# 2016–17 Southeastern Conference women's basketball season

The 2016–17 Southeastern Conference women's basketball season began with practices in October 2016, followed by the start of the 2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball season in November. Conference play started in early January 2017 and concluded in March with the 2017 SEC women's basketball tournament at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. The South Carolina Gamecocks were both regular season and tournament champions, with the Mississippi State Bulldogs as runner-up. Both teams received bids to the 2017 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament and advanced to face each other in the championship, where South Carolina claimed their first-ever national title.

## Pre-season

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

### Pre-season All-SEC teams

| Media | Coaches |
| Makayla Epps Kentucky | Epps |
| Victoria Vivians Mississippi State | Vivians |
| Alaina Coates South Carolina | Coates |
| A'ja Wilson South Carolina | Wilson |
| Diamond DeShields Tennessee | DeShields |
| | Jessica Jackson Arkansas |
| | Ronni Williams Florida |
| | Sophie Cunningham Missouri |
* 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 | 4th | 309–200 | 13–35 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| Arkansas | Jimmy Dykes | Seattle | 3rd | 30–32 | 13–19 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Auburn | Terri Williams-Flournoy | Georgetown | 5th | 214–162 | 23–38 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Florida | Amanda Butler | Charlotte | 10th | 215–143 | 66–74 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Georgia | Joni Taylor | Georgia (ass't) | 2nd | 21–9 | 9–7 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Kentucky | Matthew Mitchell | Memphis | 10th | 249–118 | 91–49 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| LSU | Nikki Fargas | UCLA | 6th | 164–93 | 40–38 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Mississippi State | Vic Schaefer | Sam Houston State | 5th | 170–155 | 32–32 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Missouri | Robin Pingeton | Illinois State | 7th | 436–246 | 27–35 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Ole Miss | Matt Insell | Kentucky | 4th | 41–44 | 11–37 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| South Carolina | Dawn Staley | Temple | 9th | 360–156 | 83–43 | 11 | 1 | 0 |
| Tennessee | Holly Warlick | Tennessee (ass't) | 5th | 108–34 | 50–14 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Texas A&M | Gary Blair | Arkansas | 14th | 717–292 | 45–19 | 22 | 2 | 1 |
| Vanderbilt | Stephanie White | Indiana | 1st | 0–0 | 0–0 | 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 |
| Alabama | AP | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Alabama | C | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Arkansas | AP | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Arkansas | C | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Auburn | AP | RV | RV | RV | 23 | RV | RV | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Auburn | C | RV | RV | RV | RV | NR | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Florida | AP | 20 | 19 | 16 | 19 | 23 | RV | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Florida | C | 24 | 23 | 20 | 23 | 25 | RV | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Georgia | AP | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Georgia | C | RV | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Kentucky | AP | 19 | 15 | 20 | 17 | 15 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 24 | RV | RV | RV | 25 | RV | NR |
| Kentucky | C | 19 | 19 | 24 | 20 | 18 | 23 | 24 | 23 | RV | NR | NR | NR | RV | NR | NR |
| LSU | AP | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | RV | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| LSU | C | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | RV | NR | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Mississippi State | AP | 10 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| Mississippi State | C | 11 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Missouri | AP | 24 | 25 | RV | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | RV | NR |
| Missouri | C | RV | RV | RV | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Ole Miss | AP | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | RV | NR | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Ole Miss | C | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| South Carolina | AP | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| South Carolina | C | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Tennessee | AP | 13 | 13 | 17 | 22 | RV | NR | RV | RV | RV | RV | NR | RV | RV | 24 | RV |
| Tennessee | C | 14 | 13 | 16 | 25 | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | 25 | 25 | RV |
| Texas A&M | AP | RV | RV | RV | 25 | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | 25 | RV | RV | RV | 23 |
| Texas A&M | C | 23 | 24 | 25 | 19 | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | 24 |
| Vanderbilt | AP | NR | NR | NR | NR | RV | RV | RV | RV | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
| Vanderbilt | C | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
Rankings source:

## Regular season
### Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.
| | Alabama | Arkansas | Auburn | Florida | Georgia | Kentucky | LSU | Mississippi State | Missouri | Ole Miss | South Carolina | Tennessee | Texas A&M | Vanderbilt |
| vs. Alabama | – | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| vs. Arkansas | 0–1 | – | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. Auburn | 0–1 | 0–0 | – | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. Florida | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | – | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. Georgia | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | – | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 |
| vs. Kentucky | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | – | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. LSU | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | – | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 |
| vs. Mississippi State | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | – | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 |
| vs. Missouri | 1–0 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | – | 0–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 |
| vs. Ole Miss | 2–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | – | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–0 | 1–0 |
| vs. South Carolina | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | – | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. Tennessee | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | – | 1–0 | 0–2 |
| vs. Texas A&M | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–1 | – | 0–1 |
| vs. Vanderbilt | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | – |
| Total | 5–9 | 2–12 | 5–9 | 4–10 | 6–8 | 10–4 | 7–7 | 13–1 | 9–5 | 5–9 | 12–2 | 8–6 | 9–5 | 3–11 |

## SEC tournament

The conference tournament was held March 1 through March 5, 2017, 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, if necessary.
2017 SEC women's basketball tournament seeds and results :
| Seed | School | Conf. | Over. | Tiebreaker | First round March 1 | Second round March 2 | Quarterfinals March 3 | Semifinals March 4 | Championship March 5 |
| 1. | ‡South Carolina | 14–2 | 27–4 | | Bye | Bye | vs. #8 Georgia W, 72–48 | vs. #4 Kentucky W, 89–77 | vs. #2 Mississippi St. W, 59–49 |
| 2. | †Mississippi St. | 13–3 | 29–4 | | Bye | Bye | vs. #7 LSU W, 78–61 | vs. #6 TAMU W, 66–50 | vs. #1 South Carolina L, 49–59 |
| 3. | †Missouri | 11–5 | 21–10 | 1–1 vs. Kentucky; 1–0 vs. South Carolina | Bye | Bye | vs. #6 TAMU L, 48–62 | | |
| 4. | †Kentucky | 11–5 | 21–10 | 1–1 vs. Missouri; 0–1 vs. South Carolina | Bye | Bye | vs. #12 Alabama W, 65–55 | vs. #1 South Carolina L, 77–89 | |
| 5. | #Tennessee | 10–6 | 19–11 | | Bye | vs. #12 Alabama L, 64–72 | | | |
| 6. | #Texas A&M | 9–7 | 21–11 | | Bye | vs. #11 Florida W, 67–48 | vs. #3 Missouri W, 62–48 | vs. #2 Mississippi St. L, 50–66 | |
| 7. | #LSU | 8–8 | 20–11 | | Bye | vs. #10 Ole Miss W, 65–49 | vs. #2 Mississippi St. L, 61–78 | | |
| 8. | #Georgia | 7–9 | 16–16 | 1–0 vs. Auburn | Bye | vs. #9 Auburn W, 56–52 | vs. #1 South Carolina L, 48–72 | | |
| 9. | #Auburn | 7–9 | 17–14 | 0–1 vs. Georgia | Bye | vs. #8 Georgia L, 52–56 | | | |
| 10. | #Ole Miss | 6–10 | 17–13 | | Bye | vs. #7 LSU L, 49–65 | | | |
| 11. | Florida | 5–11 | 16–15 | 1–0 vs. Alabama | vs. #14 Arkansas W, 71–61 | vs. #11 TAMU L, 48–67 | | | |
| 12. | Alabama | 5–11 | 19–13 | 0–1 vs. Florida | vs. #13 Vanderbilt W, 77–57 | vs. #5 Tennessee W, 74–62 | vs. #4 Kentucky L, 55–65 | | |
| 13. | Vanderbilt | 4–12 | 14–16 | | vs. #12 Alabama L, 57–77 | | | | |
| 14. | Arkansas | 2–14 | 13–17 | | vs. #11 Florida L, 61–71 | | | | |
| ‡ – 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 SEC tournament. ||||||||||

## Postseason
### NCAA Division I Women's Basketball tournament

| Seed | Bracket | School | First round | Second round | Sweet 16 | Elite 8 | Final Four | Championship |
| 1 | Stockton | South Carolina | #16 UNC Asheville, W 90–40 | #8 Arizona State, W 71–68 | #12 Quinnipiac, W 100–58 | #3 Florida State, W 71–64 | #2L Stanford, W 62–53 | #2O Mississippi State, W 67–55 |
| 2 | Oklahoma | Mississippi State | #15 Troy, W 110–69 | #7 DePaul, W 93–71 | #3 Washington, W 75–64 | #1 Baylor, W 94–85$^{OT}$ | #1B Connecticut, W 66–64$^{OT}$ | #1S South Carolina, L 55–67 |
| 4 | Lexington | Kentucky | #13 Belmont, W 73–70 | #5 Ohio State, L 68–82 | | | | |
| 5 | Bridgeport | Texas A&M | #12 Penn, W 63–61 | #4 UCLA, L 43–75 | | | | |
| 5 | Oklahoma | Tennessee | #12 Dayton, W 66–57 | #4 Louisville, L 64–75 | | | | |
| 6 | Stockton | Missouri | #11 South Florida, W 66–64 | #3 Florida State, L 55–77 | | | | |
| 8 | Oklahoma | LSU | #9 California, L 52–55 | | | | | |
| 11 | Lexington | Auburn | #6 North Carolina State, L 48–62 | | | | | |
| # Bids: 8 | W-L (%): | TOTAL: 15–7 .682 | 6–2 .750 | 2–4 .333 | 2–0 1.000 | 2–0 1.000 | 2–0 1.000 | 1–1 .500 |

### Women's National Invitation tournament

| School | First round | Second round | Third round | Quarterfinals |
| Alabama | Mercer, W 81–57 | Little Rock, W 55–53 | Tulane, W 72–64 | Georgia Tech, L 66–76 |
| Ole Miss | Grambling State, L 75–78 | | | |
| W-L (%) | 1–1 .500 | 1–0 1.000 | 1–0 1.000 | 0–1 .000 |

## WNBA draft

The 2017 WNBA draft was held on April 13 in New York City. Eight women from the SEC were selected. This is the most draft picks for the SEC since 2008 (10), and the seventh time at least eight players from the league have been drafted. It is the sixth time that the SEC has had at least four first round picks.

### SEC draftees

| Pick | Player | WNBA Team | School |
| 2 | Alaina Coates | Chicago Sky | South Carolina |
| 3 | Evelyn Akhator | Dallas Wings | Kentucky |
| 4 | Allisha Gray | Dallas Wings | South Carolina |
| 10 | Kaela Davis | Dallas Wings | South Carolina |
| 19 | Jordan Reynolds | Atlanta Dream | Tennessee |
| 22 | Ronni Williams | Indiana Fever | Florida |
| 25 | Schaquilla Nunn | San Antonio Stars | Tennessee |
| 33 | Makayla Epps | Chicago Sky | Kentucky |

#### Footnotes

* ↑ The Mystics traded this pick to Chicago.
* ↑ The Wings received this pick and the 23rd pick from the Los Angeles Sparks in exchange for another player and the 11th pick.
* ↑ The Wings received this pick from the New York Liberty in an exchange.
* ↑ The Dream traded this pick to Indiana.