Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images
By Chris Marler
It was a wild Saturday in the SEC with several big games on the docket. There were some instant classics and incredible comebacks throughout the day as the conference picture continues to become clearer heading into March.
Time for Change in Baton Rouge
The Matt McMahon experiment has gone on way too long. It’s not that LSU is bad, and it’s not that they aren’t winning games. It’s the way they’re losing games.
LSU was facing an uphill battle in trying to compete in the NIL era in this league no matter what. Even with pouring more resources and several million dollars more into the program they were still in the bottom 25 percent of the league in NIL spending. The roster is much improved from last season, but they are still a really bad basketball team.
On Saturday, they hosted Georgia, and despite being 2-7 in the SEC this season they were only a 1.5 point underdog. They scored 31 points in the first ten minutes and jumped out to a 31-16 lead. They somehow managed to trail at halftime by eight, 45-37. Things didn’t get better in the second half, and at one point the Tigers missed 16 straight three pointers.
I have no words for that.
Georgia Overcomes 15-Point Deficit for 83-71 Win at LSU
UGA took an early punch before 23 from Kanon Catchings and a strong defensive performance led to a win
“We settled in and probably played as good of a 30 minutes collectively, defensively, as we’ve played all year.” pic.twitter.com/liPYDl5o2N
— Graham Coffey (@GrahamCoffeyDC) February 8, 2026
Instant Classic Iron Bowl
It was really odd to see neither Alabama or Auburn ranked in the Iron Bowl of Basketball, but rankings usually don’t matter when those two teams play each other. That was certainly the case on Saturday.
The most either team led was nine points all game and just six points in the second half. It was a back and forth battle all game that once again came down to the wire. Ultimately, Alabama turned things around in the second half after giving up nine turnovers in the first half and somehow attempting less threes than Auburn in the first 20 minutes. That was especially astounding since they led the conference in three point attempts and had 48 last game alone.
The stars for each team were incredible. Labaron Philon and Tahaad Pettiford each had 25 points for their teams, and former Auburn guard Aden Holloway had 15 points for Alabama.
Aden Holloway taking over down the stretch at the place he used to call home
pic.twitter.com/fFW4oPEQtM— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) February 7, 2026
Texas A&M finally played someone
The Aggies were 7-1 but hadn’t really beaten anyone great on the season. This week they played Alabama and Florida and lost both. The loss to Florida shouldn’t have been a huge surprise considering how good the Gators are playing right now. The way Texas A&M lost, however, was concerning.
The Gators went to College Station and put it on the Aggies winning by 19. It was so bad they almost fought at midcourt after the game, which I can only imagine Florida would have won that, too.
Florida DESTROYS Texas A&M 86-67 in Reed Arena in front of a sold out crowd 😭🔥
Thomas Haugh: 22 PTS | 7 REB | 2 BLK
Rueben Chinyelu: 10 PTS | 15 REB | 2 BLK
Urban Klavzar: 11 PTS | 3-5 3PTFlorida is now first in the SEC & looks to be in a tier of their own 🐊 pic.twitter.com/BwE3boKpDe
— GatorScope (@GatorScope) February 8, 2026
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