The 2003 SEC men's basketball tournament took place on March 13–16, 2003 in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

at the

Louisiana Superdome Caesars Superdome (originally Louisiana Superdome and formerly Mercedes-Benz Superdome), commonly known as the Superdome, is a domed multi-purpose stadium in the Southern United States, southern United States, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. ...

. Georgia did not participate; it had pulled out of the postseason as NCAA violations by coach

Jim Harrick James Richard Harrick (born July 25, 1938) is an American former basketball coach. He was the head coach at UCLA, Pepperdine University, the University of Rhode Island and the University of Georgia over a combined total of 23 seasons. During the ...

were emerging. As shown in the bracket below, the designated berth for the Eastern division's sixth-seeded team was instead given to a Western division team, while the designated berth for the Western division's sixth-seeded team was left vacant.

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

won the tournament and received the SEC's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by beating

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, United States. It is classified among "R ...

on March 16, 2003.

Bracket

References

{{2003 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament navbox SEC men's basketball tournament - 2003 in sports in Louisiana Basketball competitions in New Orleans College basketball tournaments in Louisiana 2000s in New Orleans