Since I didn’t do my SEC men’s basketball power rankings for the site last week due to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, there are some major shakeups this week.
In the past 2 weeks, Texas A&M has been red hot. Florida has turned things around. LSU and Arkansas have fallen on hard times. Tennessee lost to Kentucky.
There is one steady presence, though – Alabama. The Crimson Tide continue to dominate.
So where do the 14 SEC men’s hoops teams stand this week? Here are my updated power rankings:
The Rebels have been awful this year. They’re 12th in the SEC in points per game, 11th in field goal percentage, 14th in 3-point percentage, 13th in made 3-pointers and 10th in free-throw percentage. That’s terrible. Kermit Davis’s seat is red-hot right now. The Rebels hit the road this week. On Tuesday night they visit South Carolina in a battle for last place in these power rankings. We’ll see if Ole Miss can score its first SEC win of the year in that game.
It’s looking more and more like the Gamecocks’ win in Kentucky was a total fluke. It was a nice fluke, a fun fluke for fans to watch, but a fluke nonetheless. Saturdays have not been kind to the Gamecocks, who have now lost to Tennessee (85-42) and Texas A&M (94-53) by a combined 84 points the past 2 Saturdays. The Gamecocks host Auburn this coming Saturday. Can the Tigers also win by 40+ points?
The Bulldogs went 0-for-18 from 3-point range on Saturday against Auburn in a 69-63 loss. Let that sink in – 0-for-18. In a 6-point loss. If they’d made even 2 of their 18 long-range attempts, they’d have gone to overtime. Unfortunately, it’s looking more and more like Mississippi State’s hot start in nonconference play was a bit of a fluke. This team has some major offensive flaws.
Arkansas’s loss at Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon was a horrible look for Eric Musselman’s squad. The Hogs simply let their emotions get the better of them. Then they gave up 63 points in the second half while scoring only 42 of their own. That allowed the Commodores to come back from an 8-point halftime deficit to win 97-84. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not ruling Arkansas out of making a late-season run. The Hogs struggled at the start of SEC play last year and made it to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. But things need to start shifting in a positive direction soon.
After Vanderbilt’s struggles in nonconference play, I didn’t think the Commodores had what it took to compete in the SEC. But a 3-point loss at Mizzou seems to have turned things around for Jerry Stackhouse and company. Now they’re competing in every game. Now they have a toughness about them that makes them scary to play. They’ll host Alabama on Tuesday night in an extremely difficult matchup, but a Saturday trip to Georgia should be another game the Commodores are competitive in late in the second half.
As things stand right now, LSU’s 4 losses in SEC play are to teams ranked ahead of it in these power rankings – Alabama, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Florida. However if the Tigers can’t pull off an upset this week, they’re staring down the barrel of a 1-6 start to conference action. LSU hosts No. 16 Auburn on Wednesday night and heads to Rocky Top to play No. 9 Tennessee on Saturday. That’s a brutal stretch.
Kentucky seems to have found its optimal lineup. Even with Cason Wallace battling back spasms at No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday, Wallace, Antonio Reeves, CJ Fredrick, Jacob Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe proved they’re the best lineup for the Wildcats. Unfortunately, coach John Calipari couldn’t even commit to playing those 5 together more often without hedging his comments:
Sahvir Wheeler, who missed Saturday’s game with injury, is a strong player, but Wallace’s size and ability to create in the lane (as well as create shots for himself) should have him in the lineup in crunch time over the veteran Wheeler. It’s not a good sign for the Wildcats that Calipari can’t even commit to playing the team’s top lineup together more often without saying “yes, but…” Stay tuned for more drama in Lexington!
It’s too early to panic about the Tigers, but the road woes are real. Mizzou is 2-0 in SEC play in Columbia. The Tigers are 0-3 in conference road games. One of those road losses came to rival Arkansas in Fayetteville. However, Mizzou was in that game until late in the second half. The Hogs come to CoMo on Wednesday night. A win in that matchup will do a lot to get the Tigers back on track before an elite Alabama squad visits on Saturday evening.
Mike White should be getting more buzz as a potential SEC Coach of the Year candidate. The turnaround from the Bulldogs this year has been nothing short of incredible. Last year, the Dawgs wouldn’t have been able to beat Mississippi State in Athens and win in Oxford even against a bad Ole Miss team. A real test comes Tuesday night, though, when the Bulldogs head to Lexington to play Kentucky. That’s a legitimately interesting game this season!
The Gators are on a 3-game winning streak in SEC play, and based on how they started this year (and SEC action), it has been impressive to watch. Colin Castleton finally has some help offensively. During the 3-game winning streak, 3 different Gators (Kyle Lofton, Castleton and Will Richard) have led the team in points. That’s a good sign.
This week will be a tough one for Todd Golden and company, though. First, the Gators head to Texas A&M to play a red-hot Aggies squad. Then they travel to Starkville to play a struggling, but still dangerous, Mississippi State team. Those are games the current Florida team can handle, so I’m glad I didn’t sell all my Todd Golden stock after the Gators’ rough start!
I’ve been saying for a while now that Tennessee’s lack of explosiveness on offense was going to hurt it at some point. That “some point” was on Saturday at home against a reeling Kentucky squad. The Vols shot 3-of-21 (14.3%) from 3-point range and got out-rebounded 43-23. You’re not going to win many games with those numbers. This is still obviously an elite team with an incredible defense, so don’t press the panic button just yet. But there are some major offensive flaws that need to be addressed moving forward.
I’ll admit it – heading into SEC play, I’d written the Aggies off as dead. If you’re being honest with yourselves, I’m guessing many of you did, too. Who would have thought a team with nonconference losses to Murray State, Colorado, Boise State, Memphis and Wofford would start SEC play 4-0, with wins over Florida, LSU, South Carolina and Mizzou? Not me! But Buzz Williams has this team playing an exciting brand of basketball. The Aggies will host the improving Gators on Wednesday night and will head to Kentucky on Saturday. It should be an interesting week for Texas A&M!
Wendell Green Jr. is playing some incredible basketball during SEC play for the Auburn Tigers. He scored 11 points in the final 2:15 of Saturday’s win over Mississippi State to ice Auburn’s victory:
When he’s playing his best, Auburn can beat almost anyone in the SEC. He draws so much attention from the defense and can make plays in the paint. Trips to LSU and South Carolina look manageable for the Tigers this week. If they can go 2-0 and Green continues to play well, it’ll keep the pressure on Alabama atop the SEC standings. Speaking of the Crimson Tide…
Alabama looks nearly unstoppable through the first 5 SEC games of the year. On Saturday, the Tide absolutely dominated rival LSU, beating the Tigers 106-66 in Tuscaloosa. Brandon Miller was once again a superstar, scoring 31 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. He made 7 of his 11 3-pointers, too:
As good as Miller was, though, there are 2 numbers I want to point out from the LSU beatdown – 8 turnovers and 20 offensive rebounds. When the Tide turn the ball over fewer than 10 times, they can beat anyone in the country. Jaden Bradley, Jahvon Quinerly and Mark Sears have the ball in their hands a lot, and they combined for 11 assists and 3 turnovers. That’s great.
Meanwhile, Noah Pringle had 7 rebounds, 6 of them coming on the offensive glass. You can’t give the Tide multiple shots per possession and hope to stay within 10 points. Vanderbilt and Mizzou are going to have their hands full with Alabama this week.
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And that, Tom Crean, is how to elevate a program. It's nice not residing in the cellar. Quite refreshing.
Go Dawgs.
Alabama certainly has a nice Athletic Department. Good in football and basketball.
I love this Tide Hoops team. They just look like they are having so much fun out there. So much talent and depth and they play with such a great attitude and doing whatever it takes to get the W.
Your team is made up of murderers.
Well that's objectively false as that would mean Bama wouldn't be able to have a team because they would all be in court or in prison.
Bama is made up of NBA talent, star freshmen, elite transfers, selfish players, great defenders and rebounders, and young men looking to win a championship.
TN missed some shots around the basket in the loss to Kentucky on Saturday. Normally that is not the case... TN is still going to be a team to be reckoned with in March. I hope Cal really spends some time watching tape and understands that CJ Fredrick needs more plays called to get him open looks. And yes, Wallace is better for the team when he's running the point. Looking forward to the Georgia game this week- White has done a really good job turning that program around in a short period and they're playing very well. It will be a good test.
WAYYY Too many missed "bunnies"
Ville, when the cats lost to SC at rupp I thought we would be in for a tougher game than many expected. We did miss a bunch of easy layups but the game was won by ky guarding the three. We had a few good looks but not nearly what we r used to seeing. MSU has similar length without the pedigree and I’m anxious to see if their perimeter D is anything near as good as kys was.
I don't think Auburn should be that high. They are having to scratch and claw their way to every W and the beef of the schedule is on the backend.
Agreed. They can't put together a complete game. On the one hand, you can argue that they can win in a variety of ways, on the other, they can never get all of their weapons working in the same game.
Neither do I….I would go Bama, Tennessee, Auburn/UGA, and then the rest. A&M has played some good ball recently, but man is the SEC inconsistent right now. Auburn can play some really, really ugly basketball for some long stretches. I still don’t think there is a go-to scorer on this team. Green when he takes care of the ball and distributes well is the biggest key to success for this team.
Georgia is not better than A&M. They beat Ole Miss by 4 and got smoked by Florida.
The Pearl will have them playing better soon enough. Remember it’s not as much about January as February and beyond.
I didn’t think we would make the NCAA Tourney earlier this year. We just look awful a lot. But this could be Pearl’s best coaching job so far. The team is finally learning to play their roles somewhat. As Greene goes so goes Auburn. He can be really bad at times. But he has been good at the end of games. Flannigan getting better has been huge. It’s all about being good in March. Last year we were great in the regular season and did nothing in the tourney. We will see.
Same here. Guard play has been awful, but getting better. I still think they need Traore and Westry to contribute more to make any kind of noise in March.
Mizzou has just gone cold, played their worst 2 games of the year back to back. It's better to go in a funk now than later but they can't hit open shots right now for whatever reason. Was in great position starting the week but has given away two games in a row that should have been pretty easy W's. It really puts more pressure to win at home so lets see if they can find their stroke and win at home this week.
The SEC overall is kind of blah, Bama then darn near everyone else is about even on any given night. Auburn at #2 and Arky at #11 reflects that pretty well I think.
Booch it may turn out to be the best thing to happen to them. Go in a funk now and take a couple weeks to work through it in time for the wind down to tourney time.
Brandon Fricking Miller. RTR!
He’s a good one. Not looking forward to seeing who we might use to stop him… or how many.
We suck.
The OOC schedule was poor and the W-L ratio benefited.
Absolutely, but when we beat Arkansas to start conference play and then barely lost to Kentucky, I thought we had a shot at .500 in the conference. That thought is quickly vanishing. Oh well. Best of luck to everyone else.
I'm not sure anyone is stopping Bama this year in SEC BB.
At least you have a coach who is somewhat likeable now, big improvement. :)
Auburn has a good defense, but the offense just isn't there this year. They have no consistent shooting threats. The record is good now, but the first half of the schedule is mainly against SEC cellar-dwellers. The last 12 games of the season shape up like this:
Home: TAMU, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Ole Miss, Tennessee
Away: West Virginia, Tennessee, TAMU, Vandy, Kentucky, Alabama
I don't see them getting through the home schedule unscathed, and other than maybe Vandy, I'm having a hard time seeing any wins in those home games. 6-6 seems pretty optimistic right now.
"Auburn has a good defense, but the offense just isn’t there this year. "
It's a team built around defense.
Two things: Bama is awesome, looking like a Final Four team right now (thought of course we all know anything can happen in March),
Arkansas at 11 is not wrong based on performance thus far. Hopefully Nick Smith, Jr. returns from knee management and Muss works some of his late-season magic, but neither is a sure thing.
*though
Tennessee’s missed transition layups could have been the difference. UT will be a tough opponent when they meet in Rupp.