SEC Basketball: Latest power rankings after Big 12/SEC Challenge results

COLUMBIA, MISSOURI - NOVEMBER 23: Kobe Brown #24, Tre Gomillion #2 and D'Moi Hodge #5 of the Missouri Tigers celebrates a teammates basket against the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers in the second half at Mizzou Arena on November 23, 2022 in Columbia, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images) /

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SEC Basketball Mississippi State Bulldogs forward Tolu Smith Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports /

10. Vanderbilt

Credit to Jerry Stackhouse. He has Vanderbilt consistently competing in the SEC as the Commodores are 3-5 and currently avoiding playing on the first day of the SEC Tournament. While Vanderbilt still has the tough part of their schedule ahead of them, if they can pick up a few wins in key spots, they can avoid playing on Wednesday in Nashville.

9. Mississippi State

Mississippi State has taken the unfortunate 2022 Texas A&M route. The Bulldogs won their first 11 of the season before conference play and then proceeded to drop eight of the next nine games. Chris Jans’ team did manage to get a win at home against an injured TCU team, but they’re far from being back to the level they were once at. Maybe the Bulldogs can hit some shots in Nashville and make a Texas A&M-type run, but as for now, they’re looking down the barrel of playing on the first day of the SEC Tournament.

8. Florida

Some, including myself, had expectations for Florida at the start of the year. Todd Golden was a good hire to many, and he mixed returners and transfers to get a nice group of players. While they’ve taken care of business against some of the lesser SEC teams, Florida’s win at Mississippi State is their only quad-one win. It feels like the Gators might be getting closer to turning a corner, but the Kansas State game proved they aren’t there yet.

7. Auburn

KenPom has Auburn as a top 30 team in the country, but the resumé and eye test simply don’t agree. Auburn is just 2-3 against quad one and 5-2 against quad two. They lost twice last week and had their long home winning streak snapped in disappointing fashion. The Tigers are quite easily an NCAA Tournament team at the moment, but their offense is extremely stale at times and there is certainly work to be done.

6. Missouri

Dennis Gates’ team is a tough evaluation for a handful of reasons. Their style is pretty unique, and their predictive metrics aren’t great, but most importantly, Gates has had to manage some key players being out. Isiaih Mosley, who is very possibly the Tigers’ best offensive player, missed a key portion of the season. Regardless, Mosley is back and so are some other players Mizzou depends on. If the Tigers can continue to play as they did against Iowa State, they could rise up this list extremely quickly.

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