SEC Basketball: Oklahoma and Tennessee rise in latest power rankings

We’ve made it through the first month of the college basketball season and the SEC has been one of the best conferences to watch. Through Feast Week and all the MTEs that come along with it, the schools in the SEC have been able to play some of the top teams in the country while getting the win in most of those matchups. Auburn and Tennessee have quickly become two of the most dominant teams in college basketball, with Florida and Kentucky not far behind. Here are the SEC power rankings as we enter December.

16. South Carolina Gamecocks

The Gamecocks have had a rough start to the season. South Carolina currently sits at 4-3 on the year, with its most recent loss coming to Xavier. USC did follow up the loss to Xavier with a win over Virginia Tech, but the Hokies aren’t a good basketball team right now. South Carolina gets Boston College this week for the SEC/ACC Challenge, so we will see if the Gamecocks can pick up another win over a P5 opponent. 

I don’t know how much success this SC team will have this season. There will be games where the Gamecocks can slow down opposing offenses, but I don’t think the offense will be good enough to compete with above-average power conference opponents. Right now, South Carolina is in a tier by itself, and it isn’t particularly close. But the Gamecocks can close the gap with a couple of wins this week. 

15. Missouri Tigers

Missouri’s offense has been great the past couple of weeks and the Tigers are currently on a six-game win streak. Granted these games have been against some of the worst teams in the country, but Mizzou has won each of the last four games by 20 or more points. 

Leading scorer Caleb Grill (13.6 ppg) played only seven minutes against Lindenwood after suffering a head and neck injury. Without his perimeter scoring, Missouri struggled to hit shots from deep, going 5-22. 

Missouri doesn’t have a P5 win on the season. Head Coach Dennis Gates scheduled a weak non-conference slate so there haven’t been any games against power conference opponents yet. The Tigers have Cal and Kansas on the schedule this week, for the team’s first taste of a P5 opponent. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from Missouri the past few weeks, but I don’t know what to expect when the Tigers play good competition. 

14. LSU Tigers

LSU has been one of the more confusing teams this season. The Tigers are 6-1 but have struggled to score in the first halves of games the past couple of weeks. In each of its last two games LSU has only put up 25 points in the first half before coming back in the second half to get wins.

Cam Carter (16.7 ppg) and Jordan Sears (14.7 ppg) have been the team's go-to players on offense this season, accounting for 38 percent of the Tigers’ scoring. 

I think LSU can be a good basketball team this season. The Tigers have a solid defense and two of the better scorers in the conference so far this year, but I would like to see LSU score efficiently from the opening tip, not only in the second half of games. Until then I’m not convinced that the Tigers are one of the better teams in the SEC.

13. Vanderbilt Commodores

I’ve been impressed with what Head Coach Mark Byington has done with Vanderbilt this season. The Commodores are 7-1 with the only loss coming against Drake in the Charleston Classic title game. A loss to a mid-major team isn’t great for a P5 team, but Drake has been great this season.

Vanderbilt has scored at least 70 points in every game this season and is scoring 84 points per game. Jason Edwards (18.1 ppg) has been a huge boost to the offense, scoring in double figures every game this season. 

Vanderbilt has big wins over Cal and Seton Hall this season. I'm interested to see what the team looks like against Virginia Tech and TCU this week. The Commodores have already exceeded my expectations this season, and will hopefully continue to pick up wins moving forward. I’m still really high on this team after the first month of the season, and a couple of wins this week will only further improve my thoughts of the Commodores.