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

Pre-season All-SEC teams

MediaCoaches
Makayla Epps KentuckyEpps
Victoria Vivians Mississippi StateVivians
Alaina Coates South CarolinaCoates
A'ja Wilson South CarolinaWilson
Diamond DeShields TennesseeDeShields
Jessica Jackson Arkansas
Ronni Williams Florida
Sophie Cunningham Missouri

Note: Stats shown are before the beginning of the season. Overall and SEC records are from time at current school.
TeamHead coachPrevious jobSeasons at schoolOverall recordSEC recordNCAA TournamentsNCAA Final FoursNCAA Championships
AlabamaKristy CurryTexas Tech4th309–20013–35910
ArkansasJimmy DykesSeattle3rd30–3213–19100
AuburnTerri Williams-FlournoyGeorgetown5th214–16223–38400
FloridaAmanda ButlerCharlotte10th215–14366–74400
GeorgiaJoni TaylorGeorgia 2nd21–99–7100
KentuckyMatthew MitchellMemphis10th249–11891–49700
LSUNikki FargasUCLA6th164–9340–38600
Mississippi StateVic SchaeferSam Houston State5th170–15532–32200
MissouriRobin PingetonIllinois State7th436–24627–35300
Ole MissMatt InsellKentucky4th41–4411–37000
South CarolinaDawn StaleyTemple9th360–15683–431110
TennesseeHolly WarlickTennessee 5th108–3450–14400
Texas A&MGary BlairArkansas14th717–29245–192221
VanderbiltStephanie WhiteIndiana1st0–00–0000

Weekly rankings

Rankings source:

Regular season

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

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.

Postseason

NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament

SeedBracketSchoolFirst RoundSecond RoundSweet 16Elite 8Final FourChampionship
1StocktonSouth 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
2OklahomaMississippi State#15 Troy, W 110–69#7 DePaul, W 93–71#3 Washington, W 75–64#1 Baylor, W 94–85OT#1B Connecticut, W 66–64OT#1S South Carolina, L 55–67
4LexingtonKentucky#13 Belmont, W 73–70#5 Ohio State, L 68–82
5BridgeportTexas A&M#12 Penn, W 63–61#4 UCLA, L 43–75
5OklahomaTennessee#12 Dayton, W 66–57#4 Louisville, L 64–75
6StocktonMissouri#11 South Florida, W 66–64#3 Florida State, L 55–77
8OklahomaLSU#9 California, L 52–55
11LexingtonAuburn#6 North Carolina State, L 48–62
# Bids: 8W-L :TOTAL: 15–7 6–2 2–4 2–0 2–0 2–0 1–1

Women's National Invitation Tournament

SchoolFirst RoundSecond RoundThird RoundQuarterfinals
AlabamaMercer, W 81–57Little Rock, W 55–53Tulane, W 72–64Georgia Tech, L 66–76
Ole MissGrambling State, L 75–78
W-L 1–1 1–0 1–0 0–1

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, 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

;Footnotes