Greetings, BBN!
The league-leading Aggies kept their spot at the top as they won handily on the road in Athens, 92-77. Behind them, Florida took sole possession of second after their home blowout win over the Crimson Tide and Arkansas’s home loss to Coach Cal’s old team and the Big Blue Nation.
Vanderbilt held off Ole Miss in what would have been a damaging home loss. The Commodores are 6-3 in the league and 19-3 overall now at the halfway point of their SEC play. Tennessee took care of Auburn at home, Texas beat Oklahoma in a rivalry game that did no favors for Porter Moser’s hot seat, Missouri continued to impress with another home win, and much more went down in the Southeastern Conference on the last day of January and the first day of February. Let’s see where things stand:
SEC Basketball Standings
Notes:
- LSU found another conference win against the bottom of the standings. The Tigers were 1-7 but held off South Carolina in overtime to escape on the road by five to finally not lose a close game in the final seconds.
- Texas A&M and Florida are 7-1 and 7-2 and will play each other next Saturday at 8:30. It will be their only meeting of the season and give the winner a big edge in the conference race. Of course, there’s still a lot that can change between now and March.
- Kentucky’s win over Arkansas was a road upset few saw coming. They entered the game 6.5-point underdogs and won 85-77 while leading much of the game (including at half, which has been rare for the Cats). It also marked the Hogs’ first home loss this season. Kentucky now has five Quad 1 wins and two that are road victories over AP-ranked opponents.
- Alabama went 14 of 34 from 3 in Gainesville but still lost by 23. That’s because the Gators outrebounded them 44-33, and the Tide turned it over 18 times compared to Florida’s 2. Florida also scored 25 points off those turnovers compared to the Tide’s 0. Combine that with points in the paint, steals, fast break points, fouls, and other stats, and you’ll see that great 3-point shooting alone cannot win a basketball game. Sometimes you can “die or die” by the 3.