SEC Basketball has played plenty of tough opponents so far this season. With conference play just days away, where do the teams rank against each other?
Teams approach non-conference scheduling with different strategies. Some programs, like Kentucky and Tennessee, schedule the best teams they can in hopes of making statements early. Others, like Arkansas, schedule easier opponents in hopes of having a near-perfect record. Some teams schedule somewhere down the middle, picking its challenges while sparing its record. With diverse scheduling philosophies, it becomes a challenge to rank teams against each other.
That is why conference play is so important. When teams in the SEC finally play each other, we will learn for fact what we have speculated so far this year. Is Ole Miss truly ahead of schedule, or are they abusing the benefit of not scheduling tough opponents? How far is the gap between Tennessee and the rest of the SEC? Will Kentucky continue this momentum to the postseason? What about those teams in the middle of the pack like Alabama, Florida, and Missouri?
So far, it is safe to say that Tennessee is one of the best teams in the country. After that, there is debate for the 2-5 range with LSU, Kentucky, Auburn, and Mississippi State. All teams have played well, but Auburn has slipped the past few games. Kentucky has surged, but there is still debate as to how far they should climb.
At the bottom of the rankings, teams like Georgia and South Carolina have failed to reach their goals early in the year. They have time to turn things around, but a deep SEC makes it unlikely.
Thankfully, we are just days away from starting to answer all of these questions. Before we start conference play, where do the teams rank against each other? Here’s what I got going into the new year.