SEC Basketball: Auburn falls, LSU surges in new power rankings

By Brian Rauf | Jan 24, 2020

BATON ROUGE , LOUISIANA - FEBRUARY 26: Head coach Will Wade of the LSU Tigers calls a play during the first half of a game against the Texas A&M Aggies at Pete Maravich Assembly Center on February 26, 2019 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) /

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NASHVILLE, TN – JANUARY 29: Saben Lee #0 of the Vanderbilt Commodores handles the ball against Immanuel Quickley #5 of the Kentucky Wildcats (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

8-10 (0-5 in SEC). Previous: 13th. Commodores . 14. team. 537.

Before the season, I was 100 percent certain Vanderbilt would not go winless in the SEC again. I still think they’ll at least win a game or two but, after losing star Aaron Nesmith for the season, the Commodores are sitting at the bottom of the SEC without a conference win yet again and don’t have a ton of hope.

In the only SEC game in which Nesmith was healthy, Vanderbilt took Auburn to the wire and only lost by four on the road. In the four games they’ve played with him hurt, they’ve lost by an average of 19.3 points per game.

We knew the Vandy was in rebuilding mode but, without Nesmith, it’s clear they have a long way to go.

Rebels . 13. team. 532. . 9-9 (0-5). Previous: 5th

While it’s not a surprise to see Vanderbilt sitting at the bottom of the SEC, it is a surprise to see Ole Miss here – and it’s an even bigger surprise to see them winless.

The Rebels were 9-3 less than a month ago and had a key neutral court win over Penn State. However, they have not won a game since the calendar flipped to the new year. A 20-point loss at Wichita State turned into a 10-point loss to Texas A&M. Ole Miss played Arkansas and LSU tough, but dropped each of those games, too.

Then they played Tennessee on Tuesday and put up arguably their worst performance of the season, losing to the Vols by a whopping 25 points. Breein Tyree is scoring at a high clip, but the rest of the roster has disappointed.

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