06. Texas Longhorns
Since losing its opening game, Texas has been one of the most consistent teams in the conference. The Longhorns beat Syracuse and Saint Joseph’s to win the UKG Legends Classic and then beat Delaware St by 22 points to extend the win streak to six games.
Freshman Tre Johnson has been nothing short of great this season for Texas, leading the team in scoring with 21.1 points, and shooting nearly 48 percent from the floor. Johnson is also the conference’s leading scorer so far this season.
Texas finally has Tramon Mark available this season which should only improve the Longhorns on both ends of the court. I think Texas has way too much talent on its roster to not be one of the top SEC teams this season, and the matchups with NC State and UConn next week should give us a better idea of where this Texas team should be ranked.
05. Alabama Crimson Tide
Alabama dropped its second game of the season, losing to Oregon 83-81 in the championship of the Players Era Festival. Before the loss, the Crimson Tide rattled off wins over Houston and Rutgers, beating both teams by five points.
After failing to score a point in the win over Illinois, Mark Sears is averaging nearly 20 points in Alabama’s last three games. For the season, Alabama has one of the top scoring offenses in the country averaging almost 89 points per game.
The defense on the other hand hasn’t been great over the past couple of weeks. Over the last five games, Alabama is giving up 85.4 points per game to opponents. The Tide has gone 3-2 over that stretch but will need to figure something out defensively to have a repeat tournament run this year. Next up for Alabama is UNC, so we will see if the Tide can get anything going on the defense end against an elite Tar Heels offense.
04. Florida Gators
Florida currently sits atop the SEC standings with an 8-0 record following double-digits wins over Wake Forest and Wichita St. Since allowing 83 points to South Florida to open the season, the Gators haven’t allowed more than 74 points in a game and has held its last two opponents to 54.5 points per game.
Florida’s schedule has picked up a little the past couple of weeks, but that’s been the stretch where the Gators have looked the best defensively. One the season Florida is holding opponents to 37.5 percent from the floor.
The Gators have looked great on both ends of the floor. I thought coming into the season that the defense might hold this team back, but thus far teams haven’t been able to score on Florida. There are no signs of the offense slowing down, so if the defense can continue to play at this level, I might be underrating Florida at this point.