# 2021–22 Southeastern Conference women's basketball season

The 2021–22 SEC women's basketball season began in December 2021, following the start of the 2021–22 NCAA Division I women's basketball season in November. Conference play concluded in February, followed by the 2022 SEC women's basketball tournament at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, in March. This was the 40th season since the SEC first sponsored women's sports, including basketball, in the 1982–83 school year.
In August 2021, the SEC announced policies regarding game cancellations related to COVID-19. In the event a team is unable to begin or complete a regular season conference event, due to the unavailability of participants (from COVID-19, injuries or other reasons), that team will forfeit the contest and will be assigned a loss in the conference standings. The opposing team that is ready to play will be credited with a win in the standings. Both teams will be deemed to have played and completed the contest for purpose of the standings. If both teams are unable to compete, both teams shall be deemed to have forfeited the game, with a loss assigned to both teams and applied to the standings.

## Pre-season
### Pre-season team predictions

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

### Pre-season All-SEC teams

| Media | Coaches |
| Rhyne Howard, Kentucky | Howard |
| | Aliyah Boston, South Carolina |
| | Lavender Briggs, Florida |
| | Shakira Austin, Ole Miss |
| | Khayla Pointer, LSU |
| | Rickea Jackson, Mississippi State |
| | Rae Burrell, Tennessee |
| | Zia Cooke, South Carolina |
* Coaches select eight players
* Player in bold is choice 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 | 9th | 133–118 | 46–82 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Arkansas | Mike Neighbors | Washington | 5th | 78–50 | 28–35 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Auburn | Johnnie Harris | Texas (associate HC) | 1st | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Florida | Kelly Rae Finley | Florida (asst.) | 1st | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Georgia | Joni Taylor | Georgia (asst.) | 7th | 119–65 | 54–40 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Kentucky | Kyra Elzy | Kentucky (associate HC) | 2nd | 18–9 | 9–6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| LSU | Kim Mulkey | Baylor | 1st | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mississippi State | Doug Novak | Mississippi State (asst.) | 1st | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Missouri | Robin Pingeton | Illinois State | 12th | 189–151 | 69–73 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Ole Miss | Yolett McPhee-McCuin | Jacksonville | 4th | 31–57 | 7–39 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| South Carolina | Dawn Staley | Temple | 13th | 331–103 | 152–54 | 9 | 3 | 1 |
| Tennessee | Kellie Harper | Missouri State | 3rd | 38–18 | 19–10 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Texas A&M | Gary Blair | Arkansas | 19th | 430–170 | 100–42 | 15 | 1 | 1 |
| Vanderbilt | Shea Ralph | UConn (asst.) | 1st | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

## Postseason
### SEC tournament

* March 2–6 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Teams are seeded by conference record, with ties broken by record between the tied teams followed by record against the regular-season champion.
2022 SEC women's basketball tournament seeds and results :
| Seed | School | Conf. | Over. | Tiebreaker | First Round March 2 | Second Round March 3 | Quarterfinals March 4 | Semifinals March 5 | Championship March 6 |
| 1 | ‡†South Carolina | 15–1 | 27–1 | | Bye | Bye | vs. #8 Arkansas W, 76–54 | vs. #4 Ole Miss W, 61–51 | vs. #7 Kentucky L, 62–64 |
| 2 | †LSU | 13–3 | 25–4 | | Bye | Bye | vs. #7 Kentucky L, 63–78 | | |
| 3 | †Tennessee | 11–5 | 22–7 | | Bye | Bye | vs. #11 Alabama W, 74–59 | vs. #7 Kentucky L, 74–83 | |
| 4 | †Ole Miss | 10–6 | 22–7 | 1–0 vs. UF | Bye | Bye | vs. #5 Florida W, 70–60 | vs. #1 South Carolina L, 51–61 | |
| 5 | #Florida | 10–6 | 21–9 | 0–1 vs. OM | Bye | vs. #13 Vanderbilt W, 53–52 | vs. #4 Ole Miss L, 60–70 | | |
| 6 | #Georgia | 9–7 | 20–9 | | Bye | vs. #11 Alabama L, 62–74 | | | |
| 7 | #Kentucky | 8–8 | 16–11 | | Bye | vs. #10 Mississippi State W, 88–67 | vs. #2 LSU W, 78–63 | vs. #3 Tennessee W, 83–74 | vs. #1 South Carolina W, 64–62 |
| 8 | #Arkansas | 7–9 | 18–12 | 2–0 vs. MU | Bye | vs. #9 Missouri W, 61–52 | vs. #1 South Carolina L, 54–76 | | |
| 9 | #Missouri | 7–9 | 18–12 | 0–2 vs. ARK | Bye | vs. #8 Arkansas L, 52–61 | | | |
| 10 | #Mississippi State | 6–10 | 15–14 | 1–0 vs. ALA | Bye | vs. #7 Kentucky L, 67–88 | | | |
| 11 | Alabama | 6–10 | 17–12 | 0–1 vs. MSU | vs. #14 Auburn W, 75–68 | vs. #6 Georgia W, 74–62 | vs. #3 Tennessee L, 59–74 | | |
| 12 | Texas A&M | 4–12 | 14–15 | 1–0 vs. VU | vs. #13 Vanderbilt L, 69–85 | | | | |
| 13 | Vanderbilt | 4–12 | 14–18 | 0–1 vs. TAMU | vs. #12 Texas A&M W, 85–69 | vs. #5 Florida L, 52–53 | | | |
| 14 | Auburn | 2–14 | 10–18 | | vs. #11 Alabama L, 68–75 | | | | |
| ‡ – 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

* March 16 – April 3
| Seed | Bracket | School | First round | Second round | Sweet 16 | Elite 8 | Final Four | Championship |
| 1 | Greensboro | South Carolina | vs. #16 Howard W, 79–21 | vs. #8 Miami W, 49–23 | vs. #5 North Carolina W, 69–61 | vs. #10 Creighton W, 80–50 | vs. #1W Louisville W, 72–59 | vs. #2B UConn W, 64–49 |
| 3 | Spokane | LSU | vs. #14 Jackson State W, 83–77 | vs. #6 Iowa State L, 64–79 | | | | |
| 4 | Wichita | Tennessee | vs. #13 Buffalo W, 80–67 | vs. #12 Belmont W, 70–67 | vs. #1 Louisville L, 64–76 | | | |
| 6 | Greensboro | Georgia | vs. #11 Dayton W, 70–54 | vs. #3 Iowa State L, 44–67 | | | | |
| 6 | Bridgeport | Kentucky | vs. #11 Princeton L, 62–69 | | | | | |
| 7 | Wichita | Ole Miss | vs. #10 South Dakota L, 61–75 | | | | | |
| 10 | Bridgeport | Florida | vs. #7 UCF L, 52–69 | | | | | |
| 10 | Spokane | Arkansas | vs. #7 Utah L, 69–92 | | | | | |
| # Bids: 8 | W-L (%): | TOTAL: 10–7 (.588) | 4–4 (.500) | 2–2 (.500) | 1–1 (.500) | 1–0 (1.000) | 1–0 (1.000) | 1–0 (1.000) |

### Women's National Invitation Tournament

* March 16 – April 1
| School | First round March 16 | Second round March 20 | Third round March 24 | Quarterfinals March 27 |
| Alabama | vs. Troy W, 82–79 | vs. Tulane W, 81–77 | vs. Houston W, 79–64 | vs. South Dakota State L, 73–78 |
| Missouri | vs. Drake L, 78–83$^{OT}$ | | | |
| Vanderbilt | vs. Murray State W, 73–47 | vs. Liberty W, 71–45 | vs. Middle Tennessee State L, 53–55 | |