Rush The Court

It’s a month into the college basketball season and every conference has unanswered questions. For all its faults, the SEC more or less stands alone among the major conferences in that we know with reasonable certainty which team will be taking home the regular season and tournament titles. If you’re betting against Kentucky in this league this season, then you clearly haven’t been watching. But after the Wildcats at the top, there are at least six teams that can make a realistic claim as the second-best team in the conference. Here’s how the race stacks up as we slog through final exams:

• Arkansas (7-2, Best Win: SMU, Worst Loss: Clemson). If nothing else it has been an eventful month for the Hogs. They stormed into the national polls after a 6-0 start. They won on the road at SMU. People were excited. But then Arkansas fell flat in a marquee game at Iowa State and followed it up with a perplexing loss to Clemson. So really, we are left with the same questions we had about the Razorbacks coming into the season. They look better, but are they NCAA tournament better? To its credit, Arkansas may have the front-runner for SEC Player of the Year in Bobby Portis, who is among the league’s top 10 in points per game (15.8), rebounds per game (6.8), blocks per game (1.6), effective field goal percentage (60.2%) and PER (26.7).
• Texas A&M (7-2, BW: Arizona State, WL: Baylor). The Aggies’ most compelling argument is not the team they are now, but the one they could be in a few months. Billy Kennedy got an early Christmas present when Danuel House and Tony Trocha-Morelos became eligible. House has immediately become a key cog for the Aggies, leading the team in minutes per game (29.2) and adding a jolt of athleticism to the perimeter. Any doubt about his role should have been erased when he got the last shot in a tie game against Sam Houston State. Freshman Alex Robinson has also at times looked like the best player on the team. The Aggies don’t have any eye-popping wins and recently got rolled by Baylor, but they have good potential as players get accustomed to playing together.

• LSU (8-2, BW: West Virginia, WL: Clemson). A big week in late November/early December featured wins against UMass and West Virginia, and revitalized the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament hopes. Based purely on production, the quintet of Jordan Mickey, Jarell Martin, Tim Quarterman, Keith Hornsby and Josh Gray are as strong as any in the league. NBA prospects Mickey (16.3 PPG, 10.3 RPG) and Martin (15.9 PPG, 9.3 RPG) have not disappointed in their sophomore seasons, with each player nearly averaging a double-double. If those five were gifted with the power of unlimited energy, I’d be tempted to definitively declare LSU the challenger to Kentucky’s throne. But this is real life and depth matters, and the Tigers haven’t shown much of it. They’ve also had injury concerns, with Mickey missing a game earlier in the year and Gray currently saddled with a hurt ankle.
• Vanderbilt (7-2, BW: Purdue, WL: Rutgers). The Commodores have quietly had a nice opening month to the season. Kevin Stallings’ young team has been great offensively, surrounding low-post dynamo Damian Jones with five players shooting over 39 percent from the three-point line. Freshman Riley LaChance has looked like an all-SEC player in his last two games (52 points, 8-of-12 from three), and if you are going to give Texas A&M brownie points for development potential then Vanderbilt gets them as well because of LaChance and Jones. No SEC team other than Kentucky and Arkansas has been more efficient scoring points this season, according to KenPom, and that could lead to a bunch of wins in a bad league. Still, close losses to Baylor and Rutgers don’t inspire much confidence yet.

• Alabama (6-3, BW: Arizona State, WL: Xavier). The Tide don’t have a bad loss to speak of, falling only to Iowa State, Xavier and Wichita State, all of which are in KenPom’s top 26. Moral victories are cringe-worthy for some people, but you can’t deny Alabama credit for slowing down the Shockers’ dynamic offense and talented backcourt in this week’s near-win. The Tide are as long and athletic as any non-Kentucky SEC team, and Levi Randolph has been one of the league’s best scorers (17.2 PPG, 143.2 ORtg) in a breakout senior campaign. That’s not a bad formula to go to battle with, but Alabama has yet to seal the deal against a quality team. A winnable game at home against UCLA on December 28 could be a nice lead-in to conference play.
• Florida (6-4, BW: Yale, WL: Georgetown). They can’t be left off this list even with a less-than-stellar profile. Four straight trips to the Elite Eight or beyond earns you that. The Gators are certainly the second-most talented team in the conference, but the question has been whether all those talented pieces will ever come together in one healthy package. The reality is that Florida faced a brutal schedule at half-strength, and any conclusions about the Gators shouldn’t be drawn just yet.
• Tennessee (4-4) and Georgia (5-3) might also deserve a blurb. The Vols undid some good will created by wins over Kansas State and Butler in a largely lackluster loss to North Carolina State. The Bulldogs have gotten a breakout season from Marcus Thornton and have a chance to make a statement with upcoming games against Seton Hall and Kansas State. Heck, even Ole Miss might have deserved mention at one time. The point is that this is one jumbled, murky conference. That may speak to the league’s overall mediocrity, but it should make for one interesting season.