SEC Basketball power rankings: Texas A&M soars, Arkansas slides down

We’re only two weeks into these weekly SEC Basketball rankings and this thing is already completely shaken up. Saturday saw the most AP-ranked teams lose on the same day in over a decade and this conference saw its fair share of those losses.

Nothing makes sense. Tennessee didn’t miss a jumper for two weeks and went ice-cold against unranked Kentucky. Kentucky lost to the worst team in the conference in South Carolina and less than a week later beat Tennessee on the road. Speaking of South Carolina, after a 43-point home loss to Tennessee, they won only their third game at Rupp Arena in program history.

Less than a week later, they returned to Columbia and lost yet ANOTHER game by more than 40 points at home. This time, it came from Texas A&M. Georgia is 3-1 in SEC play. Last season, they won only one conference game all year. Arkansas has been one of the best defensive teams in all of college hoops and gave up 63 points in a half to Vanderbilt.

The SEC is talented, it’s deep and most importantly, it’s getting really weird. I’m about to attempt to do what can only be described as a fool’s errand: power rank the SEC. This week, there’s plenty of movement and plenty of room for argument. Let’s get it on.

#14- Mississippi (8-9, 0-5)

Kermit Davis and his group once again suffer another winless week in the SEC and now, after South Carolina’s head-scratching win at Kentucky, are the only team winless in conference play.

They lost during the week at home to a solid Auburn team, which isn’t a terrible loss. They played with a lead and took one into halftime before Auburn came back in the second half for good. Not the worst loss, even though all conference home L’s are wasted opportunities in this league. What’s not ok, is the home loss to Georgia.

Sure, Georgia is much improved and I am pleasantly surprised with their competence through four conference games. But losing to them AT HOME is unacceptable. Ole Miss played well enough to win defensively, holding UGA to under a point per possession and with an eFG% below 45. But offensively, they’re so stale and inefficient that it cost them the game. For a team that was supposed to be an improved rebounding team, it had to be disheartening for their fans to see Jayveous McKinnis getting outworked for a rebound by Braelen Bridges in the last five seconds of the game to prevent them from even having a chance to win or send the game to OT.

I mentioned Davis’ seat getting warm last week, and after an 0-5 start in league play with three of those losses coming at home, it’s starting to get a lot warmer.