Last year, Tennessee went undefeated and won the Southeastern Conference by five games.

That won’t happen this year.

With four games left in the regular season, seven teams still have a mathematical chance to claim a regular season championship.

In the 2010-2011 season, the Georgia women’s basketball finished third in the conference with a 10-6 record, six games out of first place.

This season, the Lady Dogs are again in third place — tied with South Carolina and Arkansas — and only two games out of first place.

After starting the season 10-0, Kentucky has lost its last two games, including a 91-54 mauling on Monday night against second place Tennessee (9-3).

Georgia head coach Andy Landers said that the tight race for the SEC this season doesn’t surprise him.

“I thought going into the year that we’d be better than we were last year [and] we were better last year than we were the year before as a conference,” Landers said. “I see that continuing really right into next year.”

Georgia junior guard Jasmine James said that in her third season in the conference, she realizes the increased importance of the Lady Dogs’ last four games.

“You should honestly look at every game from the beginning of the season as important,” James said. “But I feel like now more than at any other part of the season everybody is really realizing how important every single minute of every single game is.”

Meredith Mitchell — in her last go-round in the conference as Georgia’s only senior — refused to look beyond Thursday night’s game with South Carolina.

She did, however, say the quality of the conference does increase the Lady Dogs’ concentration.

“It’s just about being focused and taking it one game at a time,” Mitchell said. “The SEC is just such a great conference and [has] a lot of good teams, so it’s just a matter of getting wins — getting the wins you need and taking it one game at a time.”

James also said that focus will be the key as Georgia chases its first conference ring since 2001.

“I just see within us now a different level of focus and that’s really going to be good for us going down this late stretch with it being the way it is,” James said. “We need to get wins and we need to continue to play at the top of our game and I’m looking forward to keeping that going.”

With the future looking bright for the league, Landers said he likes the competition created that comes with numerous high0quality teams.

“I think you just in our league everybody seems to be getting better which is a good thing,” Landers said. “It’s going to create the kind of standings that we have now.”