Their SEC brethren cheer the Tennessee men's surprising No. 2 NCAA tournament seed -- not that they all understand it.

"That one stood out more than anything else in the bracket,'' Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said Monday.

The Vols are the SEC's highest seed, despite winning neither the regular-season title nor the conference tournament and losing four of their past six games.

Florida, the SEC tourney champ, got a No. 3 seed and regular-season champ LSU a No. 4.

LSU coach John Brady would seem to have the most legitimate gripe. And while he does gripe (politely) it's not about the Vols.

"I'm happy for Tennessee,'' said Brady, whose Tigers play 13-seed Iona in Jacksonville. "I'm happy for the league to have a No. 2 seed.

"My only response is we go 14-2 and win the league outright by two games, we beat Tennessee (by) 14 in head-to-head; and if Tennessee is a two seed, which I don't begrudge, with our strength of schedule and RPI, I would have thought we'd at least be a three.''

Florida got swept by the Vols, thus coach Billy Donovan should be content with the assignments. He is.

"I personally feel like Tennessee earned it,'' Donovan said.

"People may point to the fact that Tennessee slipped a little coming down the home stretch. You know what? We lost three in a row.''

Arkansas joins the Vols in returning to the bracket after a four-year absence.

"The way the league ended,'' said coach Stan Heath, "with LSU being the outright champion and Florida being the (tournament) champion, I would normally assume one of those two would grab that kind of seed, especially with Tennessee having the early (SEC tournament) loss.

"But when we're all through beating up on each other, it's important to pull for all the teams in the league. If they're fortunate enough to grab a two seed, hats off to 'em.''

Kentucky coach Tubby Smith dubbed the SEC East champ Vols worthy.

"A team who wins our division should be a two seed,'' said Smith.

UT coach Bruce Pearl is as surprised as anyone. But he gained insight when the selection committee visited with the national coaches convention a couple of years ago and explained the process.

"If you're a three seed,'' Pearl said, "you could very easily be a four or a two. There are circumstances, variables, that could change the equation that much.''

In the end, it came down to strength of schedule, RPI and the fact that the Vols dominated the SEC East, the stronger of the two divisions.

Tennessee was No. 6 in both the final RPI and schedule strength.

LSU was 13th in both categories. Florida was 15th in the RPI, only 66th in schedule strength.

Kentucky's No. 41 RPI gives the East three of the four top teams in the league.

South Carolina, Vanderbilt and Georgia all ranked significantly higher than the bottom three West teams.

The Vols went 9-1 against the East in the regular season, winning on the road at all five opponents.

They were 4-4 against top-50 RPI teams, 10-7 against top-100 and 16-7 against top 150.

Only two opponents ended up in the bottom 100.

"Those are the factors that allowed us to move down a line or two,'' said Pearl.

Judging from the final RPI, there was little moving.

The four No. 1 seeds rank 1-4 in the RPI. Three of the No. 2 seeds fall into the next four RPI slots -- Ohio State (5), UT (6) and Texas (8). The only deviance was UCLA (10) jumping past Iowa (7).

"If they're going to go by the RPI,'' said Donovan, "I think Tennessee is very deserving of a two seed.''