This week in SEC Basketball showcased #SECbasketballfever at its finest. Let’s break it down.
Welcome to the first edition of the weekly SEC basketball power rankings. These rankings will be based on how teams are faring currently in conference play, as well as how they have preformed throughout the season. Let’s start at 14, because counting down is always more fun.
14 Missouri Tigers 8-15 Overall (1-9 Conf)
Mizzou hasn’t won a game since early January and I can’t imagine that streak ending anytime soon. They take the cake for the worst team in the league for the 2nd year in a row. It will be interesting to see how much time they will give Kim Anderson, but it’s pretty clear to me he is in over his head. Of course, former Coach Frank Haith didn’t do the program any favors before he left town.
13 Auburn Tigers 9-13 Overall (3-7 Conf)
Auburn is still suffering from it’s hangover after upsetting Kentucky a few weeks ago as they have lost 5 straight since then. At this point Auburn looks like a circus, getting very inconsistent play from the likes of guard Kareem Canty and big man Cinmeon Bowers.
12 Mississippi St Bulldogs 9-13 Overall (2-9 Conf)
While the record won’t show it, MSU has been pretty respectable in alot of their SEC games this year, losing 5 of those games by 5 points or less. Coach Howland’s team has experienced some growing pains this season, but has something to build on with freshman guards Malik Newman and Quinndary Weatherspoon.
11 Alabama Crimson Tide 13-9 Overall (4-6 Conf)
The Crimson Tide are on a 2 game winning streak after a slow conference start of 2-6. Retin Obasohan is the classic good player on a bad team and the emergence of Riley Norris is something for the Tide to build on for the future. With a solid RPI and some nice non conference wins against the likes of Wichita St. and Notre Dame, Tide fans can still hold out hope for some sort of post season play but they’ll have to start making a run here quick.
10 Tennessee Volunteers 11-12 Overall (4-6 Conf)
The Vols captured #SECBasketballfever at it’s finest this week. On Tuesday night, they overcame a double digit deficit to defeat Kentucky at home in an upset. On Saturday they looked like a totally different team against Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena as they were mauled and were never really in the game. So go the highs and lows of this conference all in one week. Kevin Punter continues to put on a show each time out, continuing to show he is one of the conferences best scorers.
9 Vanderbilt Commodores 13-10 Overall (5-5 Conf)
Tick tock, tick tock. That’s what I think everytime I watch Vandy play. Clearly one of the top teams talent wise in the league, they just never have been able to get it together. While injuries to Luke Kornet and Matthew Fisher-Davis got the team off track at the start of conference play, this team has got to get it together if they want to have a chance to make the tournament this year. Easily the biggest disappointment in the league this year. One has to wonder about Kevin Stallings job security if Vandy where to miss the tournament again this year, which would be the 4th year in a row.
8 Ole Miss Rebels 15-8 Overall (5-5 Conf)
Ole Miss hung in there this past week with Stephan Moody banged up and without the services of their best big man Sebastian Saiz going 2-0 in SEC play. Moody may be the most fun player to watch in the conference and Saiz should return sometime this week after sustaining an eye injury a few weeks back. Saiz may be the most under appreciated player in the league.
7 Arkansas Razorbacks 12-11 Overall (5-5 Conf)
The Hogs continue to hang tough after a brutal first half of the SEC schedule. The Razorbacks get a much easier slate of games down the stretch giving them an opportunity to make a move for some sort of postseason play if they can rack up some wins. How players like Jimmy Whitt, Anton Beard and Trey Thompson emerge and step up may end up being the difference on if the Hogs can get into postseason play or not.
6 Georgia Bulldogs 13-8 Overall (6-4 Conf)
UGA went 2-0 this past week, as guard JJ Frazier has been on fire the last couple of games. Forward Yante Maten has turned into one of the conferences most improved players and one of the better bigs in the league. They’ll have a tough test as they head to Rupp arena this week.
5 Florida Gators 15-8 Overall (6-4 Conf)
Florida had looked great ever since an early conference loss to Tennessee in early January until Kentucky put on a clinic against them this past Saturday. The Gators look like a team that can make some serious noise with do it all forward Dorian Finney-Smith and a group of guards who are currently playing their best basketball. This is a team who could move up in the rankings in the coming weeks.
4 Texas A&M Aggies 18-5 Overall (7-3 Conf)
Even with a big out of conference win against Iowa St. I’ve had to move them down here as the Aggies have struggled in SEC play lately losing their last 3 games. While I like this team and believe they end up with one of the top seeds in the league they’ll need to get back on track this week and it won’t be easy with two road games against Alabama and LSU coming up.
More razorbacks: Bobby Portis in his first commercial as a Chicago Bull
3 South Carolina Gamecocks 20-3 Overall (7-3 Conf)
The biggest shocker of the weekend wasn’t only that the Gamecocks beat one of the leagues best in Texas A&M, but they fact that they did it on the road! The Gamecocks were 1-3 on the road going into this game only beating a banged up Ole Miss team in OT a few weeks back. If this team has figured out their road woes, look out. They could end up being the top 1 or 2 seeds in the league. The team is lead by senior forward Michael Carrera (it seems like this guy has played for the South Carolina for 7 or 8 years doesn’t it?) and do it all guard Sindarius Thornwell.
2 LSU Tigers 15-8 Overall (8-2 Conf)
Can we trust LSU yet? Hmm…maybe? While the 8-2 conference record is impressive, 6 of the 8 wins were against teams with .500 or below records in conference play and we know how ridciously disappointing this team was in non conference play. While at this point we all know about Ben Simmons and what he can do, it seemed LSU really took a step forward when Craig Victor was eligible to play in late December. To take another step they’ll likely need guys like Keith Hornsby, Josh Gray and Jayln Patterson to get on the right page as well. The slate coming up won’t be easy (both South Carolina and Texas A&M this week) and we’ll know more about the Tigers after this weeks games.
1 Kentucky Wildcats 17-6 Overall (7-3 in Conf)
Do I feel good about putting Kentucky here? Nah, not really. Kind of by default. However, if you do look at the Tennessee game as a results of #SECbasketballfever that really can never be explained, the Wildcats have beat their last four SEC basketball opponents points by an average of 21.5 points as well as playing Kansas to overtime in Phog Allen. Tyler Ulis may end up being the SEC player of the year if he keeps up his current production and Jamal Murrary is a scoring machine. However can the cats find a big to give them consistent production? We’ll see.
More razorbacks: Hogs vs Vols: Recap of Arkansas Win
That it for this week as we enter what looks to be another exciting week of SEC basketball that I’m sure will cause plenty of movements in the rankings!