Might be a little early to anoint Frank's Gamecocks as a tournament team. Iowa State played very poorly.
Yep, their defense had nothing to do with that at all. It's not like they were some offensive juggernaut. They need to finish around .500 in conference to get into the tournament and that won't be a problem. If it's too early to put them in the tournament you can say the same about ISU, there is very difference in the resumes, and they guard better than Iowa State does.
They'll need at least 11-7
How do you figure? That's completely arbitrary. You can list any other school and give some mile post they have to reach. I'm guessing a power 6 school hasn't missed tournament since expansion with a 19-9 record and 10-6 in conference, with a too 40 rpi and top 30 wins. 20 wins stopped being a measure for the committee a very long time ago.
The SEC isn't that highly regarded as has been shown by the committee. They've had just one team finish the regular season ranked in the top 25 in each of the last two seasons. With Florida in the tank this season the league has lost its secondary marquee brand. There hasn't been a team with less than an 11-7/ .611 conference record make the tournament out of the SEC in the two seasons since they've went to the round robin schedule. Alabama made it in at 9-7 (.562) in 11-12. Three SEC teams — No. 1 Kentucky, No. 20 Vanderbilt and No. 25 Florida — finished the regular season ranked that year. There have been multiple instances of teams finishing 12-6 and missing the NCAA tournament out of the SEC in the last couple of years.
Edit: Perhaps the perception will be influenced by the league's strong performance in last season's NCAA tournament, but we won't find that out until later. The lack of SEC teams in the rankings this season says otherwise.
