SEC Basketball Power Rankings 1/27

1. Texas A&M 17-2 (7-0) - Lost to Arkansas, remain #1
The Texas A&M Aggies entered the season with pretty high expectations in Billy Kennedy’s fourth year with the program. Now more than halfway through the season, they have drastically exceeded those expectations.

2. Kentucky 15-4 (5-2)
Kentucky is back to looking like Kentucky, and although they should have an easy win with a home game against the Missouri Tigers this week, the next game against the highly ranked Kansas Jayhawks will show if they are true national title contenders at this point in the season.

3. LSU 13-7 (5-2)
At 13-7, LSU started out very slow and was beginning to come across as a significantly under-achieving basketball team with a talent like Ben Simmons playing for them. As of late, LSU has begun to develop some consistency. The Tigers are undefeated at home in the SEC and scored a key victory over a solid Georgia Bulldog team last night

4. Florida 13-7 (5-3)
No Billy Donovan? No problem. The Florida Gators are on a roll right now under first-year head coach Mike White. Of their six losses, four have come to ranked teams with the other two a road loss to a dangerous Tennessee Vols team and then a heartbreaker to the Florida State Seminoles. We'll let the loss to Vanderbilt slide, road wins in this conference are few and far between

5. South Carolina 18-2 (5-2)
The South Carolina Gamecocks have two very odd losses on the road to the Alabama Crimson Tide and then the Tennessee Vols this past Saturday, going undefeated in every other game. At the same time, they have played a cupcake schedule under fourth-year head coach Frank Martin. Still, Martin appears to have finally turned the corner with the Gamecocks this year and is stocked with serviceable talent on his basketball team.

6. Vanderbilt 12-8 (3-4)
Kevin Stallings’s Vanderbilt Commodores are starting to get into a bit of a rhythm. They had a three-game winning streak snapped by a 76-57 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats this past weekend but answered back with a win vs Florida on Tuesday

7. Georgia 11-7 (4-4)
With Kenny Gaines being the glue-guy as the lead senior for the Dawgs, there is a lot of younger talent to keep the future bright and exciting for this bunch. An NCAA Tournament may not be in the works this year, but the Dawgs are playing with a new jolt of energy right now.

8. Alabama 11-8 (2-5)
The good news is that the future is bright under first-year head coach Avery Johnson. Despite the losses, they have three wins against ranked teams this year, as Johnson has not ran from anybody in terms of scheduling. Really, the issue with this team is massive inconsistency

9. Arkansas 10-10 (4-4) Win vs. #5 A&M. Trending UP
This had to be expected for the Arkansas Razorbacks in Mike Anderson’s fifth year given the fact that they lost all three of their leading scorers from a year ago. What is clear with this basketball team is that the talent is there. The consistency is not.

10. Ole Miss 13-7 (3-5) Win vs Auburn. Trending UP
Injuries are the only thing standing in the way of this team being in the Top 5 of the SEC. At 12-7 overall, the Ole Miss Rebels should not come across as a terrible unit. A loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks last week in overtime is nothing to be embarrassed about, but after a loss to the Mississippi State Bulldogs this past week, Andy Kennedy’s group is in some trouble. The Rebels have now lost four straight SEC games, and while the first three were to red-hot teams, the last one was to a team that had no business beating them. With Moody, Newby, and Saiz expected to return sooner than later, the season is not lost

11. Tennessee 10-10 (4-4)
Talk about inconsistency. In his first year as head coach of the Tennessee Vols basketball team, Rick Barnes has watched his team suffer bad losses to the Vanderbilt Commodores and Auburn Tigers but score huge wins vs the Florida Gators and South Carolina Gamecocks.

12. Auburn 9-10 (3-5) - Loss at Ole Miss. Stock Plummeting
This team is going to be fine, but it has a lot of issues to solve right now. Pearl likely needs one more recruiting class to put the program where he wants it to be. He’s close to doing that already.

13. Mississippi State 8-11 (1-6)
True to form in the SEC this year, the Mississippi State Bulldogs are in the midst of their first year under an elite head coach and pretty much tanking the season with excitement focused on the future. What is true about this Mississippi State Bulldogs basketball team is that it is very tough and has been in lots of close games, plenty of which it should have pulled out.

14. Missouri 8-11 (1-5)
The Missouri Tigers are still struggling in Kim Anderson’s second year as head coach of the basketball program, as conference play has recently smacked them in the mouth.