STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) – Billy Donovan sounded a lot like Urban Meyer.

Donovan, the Florida basketball coach, was preaching the gospel about the superiority of the Southeastern Conference. The speech was much the same as Meyer’s when he lobbied last fall for the Gators to have a place in the BCS title game against Ohio State.

Meyer’s team got to the big game and won the national title. Donovan won his title last season and his Gators are No. 1 again.

But the rest of the league? The SEC has only three ranked teams. Yet Donovan said it’s time the nation shows the SEC some respect as a basketball conference.

The league is “by far” the best, he said. “And it clearly does not get enough respect.”

Donovan’s logic doesn’t stray far from Meyer’s: The SEC is chock full of top teams with records that are blemished because they feed on each other.

In football, the SEC not only won a national championship but also placed nine teams in bowls.

In basketball, the Gators won the national title and conference rival LSU also made the Final Four. South Carolina even won the NIT.

Donovan, speaking after his team was nearly upset by Mississippi State last week, contends that those SEC that didn’t make the postseason are much better this year. Mississippi, Mississippi State and Auburn essentially all return five starters and Georgia has wins over formerly ranked Kentucky and LSU.

“These are teams that have really closed the gap from the teams that are supposed to be ranked and upper echelon,” Donovan said.

Yet at roughly the same time Donovan was boosting the SEC, 600 miles west in Waco, Texas, Kansas coach Bill Self was pumping up the Big 12, which has four ranked teams. Texas A&M and Kansas are in the top 10 and Oklahoma State is No. 12. Texas Tech beat A&M and Kansas within a few days. No. 22 Texas, which has been in and out of the rankings all season, has one of the best players in the country in Kevin Durant.

The league has a three-way tie – Kansas, Texas A&M and Texas – atop the standings. And Oklahoma State and Texas Tech are part of a three-way jumble in second.

“People don’t really get it nationally – our league is really good,” Self said after an 82-56 victory over Baylor. “It’s by far the best it’s been since I’ve been here.

“How many leagues in America have five teams that good? I would say there would be very few, if any.”

ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas disagrees with both coaches. He has a West Coast bias.

“I think the Pac-10 is making a pretty good case,” Bilas said. “I mean Arizona is a pretty solid team, and they’re 5-4 in the league and they’re seventh.”

Unlike Meyer, Donovan will get to test his hypothesis. College basketball features a national playoff, which helps to eliminate persistent little problems like an undefeated Boise State.

“Right now is the start of a really important part of the year,” Bilas said. “The committee says your last 10 games are important. Right now is about the time where we’re hitting the last 10 games. There may be a few teams that have built up enough brownie points that they can go on a big losing skid and be OK, but there aren’t very many of them.”

In the SEC, 10 of 12 teams could reach or exceed 20 victories by winning 80 percent of their games through March. Ten Big 12 teams are within reach. The Pac-10 has seven teams, the Big Ten eight, the Atlantic Coast Conference nine and the Big East 12 that are a long winning streak away from consideration.

The key will be which team can put together a run.

In the SEC West, that may be difficult. So far, only one of the six teams has managed a conference road win (Arkansas) and none is above .500 in league play. Arkansas and Auburn lead the West at 3-4. Ole Miss is last, but just a mid-range jumper out of first at 2-5.

“The West is just wild right now,” Arkansas coach Stan Heath said.

Donovan said the league is the deepest it has been in his 16 years as an assistant and head coach. Mississippi’s Andy Kennedy said he “jumped from the frying pan into the fire” when he moved from Cincinnati of last year’s hot league, the Big East, to the SEC.

And there’s no question the SEC draws attention, Donovan’s protestations aside.

LSU coach John Brady noted the difference between the time he was an assistant in Starkville in the 1980s and today, with Mississippi State planning to spend $45 million on an arena upgrade and separate practice facility.

“I think there’s more emphasis on basketball at every university now,” Brady said. “They’ve redone arenas or built new arenas and there’s more promotion of it. They realize you can create revenue.”

Those new facilities draw better athletes and those athletes are lifting the conference.

If only the rest of the nation would take notice.

“I don’t know if there’s any upper echelon anymore in our league,” Brady said. “Just look at the West’s record. I know RPI-wise we’re the No. 1 conference, but really it is a very, very hard conference.”

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