Alabama used a dominant second half and 31 points from Collin Sexton to beat Auburn in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals and move into the bracket for now, and maybe for good. The Crimson Tide are now into the bracket as a No. 11 seed and just outside the last four in.
The team it replaces is USC, who also lost when Middle Tennessee was upset Thursday. As of now, USC's best win came over the Blue Raiders in a tournament in Hawaii. The Trojans do not have a win over an at-large quality team in the bracket. However, their current RPI of 33 would set the record for the highest ranking for a major conference team that missed the field. The current record is 35, which was Wake Forest had when it was left out in 1998.
