By Chris Marler
With March Madness fast approaching, the SEC basketball race is heating up, bringing high-stakes matchups, unexpected struggles, and a growing trend of road upsets. Tennessee and Texas A&M headline the slate with a battle of top-10 teams, while Alabama finds itself in freefall after back-to-back blowout losses. Arkansas continues to be an enigma, home teams are dominating at an absurd rate, and the upset radar is locked in on a Saturday showdown.
Here’s everything you need to know heading into another pivotal weekend in the SEC.
- The game of the week is Tennessee at Texas A&M.
Texas A&M is coming off a loss to Mississippi State and Tennessee is coming off a bye week. Both teams are ranked in the top ten and both teams are still within reach of a No. 1 seed. Texas A&M struggled against Mississippi State on Tuesday which has to be a little concerning, confidence wise, considering they’re now heading into a stretch of games against three top six teams in their final five games.
Up first is Tennessee. The Vols have not been great on the road, going just 4-4 on the season. This game will probably be tough to watch. We’re talking looking at Josh Heupel in a hot yoga class levels of tough to watch. These teams rank among the bottom three in the conference in scoring offense, while also boasting the top two defenses in the league. It’ll be one of the best rock fights of the year.
- When it snows, it pours for Alabama.
Speaking of brutal stretches to close the season, Alabama is in the middle of a losing streak and nothing seems to be going right, on or off the court. After their home loss to Auburn, in which they never held a lead, Alabama was blown out by Missouri, surrendering 110 points to the Tigers. Alabama’s final seven games are all against top 25 teams. There is no rest for them at all. To make matters worse for Bama, they weren’t able to fly home after the loss to Missouri due to a snowstorm.
When they do finally make it home, No. 17 Kentucky will be waiting for them. Not great.
- It’s Ivisic not Ivis-Brick.
Arkansas continues to be more inconsistent than almost anyone in the country. If there were a tournament or metric for teams that almost win big games, they’d be the ‘96 Bulls. The most recent issue is that their 7-foot-2 Croatian unicorn has apparently gone missing. Coming into the Auburn game, Zvonimir Ivisic was shooting over 42% from three. Wednesday night in Neville Arena, he had a reverse Christian Laettner game for the ages.
Remember when Laettner beat Kentucky in ‘92 and went a perfect 10-of-10 from the field? Ivisic did the opposite. He went 0 for 10 on the night, including 0 for 9 from three. If you’re looking for a silver lining, at least he’s not lacking confidence. Shooting a ninth three after missing his first eight is a wild display of self-confidence that is enviable.
- It’s turned into a true home court disadvantage.
It’s that time of the week again where we discuss the ridiculous numbers of SEC teams playing at home this season. After the midweek games, home teams are 186-45 this season in the SEC. That’s a winning percentage of .802.
However, the new trend that’s emerged is road upsets during Saturday’s slate. Over the last two weekends home teams are just 6-10. This weekend could be more of the same, as six ranked teams travel for away games on Saturday.
- Who’s on upset alert?
The best segment of the week is still hot, as we’ve nailed three of the last four upset picks of the week. This week’s nominees are: Ole Miss at Vanderbilt, Missouri at Arkansas, and Alabama vs Kentucky. As great as Calipari teams are in late February, and as much fun as Memorial Madness has been this season, the upset special is…Kentucky over Alabama. The Cats are 15-5 in their last 20 games against Alabama and the Tide are reeling right now.
