SEC Hoops: Road wins highlight wild Saturday

Alabama entered the 2022-23 college basketball ranked No. 20 in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. In year four under Nate Oats, the Crimson Tide were expected to contend for an SEC title but figured to be a piece or two away from national title contention.

That is not the case anymore.

At Neville Arena on Saturday afternoon, Bruce Pearl’s Auburn team hosted Alabama for arguably the biggest college basketball game of the day. The environment was electric on the Plains and Auburn gave Alabama one of its best swings.

It still wasn’t enough.

The Crimson Tide shot a blistering 23 of 28 (82.1%) from two-point range as Auburn was determined to limit Alabama’s three-point attempts. On the other end, Alabama continues to show why they are an elite defense with rim protection and switching ability at multiple positions as they held a bad Auburn shooting team to 32.3 percent field goal shooting. Grabbing 16 offensive rebounds was the only reason the Tigers were able to have some offensive success.

Alabama is now 12-0 in SEC play and will make a run at securing a No. 1 seed over the next month. No one in the SEC has gone undefeated since 2014-15 Kentucky but Alabama has a legit shot to reach that mark now.

Missouri stuns Tennessee

Down on Rocky Top, Rick Barnes and Tennessee have long been seen as Alabama’s top competition in the SEC this season. The Vols are No. 1 in adjusted defensive efficiency and own strong double-digit non-conference wins over Kansas and Texas. However, things are starting to slip away from this basketball team.

After that win over Texas on Jan. 28, things have not been good for Tennessee basketball in February. The Vols are now 1-3 in the month following Saturday evening’s stunner to Missouri. Some heroics were needed from Milwaukee transfer DeAndre Gholston for the Tigers at the end.

.@DreeGholston4

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? #MIZ 🐯 pic.twitter.com/arcXwEnMob

— Mizzou Hoops (@MizzouHoops) February 12, 2023

In his first year in CoMo, Dennis Gates is guiding an offense that ranks No. 3 in adjusted efficiency and No. 52 in adjusted pace. The Tigers play modern basketball and Tennessee’s stingy defense had no answers as Mizzou put up 1.34 points per possession by pouring in 14 three-point field goals.

Missouri is getting very close to locking up its fourth NCAA Tournament bid since joining the SEC for the 2012-13 season. Meanwhile, a great season is quickly slipping away from Tenneesse.

The Vols will host Alabama on Wednesday.

Mississippi State and Texas A&M look like the hottest teams in the SEC

Maroon has the basketball fever in the SEC. Mississippi State and Texas A&M are currently trending in the right direction.

Under former New Mexico State head coach Chris Jans, Mississippi State got off to a blistering start this season going 11-0 with neutral site wins over Marquette and Utah during Feast Week in November. State ranks No. 4 in adjusted defensive efficiency and has gave offenses issues with its size and athleticism all season but scoring has been an issue.

That showed up in December as the Bulldogs went 1-8 over a month stretch. But things turned around with 81-74 home overtime victory over TCU in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Jan. 28. Since that point, State is 5-0 and knocked off Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena on Saturday. The Bulldogs are making a late push for an at-large bid.

At Texas A&M, Buzz Williams and his team finished up non-conference play at 8-5 with sub-200 losses to Murray State and Wofford. All signs pointed to the Aggies being an NIT team at best this year. That will not be the case.

Since that loss to Wofford, A&M is 12-2 with six top-50 wins. The Aggies are 10-2 in conference play and have a legit shot at securing the No. 2 seed for the SEC Tournament.

Both of these programs are playing their best basketball at the right time.

Saturday’s scoreboard

Underdogs were 5-2 against the spread on Saturday in the SEC with five outright wins. Alabama and Texas A&M were the only favorites to cover and both of those performances came on the road. We could be due for a wild three weeks to finish the season.

Let’s check out the final scores from yesterday.

• Georgia 75, Kentucky 68: The Bulldogs get the biggest win of the Mike White era over the shorthanded Wildcats as John Calipari’s team is reeling and cannot buy stops on defense.
• South Carolina 64, Ole Miss 61: Lamont Paris gets SEC win No. 2 on the road as the Kermit Davis tenure is heading in the wrong direction at Ole Miss.
• No. 3 Alabama 77, Auburn 69: Nate Oats’ team issues another statement.
• Vanderbilt 88, Florida 80: Don’t look now as Jerry Stackhouse’s team has now won three games in a row. Florida falls to 13-12 (6-6) despite having star five-man Colin Castleton.
• Missouri 86, No. 6 Tennessee 85: Mizzou forces Tennessee to play their game and it results in a marquee win for Dennis Gates.
• Mississippi State 70, Arkansas 64: The Bulldogs were in control from the opening tip as Chris Jans has this team playing good basketball.
• Texas A&M 74, LSU 62: A nightmare season for LSU continues as the Aggies keep stacking SEC victories.

SEC standings

Alabama is poised to grab their second SEC title in three years under Nate Oats, but Texas A&M is lurking. Despite the bad loss yesterday, things are not totally bad for Kentucky in the race for the double byes at the SEC Tournament.