There is early separation among the contenders and pretenders just one
week into league play in what might well be the weakest SEC from top to
bottom in many years.
Here’s an updated look at the SEC Power Rankings:
To
start this week with RPI matching their No. 10 national ranking, the
Gators blew through league-opening opponents Georgia at home and LSU on
the road last week by a combined average margin of 27.5 points per game.
But by the time the LSU blowout was over, a second Gator, junior
forward Casey Prather, would be sidelined with an ankle sprain. Senior
Mike Rosario is expected back from his sprain in time for a road trip to
Texas A&M. The six-man rotation worked, though. Senior guard Kenny
Boynton scored 20 points in 35 minutes.
Yes,
the Rebels, who put together the best two wins to open SEC play,
beating Tennessee convincingly on the road and returning home Saturday
to smack then-No. 10 Missouri around a bit with a 15-point win. Outside
of Florida and Missouri, the Rebels are the only other SEC team to
receive votes in the AP Top 25 poll this week, and they are still only
63rd in the current RPI. Juco transfer guard Marshall Henderson had a
career-high 32 against UT, and the SEC’s leading scorer enjoyed telling
the UT home crowd about it, too.
While
the Tigers have a stronger national ranking at No. 17 and much better
RPI at 25 than Ole Miss, they still can’t be placed ahead of a team that
just blew them out. In rebuttal, Mizzou fans will relate leading scorer
Laurence Bowers was out, and will be for a few games, with a sprained
MCL. The Tigers must fill the void and quick, considering they play
Saturday at Florida.
Welcome
to the SEC. Like their football brethren did by winning at iconic
Alabama, the Aggies strolled into Kentucky’s vaunted Rupp Arena for the
first time as league member and strolled out with an 83-71 win. Senior
guard Elston Turner, son of the former Ole Miss star and NBA player, put
on a shooting exhibition with 40 points, third-most ever at Rupp. Their
RPI is still only 65 to start the week, though.
The
year’s model of heralded freshmen is maturing at the amazing pace of,
well, freshmen. Seems the jet stream the last two incoming classes
latched onto for a national title last year and Final Four visit the
year prior has avoided these mild Cats. They nearly blew a 16-point
second-half lead at struggling Vanderbilt and got dissed at home by
Texas A&M. Consistent guard play from freshmen Ryan Harrow and
Archie Goodwin will eventually decide how deep UK runs come March. It
hasn’t happened thus far.
A
week of SEC play didn’t tell us much more about the Razorbacks that
hadn’t been already discerned from pre-league play. After losing by 16
at Texas A&M, Arkansas throttled hapless Vanderbilt 56-33 at home.
Junior forward Marshawn Powell went 8-for-9 to tie Corliss Williamson’s
1993 team record for field goal percentage in a game. Just midway
through his sophomore season, guard B.J. Young already has 39
double-digit scoring games.
Junior
guard Trevor Releford scored 26 points at Missouri to go over 1,000 for
his career, but the Crimson Tide fell predictably for their sixth loss
in eight games. That made the home opener Saturday against Tennessee
even more crucial in a match of similar teams seemingly already fighting
for NCAA tourney scraps. Defense has been an issue for the Tide in
recent years, but three straight forced turnovers late in the game made
the difference against UT.
Stop
the presses. The Tigers are 2-0 in league play for the first time in 10
years, albeit over also-rans LSU and South Carolina. Still, wins are
wins, and they have won three in a row and six of their last eight.
Beating likewise lower-rung SEC teams from which you are trying to
separate is key for third-year coach Tony Barbee. The Tigers do have a
strong senior class led by Frankie Sullivan, who had 17 against the
Gamecocks, Rob Chubb and Josh Wallace.
Despite
missing all 10 3-point shots and trailing by six with 5 minutes to
play, the Bulldogs somehow went on an 8-0 run to steal the league home
opener over South Carolina. They then went to Georgia and won by 11.
Rookie coach Rick Ray, the former Clemson assistant, has no returning
starters from last year’s 21-win team that wasn’t good enough to let
veteran coach Rick Stansbury keep his job.
At
least the Volunteers showed some life at Alabama after suffering their
worst home-loss in four seasons to Ole Miss in the league opener. The
Vols have to move past the notion of not having injured senior forward
Jeronne Maymon for the season. And where is sophomore forward Jernell
Stokes, the lauded Memphis prep recruit who joined the team in
mid-season last year? Sure, he misses Maymon on the other side down low,
but he has to score more than 11.2 points per game for the Vols to win
consistently.
LSU navigated
pre-league play solidly, but didn’t bring it into the first week of the
SEC with uninspiring losses at Auburn and at home against Florida,
starting 0-2 in league play for the first time in three seasons. Quality
depth, or lack thereof, reared its ugly head, especially against
Florida. The Tigers scored their season lows in the last two games.
As
head coach at Kansas State for five seasons, Frank Martin won an
average of 23.4 games per season and made four NCAA tourney visits. His
reclamation program for the Gamecocks will take a while, although the
backcourt is solid led by junior point guard Bruce Ellington, the
two-sport standout (along with football) who had a season-high 18 points
in the loss to Auburn.
With
sophomore guard Kedren Johnson the only Commodore with any discernible
returning experience, the Commodores figured to be in rebuilding mode.
But after a miserable first half against visiting Kentucky, Vandy did
rally to take the lead and have a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win it go
awry. Coach Kevin Stallings cried foul when a late shot by UK’s Noel
appeared to have not beaten the shot clock in a key play. That
inexperience raised its ugly head in the loss to Arkansas, where Vandy
scored only 33 points for the second time this season. Making matters
worse, Johnson is nursing a sore shoulder and his status this week is
questionable.
In three
seasons at Georgia, coach Mark Fox won 50 games. But the Bulldogs appear
to be in full-blown rebuilding mode with early departures to the NBA by
Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie two seasons ago and the graduation of
Gerald Robinson and Dustin Ware. That outflow of talent may have been
too much for the Bulldogs to handle, although they had won four games in
a row prior to opening league play. In sophomore guard Kentavious
Caldwell-Pope, Georgia has one of the league’s top offensive threats. He
had led the Bulldogs in scoring every game but one.
