By Chris Marler
SEC Basketball is off to a ridiculously good start in January, as nine teams are ranked in the top 25, 14 of the 16 teams are in the top 60 of NET rankings, and 12 teams are projected to make the NCAA Tournament.
The Starting Five
- Auburn
Auburn has been without the best player in the country, Johni Broome, for two games. Despite his absence, the team secured back-to-back victories against ranked opponents. Auburn has a big matchup this weekend with Tennessee coming to town, but the emergence of Tahaad Pettiford and Chad Baker-Mazara has been awesome to watch. Auburn is the only team in the SEC that’s undefeated in SEC play and last week they had the No. 3 highest KenPom rating in the country—in the last 25 years.
- Alabama
I wanted to put Florida here after Alabama lost at home to Ole Miss. However, roughly two hours after that loss, Florida lost at home to unranked Missouri. Alabama stays at No. 2 partially because of that and partially because of their very impressive bounce back win at Kentucky. Alabama continues to lead the country in scoring offense at 90.2 points per game. The loss at home to Ole Miss was concerning, but I wouldn’t expect many showings like that from here on out. Alabama gets Vanderbilt at home in the midweek game and LSU on Saturday. That should be two wins. If it’s not, there’s cause for concern.
- Florida
I don’t feel great about putting Florida ahead of Kentucky, considering they lost to them just two weeks ago. Plus, they are coming off a loss at home to Missouri. However, here’s my take: Florida has only two losses all season, and they’re by a combined seven points. They’re also 7-2 this season against Quad 1 and Quad 2 teams. Only three of their 16 wins have been by single digits, and their 30-point win over Tennessee ranks as one of the top five wins in the conference this season.
- Ole Miss
I don’t think Ole Miss will end up as the No. 4 team in the SEC or necessarily challenge for a No. 1-3 seed come tournament time. However, they are 4-1 in the conference and their only loss was by three points in overtime at Mississippi State. I have Ole Miss at No. 4 for two reasons. First, they arguably have the most impressive win of the season, beating Alabama on the road. Remember, home teams are 150-18 in the SEC this season.
The second reason? Honestly, I’m not sure if I even know what I’m doing at this point. The league is so competitive that weighing wins and losses against each other has become incredibly challenging.
- Kentucky
I wanted to put Kentucky at No. 3 regardless of their home loss to Alabama. When you score 97 points at home you have to feel like you have a pretty good chance to win. The issue I have with Kentucky is that their losses are so damning. Two of their four losses were against unranked teams, including a 20-point loss to 10-8 Ohio State. They’ve already lost two games in SEC play and one of those was by double digits to Georgia. They can score with anyone, but I sometimes wonder if they can stop anyone.
Best of the Rest
- Tennessee
- Mississippi State
- Texas A&M
- Georgia
- Missouri
- Vanderbilt
- Oklahoma
- LSU
- Arkansas
- Texas
- South Carolina
