2008 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament

2008 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament
2008 Tournament logo
Classification	Division I
Season	2007–08
Teams	12
Site	Georgia Dome and Alexander Memorial Coliseum (due to March 14 tornado) Atlanta, Georgia
Champions	Georgia (2nd title)
Winning coach	Dennis Felton (1st title)
MVP	Sundiata Gaines(Georgia)
Top scorer	Sundiata Gaines(Georgia) (69 points)
Television	Raycom/LF Sports, CBS, ESPN2
SEC Men's Basketball Tournaments ← 2007 2009 →

The 2008 SEC Men's Basketball Tournament took place on March 13–16, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. The first, quarterfinal, and semifinal rounds were televised by Raycom/LF Sports, and the SEC Championship Game was produced by CBS and televised by ESPN2. The University of Georgia, the improbable winner of the tournament, earned the Southeastern Conference's automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

The tournament was originally scheduled to be played at the Georgia Dome, but a tornado struck downtown Atlanta on the night of March 14, while the third of four quarterfinal games was in overtime. While that game was completed, SEC officials decided not to risk playing the fourth game, between the University of Kentucky and University of Georgia. That quarterfinal was subsequently postponed until Saturday morning. That game and all subsequent games were played at Alexander Memorial Coliseum on the campus of Georgia Tech, a school in the Atlantic Coast Conference (and coincidentally a former SEC member). Due to the smaller capacity, only the players' families, credentialed media, school officials and 400 fans from each school were allowed to attend the rest of the tournament.

Georgia, which had a sub-.500 record going into the tournament and had to win the title to secure an NCAA Tournament bid, was forced to play and win three games in the space of 30 hours, including two games on Saturday — the original quarterfinal game against Kentucky that was postponed by the tornado and venue change, and the subsequent semifinal game. Coincidentally, Georgia won the SEC tournament championship on the home court of its bitter rival, Georgia Tech. This was Georgia's first SEC men's basketball tournament championship since 1983.