08. Kentucky Wildcats (7-4)
Kentucky beat North Carolina Central by 36 points on Tuesday, but its performance against Indiana on Saturday was far more impressive. The Wildcats held a tough Hoosier offense (85.6 ppg) to only 60 points, including 21 second-half points, in the 12-point win. Mark Pope’s team hasn’t been great offensively in games that truly matter, so it was refreshing to see the defense step up and propel Kentucky to the win. The Wildcats are slowly getting healthy, but until the offense regains its consistency, I’m not sold on this Kentucky team.
07. Georgia Bulldogs (9-1)
Another game, another double-digit victory for the Bulldogs. Georgia might not have hit triple digits, but it still knocked off Cincinnati by 19 points on Saturday. The Bulldogs were tied with the Bearcats at the half, but they turned up the pressure over the final 20 minutes to walk away with the convincing win. Anyone who watched the Bulldogs last season wouldn’t believe that this team would be leading the country in points and be in the top two in shots taken per game. This version of Georgia basketball has been a ton of fun to watch.
06. Tennessee Volunteers (7-3)
It’s been a quiet week in Knoxville as the Vols didn’t play a game this week, so Tennessee is still on a three-game losing streak going into the early week game against Louisville. Luckily for the Vols, they haven't lost more than three games in a row since 2015, Rick Barnes' first season as head coach. Tennessee might be on one of the toughest five-game stretches in the country, but I’m still certain that it’s a really good basketball team. The defense alone is reason enough to believe in the Vols.
05. Auburn Tigers (8-3)
It’s been nearly a month since Auburn held an opposing team to under 70 points in a game, so the defensive performance against Chattanooga wasn’t all that surprising. The Tigers won the game, 92-78, but in reality, it should have been much worse for the Mocs. The offensive tandem of Keyshawn Hall and Tahaad Pettiford, combining for 37 ppg this season, makes the Tigers one of the better scoring teams in the country, even though they are both wildly inefficient. A slight defensive improvement could go a long way for Auburn in SEC play.