Dawn Staley has won eight Southeastern Conference Tournaments

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Dawn Staley has won eight Southeastern Conference Tournaments since taking over as head coach at South Carolina in 2008.

The Southeastern Conference women’s basketball tournament is always a tough one, but this year's event promises to be more competitive than usual.

The conference had five teams in the most recent AP Top 12 poll - No. 1 Texas, No. 5 South Carolina, No. 9 LSU, No. 10 Oklahoma and No. 12 Kentucky. Seven teams were ranked in the Top 25, and that doesn't include 17-time tournament champion Tennessee.

The SEC is so competitive that the Sooners, despite their top 10 ranking, finished fifth in the conference and didn't even receive a double bye in the tournament.

“By far, the toughest. ... the toughest,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said of this year’s level of competition in the SEC tournament compared to previous seasons.

South Carolina (27-3) will be the No. 1 seed for the fourth straight season after winning a coin flip with Texas on Sunday.

Both teams finished 15-1 in conference play and split the season series with South Carolina winning 67-50 on Jan. 12 in Columbia and the Longhorns responding with a 66-62 victory in Austin on Feb. 9. A highly-anticipated rubber match could come Sunday in Greenville - if both teams are able to make it through the gauntlet that awaits.

The Gamecocks have plenty of big-game experience. They've won four of the last five SEC tournament titles and two of the last three national championships. But Staley said all of that "goes down the drain” this year given the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the conference.

“We have two teams that we didn't have to deal with last year and that is Texas and Oklahoma, and that will have an impact on the outcome. They had an impact in the regular season and now (will have an impact on) the tournament.”

Texas (29-2) enters the tournament on a 13-game winning streak and ranked first in the country for the first time in 21 years, a testament to the job head coach Vic Schaefer has done in Austin.

It helps the Longhorns have one of the best players in the country in Madison Booker, who is averaging 16 points, 6.5 points and 1.6 steals per game. With Booker leading the way, Schaefer believes the Longhorns are capable of winning out.

“We have a three-game tournament and a six-game tournament in front of us and the gauntlet that this group’s been through, there’s not going to be anything that they haven't seen," Schaefer said.