SEC Basketball: Vanderbilt rises, Alabama takes back top spot in latest power rankings

The first month of the college basketball season is almost over. All of the teams in the SEC have winning records, with many teams picking up some of the best wins in the country. The top programs in the conference are the ones you’d expect to be there, while a couple of early favorites are still figuring things out. But for the most part, every SEC school can say that the first month of the season has been successful, with only one or two true upsets taking place. Here are the SEC power rankings as we enter the final week of November. 

16. Oklahoma Sooners

The Sooners are 4-0 this season, taking down East Texas A&M in its most recent game, but that was expected. Oklahoma has played one of the easiest non-conference schedules to date, with none of the Sooners opponents currently ranked higher than No. 306 in KenPom. Oklahoma has won every game by at least 16 points this season, but that should happen when you play some of the worst teams in D1 basketball. 

The offense has been strong this year. Oklahoma averages nearly 84 points per game with Jalon Moore leading the way. Moore leads this high-scoring Sooners team with 18.8 points per game while making almost 53 percent from the floor. 

Oklahoma has been winning these early games relatively easily, but I need to see what this Sooners team looks like against quality competition. Oklahoma has a couple of opportunities over the next couple of games to take down power conference opponents starting with Providence. If Oklahoma can play well against better opponents, I will have no problem moving the Sooners back up the rankings. 

15. South Carolina Gamecocks

South Carolina is off to a bit of a rocky start this season but has bounced back with wins after each of its first two losses. The Gamecocks beat Mercer 84-72 last week to improve to 3-2 on the season. 

The Gamecocks are having a solid season on offense, averaging 78.4 points per game. Leading the charge is Collin Murray-Boyles with 15.8 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. But the defense hasn’t been as sharp this year as it was last season. South Carolina is giving up 70.2 points per game. Last season the Gamecocks allowed 70 or more points nine times, so far this year South Carolina has already given up 70 or more three times. 

I wasn’t very high on this South Carolina team coming into the season, and if it weren’t for the loss to North Florida I might trust the Gamecocks a little more. The loss to Indiana is understandable, but moving forward South Carolina needs to pick up a few more wins. SC has Xavier coming up on Monday, a win in that game would do wonders for the perception of this team.

14. Missouri Tigers

Missouri has bounced back well following its opening game loss to Memphis. The Tigers have rattled off four straight wins, and have looked good on offense. Over the past two games, Missouri is averaging 101 points per game while allowing 47.5 points to opponents. For the first time since year one under Dennis Gates, Missouri has made double-digit threes in three straight games. 

Caleb Grill has sparked Missouri’s recent offensive success. Over the past three games, Grill has accounted for 17 of Mizzou’s 39 made threes. He is shooting nearly 74 percent from three over that stretch and currently leads the team in scoring with 15.8 points per game. 

When Missouri makes its threes, the Tigers are a hard team to beat. There were questions about Mizzou’s outside shooting after the first couple of games of the season, but Missouri has seemingly fixed whatever issues there were. If the Tigers can continue to shoot well from deep, then Missouri might be one of the harder teams to beat once the conference schedule comes around. 

13. LSU Tigers

LSU has exceeded my expectations so far this season. One of my main concerns was how well this team was going to defend. The Tigers have held four of five opponents to under 70 points, with only Pittsburgh exceeding that number. The Pitt game was also the first loss of the season for LSU. The Tigers only made 37 percent from the floor against Pitt and opened the second half with a seven-minute scoring drought.

The Tigers haven’t shot the ball well this season, only making 47 percent from the floor. But the offense hasn’t needed to be great thus far. The defense has made up for it. LSU is one of the best three-point defending teams in the county, holding opponents to only 22 percent from deep. 

I don’t know if the offense will be good enough to win many games moving forward, but the defense has and most likely will continue to keep the Tigers in games.