SEC Talk

Andy Kennedy and his Rebels are the surprise of the SEC.

Now that exams are over, the boys are back to the hardwood with a full slate of games on Saturday and another full week ahead before Christmas, lets take a look at what is in store for SEC basketball this coming week.

Vanderbilt is coming off another impressive win, this time on the road over DePaul. The schedule is setting up nicely and I easily see the Commodores 17-0 before their last big non-conference test before the start of conference play against UMass. I’ve covered it before, but the biggest reason for the great play of the Kevin Stallings’ team so far has been the play of Australian Andrew Ogilvie.

Florida continues to show it’s youth after a shaky win over Georgia Southern yesterday. In fact, the Gators trailed for most of the game but managed to pull it out in the end with a big time block by Dan Werner. So far, the Gators have beaten the really bad teams badly, using their superior talent, but have struggled against the decent teams. Still, Billy Donovan has done a good job showing the younguns how to win ball games, which they are doing quite well at. Hopefully it will be good enough when it’s tournament time in March.

Tennessee has started to play basketball the Bruce Pearl way. Tenacious defense, fast-paced offense, a lot of 3-point shooting. The Volunteers are playing as good as anyone right now and their 11th ranking will only rise through conference play, their loss to Texas doesn’t look half as bad now as Texas is a legit top 3 team. The Vols are an elite eight team, possibly a final four team when it’s all said and done.

Kentucky is just in disarray right now. Sure, their schedule has been tough, but it’s always been tough, they’re big blue. Right now, the offense is just now playing well. Gillispie wants them to play a motion offense, but the players he has want to play 1-on-1. Right now, it’s a bad version of neither.

The SEC West is downright terrible right now, but Ole Miss is certainly the surprise of the entire conference. The win over New Mexico the other week was huge. Next up is a tough DePaul team at home, then the biggest test of the year, Clemson. We’ll see what these Rebels are made of after Christmas.

Here are the SEC standings to date,

East Conf All
Vanderbilt (20) 0-0 10-0
Florida 0-0 10-1
Tennessee (12) 0-0 9-1
Georgia 0-0 6-1
South Carolina 0-0 5-4
Kentucky 0-0 4-4

West Conf All
Mississippi 0-0 8-0
Arkansas 0-0 8-2
Auburn 0-0 5-2
LSU 0-0 6-3
Alabama 0-0 5-3
Mississippi St. 0-0 5-5

Vanderbilt, Tennessee