SEC Basketball Power Rankings: 4th Edition

Power Rankings

1. No.14 Auburn: 7-0 (-)
2. No.8 Kentucky: 6-1 (-)
3. No.21 Tennessee: 6-1: (-)
4. LSU: 5-2 (-)
5. Arkansas: 7-0 (+2)
6. Florida: 6-2 (-1)
7. Mississippi State: 6-1 (+1)
8. Ole Miss: 5-2 (-2)
9. Georgia: 5-2 (-)
10. Alabama: 3-4 (+2)
11. Vanderbilt: 5-2 (-1)
12. Missouri: 4-3 (+1)
13. South Carolina: 5-3 (+1)
14. Texas A&M: 3-4 (-3)

Top Tier (1-5)

Mostly nothing has changed since last week. The top four stay the same. Auburn and Tennessee have solidified their places in the top 25 after starting the season outside.

The surprise pick this week is Arkansas. The Razorbacks are tied for the most wins in the SEC to this point in the season. They’ve dominated every game outside of the last two weeks. The road win in overtime against Georgia Tech is still a good win and the win against NKU only got close after the Razorbacks had been winning the entire second half.

Mid Tier (6-9)

Mississippi State won 81-56 at Coastal Carolina. (Photo by hailstate.com).

The Razorbacks jump Florida to enter the top tier this week. The Gators struggled mightily to win against a now 2-4 Marshall team at home. The Gators weren’t able to take a convincing lead until late in the second half after trailing for a good chunk of the game.

Mississippi State moves up in the rankings. They’ve put together a good season and left little doubt in each win except one.

Ole Miss got massacred by Oklahoma State in the championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off. The Rebels got outscored by twice as many points as they put up, No player scored in double figures. The 78-37 loss was reminiscent of last year’s tournament blowout at the hands of Oklahoma.

Bottom Tier (10-14)

Alabama rises to the top of the bottom tier largely due to a horrendous week from the bottom of the league. The hard schedule hasn’t hurt the Tide either. The last two losses are against good teams in UNC and Iowa State but they’ve proven they won’t struggle with all the lesser opponents with the 83-68 win against USM.

Vanderbilt drops just one after a reasonable loss to a 6-1 Tulsa team. Missouri didn’t have a game and moves up due to some bad performances from the bottom two teams.

South Carolina moves up one spot after a win against George Washington. Texas A&M had a orrendous week. The losses against Harvard, Temple and Fairfield leave no doubt that they bring up the rear of the SEC. Not only that, the Aggies were unable to scored 62 once in those games and were held to less than 52 in the other two losses.

Outlook

Tennessee’s 72-69 win over VCU is their second win over a ranked opponent this season. (Photo by knoxnews.com).

Arkansas is one of the most exciting teams at the moment. They’ve strung together a great start to the season. The Razorback’s schedule gets interesting starting December 14th against Tulsa with a game at Indiana later in the month.

No.24 Butler gets a pair of games at Ole Miss and then at home against Florida. The outcome of those games could have big implications going into next week.

At present time the conference has put together a good argument for maybe eight or nine teams to be in the NCAA hunt. There’s still work left to do for the bubble teams but some nice consistency from Auburn and Tennessee has the SEC in a good place closing out the non conference schedule.

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