At the outset of the season, SEC coaches talked a lot about how theirs was a deeper and more talented basketball league this year. At the time, that could have been dismissed as the usual conference rhetoric. But heading into the third week of league play, there is mounting evidence that the SEC has improved its basketball pedigree.
Heading into this week’s games, the league has 10 of its 14 members ranked among Joe Lunardi’s Top 100 in RPI. Jerry Palm has nine ranked.
The teams carrying the No. 2 and No. 5 highest RPI rankings from the conference – No. 24 Georgia (11-5, 2-2 SEC) and No. 43 Ole Miss (11-6, 2-2) – will meet Tuesday night at Stegeman Coliseum.
“You’re seeing the reality of the depth of this league,” said Bulldogs coach Mark Fox, whose team just halted Florida’s 24-game conference win streak on Saturday. “I think 11 teams have already lost a home game (actually 13). I was telling Coach (Mark) Richt last night, ‘it’s like SEC football; every night there’s a new monster coming in.’”
Ole Miss is yet another beastly opponent. The Rebels (11-5, 2-2 SEC) are coming off a stunning 96-82 upset of then-No. 19 Arkansas in Fayetteville this past weekend. The Razorbacks, you might recall, knocked off Georgia 79-75 in the SEC opener on Jan. 6 in Athens.
Ole Miss also also put a mighty scare into No. 1 Kentucky. The Wildcats (17-0, 4-0) needed overtime to force the Rebels out of Rupp as 89-86 losers. Ole Miss also lost at home 75-71 to an LSU team that needed double overtime to dispatch the Bulldogs 87-84 in Baton Rouge 10 days ago.
“It’s the best I’ve seen, there’s just no question,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said of the overall quality of the SEC. “I came to that realization in early January after getting to see everybody. … From teams 2 through 14, you have to play well to beat anybody in this league. The bottom and the middle of the league are the best they’ve been since I’ve been in the league and covering the league the last 10 years.”
Said Fox: “The good thing about it is everybody’s RPI is strong. So, as we beat up on each other, it won’t — or it shouldn’t — hurt your numbers. It should only improve them.”
Last year, only three SEC teams received NCAA Tournament bids. Early projections have the league getting at least five this season.
Ole Miss is one angling for consideration. The Rebels have rebounded quickly from losing their high-scoring shooting guard, Marshall Henderson. They’ve been able to insert junior college transfer Stefan Moody into that role and the 5-foot-10 guard is averaging 18.3 points and shooting 50.0 percent from 3-point range in SEC play. They already were returning one of the best point guards in the league in 6-3 senior Jarvis Summers.
“Marshall was such an enigmatic figure and attracted a lot of publicity,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. “But the reality is we were able to return a pretty solid core and we were able to bring in a couple of transfers to help our depth.”
That seems to be the story around the league. Though there was a conference-mandated effort to play a more competitive non-conference schedule, 12 of the SEC’s 14 teams arrive at this juncture with double-figure wins. Only Kentucky hasn’t dropped a conference game yet. Half the league has a .500 record.
“I feel the SEC is an underrated conference for basketball anyway,” Georgia junior Charles Mann said. “Of course, there’s Kentucky, but there are 12 or 13 other teams that are pretty much in the same boat. So we’ve got to come out and be ready to execute each game. Whichever team is more disciplined and more hungry to win that game is going to stand out.”
Said Frank Martin, who coaches South Carolina (10-6, 1-3): “I’m excited for the league. I’m not excited every day when I’m watching film but, at the end of the day, it’s the type of strength you want in your conference. And it’s our job to elevate our play.”
NOTE: Fox said "barring a miracle," starting guard Juwan Parker will not play against Ole Miss on Tuesday. The 6-4 sophomore missed the Vanderbilt game and played only six minutes versus Florida because of a chronic Achilles tendon injury.
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