. Vanderbilt has a head-to-head win against all three teams, including road wins over Mississippi State and Texas A&M.

Creme did note two potential bid thieves to watch out for. Princeton is the top team in the Ivy League, with Columbia on the bubble. In the Horizon League, Green Bay is a bubble team. Should a team other than Princeton and Green Bay win their respective tournaments, a team like the Commodores could end up squeezed out.

History is on Vanderbilt's side. Since 2000, every SEC team with at least 20 overall wins and eight conference wins has made the NCAA tournament. The Commodores had a 9-7 conference record.

"We now have some time to look at where did we go wrong (against Florida), where do we need to get better as a group and individually," Ralph said. "So when we do have selection Sunday, we know who we're playing, we're a much, much better team."

Here's how the tournament résumé stacks up:

Good wins

Vanderbilt's best win was against Iowa State (No. 38 in the NET) at a neutral site in November. The Cyclones are projected a No. 8 or No. 9 seed in the NCAA tournament.

This is a better nonconference win than most other bubble teams have, including the others in the SEC. However, the Commodores don't have any other wins over teams that are solidly in the tournament field, and they lost all four games they played against teams in the top 30 of the NET.

Both Auburn and Mississippi State have a win over LSU, which is far more impressive than any Vanderbilt has. Texas A&M's best victory was at home over Tennessee, ranked No. 35 in the NET.

Bad losses

Vanderbilt took a home loss to Missouri, No. 87 in the NET, in early January. Florida is No. 60 in the NET. Those are the only losses the Commodores have to teams outside the top 50.

The other SEC bubble teams have bad losses as well. The Aggies lost at Purdue (No. 72) in November, then lost to the Gators during conference play.

Auburn lost at UCF (NET No. 91) and Arkansas (NET No. 74).

Mississippi State has the worst losses of the group — at home to Chattanooga (NET No. 103), Kentucky (NET No. 147) and Florida.

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NET and strength of schedule

As of Friday morning, the Commodores ranked No. 57 in the NET. Texas A&M ranked 42rd, Auburn was 41st and Mississippi State was 47th.

The Commodores had an overall strength of schedule of 56th and a nonconference strength of schedule that was 155th. Neither number is great, but it won't hurt Vanderbilt relative to the SEC's other bubble teams because none of them played a particularly difficult schedule.

Mississippi State played the 126th nonconference strength of schedule, Auburn was 225th and Texas A&M was 263rd.

Despite the Aggies' weak nonconference strength of schedule, they rank ahead of Vanderbilt in overall strength of schedule. The Commodores drew a favorable SEC slate as they played both Georgia and Missouri — the 13th and 14th place teams in the league — twice.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Where Vanderbilt's March Madness hopes stand after SEC tournament loss