SEC Basketball power rankings: Kentucky, Mississippi State take big leaps
By Elijah Campbell
We’re officially on the back nine of the SEC Basketball regular season and have entered the final full month of league play before we enter the SEC Tournament.
Alabama holds a two-game lead for the top spot following Tennessee’s loss to Florida but still has its toughest stretch of conference opponents remaining. Speaking of the Vols, they still have the best defense in the country as they followed up that disappointment by beating a good Auburn team in the 40’s. Kentucky is rounding into form and making a big push for a two-seed going into the conference tournament. Texas A&M is still the surprise of the league at 8-2 but still has Tennessee, Alabama, and Auburn on the schedule.
Some of these records can be a little deceiving. Is Mississippi State actually as bad as their 3-7 record in league play indicates? Is Texas A&M as legitimate as their 8-2 league record? It’s time to sort that out with the power rankings going into a week of huge SEC match-ups.
#14. South Carolina (8-15, 1-9)
The Gamecocks have made themselves pretty familiar with the last spot on this list. The win against Kentucky seems more and more like a fluke with each passing loss.
They went 0-2 last week at home to teams in the bottom half of these rankings. The close, two-point loss to Arkansas is a small sign of encouragement but the double-digit loss at home to Mississippi State was certainly disheartening for South Carolina fans given the manner in which it happened. Meechie Johnson and GG Jackson’s combined 2:12 assist-to-turnover ratio was a painful reminder of just how bad and out of sorts this offense can be.
If you’re a Gamecock fan reading this, I can offer you at least one tidbit of positive news. Big man Josh Gray had a fantastic week with 15 offensive rebounds in the two losses and against Arkansas, managed to score 20 points to keep them in the game despite Jackson’s poor shooting night.
They hit the road this week for games against Missouri and Ole Miss. The Ole Miss game represents one of the few opportunities they have on the schedule for an additional league win.