Tom Hart previews SEC Tournament on his way to Nashville

Key notes from Tom Hart interview

• I'm thrilled to be back on-site and calling games at the SEC tournament after such a long period of cancellations. I’m excited to see everyone and everything happening like normal again. 
   
• I was courtside last year, calling the Vanderbilt and Arkansas game. I believe it was midway through the second game when my producer gets in my ear and says, "They just shut down the NBA." I unmuted my mic and interrupted my colleagues to tell them the news. I knew then there would be no way any more college tournaments would be happening. It was surreal knowing at the time it was going to be the last short period of normalcy. We decided to just celebrate the last game. 
   
• Hopefully, we continue to see the growth of things opening back up, get the College World Series back. Can you imagine college football stadiums at full capacity next year? It would be a celebration. 
   
• LSU's Cameron Thomas is that player. He knows how to score and get to the free-throw line. He is not the most efficient offensive player, but if you want to see a guy take over a game, he is that guy. 
   
• Arkansas is the hottest team out right now. They just know how to play ball and have a lot of depth to move around. Alabama is a great team, but Arkansas has been hot at the right time. What makes this tournament so hard to predict is that we've never had a tournament like this. We don't really know the motivation of these teams. Some of these teams have bigger goals than just the SEC tournament. I think we'll have a good sense of where everyone is by Friday. 
   
• Another wildcard out there is Jeremiah Tillman from Missouri. He has so much confidence, and I think he is the most improved player in the conference. Mizzou has some of the most impressive wins but also some bad losses. It will be interesting to see which Missouri team shows up. 
   
• I'm so excited to see what Buzz Williams has in store for the tournament. I've never heard of a coach reinventing his offensive and defensive philosophies in the middle of the season. This isn't the same A&M team we saw earlier this year. They are totally different. We'll see if they can play themselves into the conversation tomorrow night.