University of Tennessee Athletics
2004 SEC Basketball Tournament
February 24, 2004 | Men's Basketball
GEORGIA DOME SEATING | SEC TOURNAMENT BRACKET
The 2004 Southeastern Conference Men's Basketball Tournament will be held in a familiar setting as the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Ga., again plays host to this event. The Georgia Dome, a world-class facility with basketball seating configuration of 26,000, serves as the site of the 12-team tournament for the fifth time in seven years and the sixth time overall in league history. The 2002 tournament amassed impressive crowds with the sixth highest total attendance (198,929) and the fourth highest Session 4 attendance (22,508) in SEC Tournament history.
The SEC Men's Basketball Tournament was first held at the Dome in 1995, establishing records in total attendance (250,031), single-game and championship game attendance (30,057). The 2004 event marks the ninth time Atlanta has hosted the tournament (1933, 1934, 1987, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002).
The winner of the 11-game tournament receives the SEC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The tournament seeds, conference championship and division titles are determined by the 16-game conference schedule during the regular season. Teams are seeded by their divisional finish and features Eastern Division-Western Division matchups in every game should the higher seed win each contest. Atlanta served as host of the inaugural SEC Tournament played following the 1932-33 season and did so again after the 1933-34 season. The event was held every year through 1952, with the exception of 1935. After a 26-year layoff (1953-78), the tournament was renewed in 1979. The 2004 tournament will be the 45th in league history and the 26th since the renewal.
The SEC has shown extraordinary balance in the tournament, evidenced by the fact that a different school won the first seven titles after the renewal. The event has helped set the stage for SEC teams in the NCAA Tournament, as 19 of the last 24 tournament champions have advanced to at least the Sweet 16 with three of the last eight going on to win the national championship. Since the renewal in 1979, the SEC Tournament Champion has failed to win at least one NCAA Tournament game only three times.
Kentucky leads the league with 24 SEC Tournament titles. Alabama is second with six, while Tennessee ranks third with four, and Mississippi State has two championship trophies. Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and former league member Georgia Tech have each won one SEC Tournament championship.
