SEC Men's Basketball Power Rankings: Week 6
It looks like Alabama basketball's strenuous non-conference schedule might be paying off.
After opening SEC play with a dominant 82-64 victory over the Ole Miss Rebels on Tuesday night in Coleman Coliseum, the Crimson Tide took a road trip to Knoxville to face the No. 7 Tennessee Volunteers. While ESPN's Basketball Power Index gave Tennessee an 84.6-percent chance to win the game, Alabama thought otherwise, playing solid defense and playing toe-to-toe with the Volunteers for a 71-63 win.
Alabama surges from 10th last week to fifth in this week's power rankings.
Another surging team right now is Florida. The Gators are the only other 2-0 team in the SEC alongside the Crimson Tide after beating Vanderbilt on the road and LSU in Gainesville. While Florida still has a long way to go, they did enough last week in SEC play to warrant being moved to the top spot this week.
Florida takes over first place this week. However, the game of the week is coming up on Tuesday in Coleman Coliseum when the Gators travel to Tuscaloosa to take on the Crimson Tide. Both will enter undefeated in conference play, but only one will leave 3-0.
Aside from those two teams and their matchups, everything went pretty much as expected in the first week of SEC play. We are already seeing some teams rise and others fall at the beginning of conference matchups. It's looking like it's going to be another exciting, competitive season of SEC basketball.
Here are the updated power rankings after six weeks of college basketball:
SEC Men's Basketball Power Rankings: Week 6
1. Florida (5-1 overall, 2-0 SEC)
2. LSU (6-2, 1-1)
3. Tennessee (7-1, 1-1)
4. Missouri (7-1, 1-1)
5. Alabama (7-3, 2-0)
6. Arkansas (9-1, 1-1)
7. Texas A&M (6-2, 1-1)
8. Mississippi State (6-4, 1-1)
9. Georgia (7-1, 0-1)
10. Kentucky (2-6, 1-0)
11. Ole Miss (5-3, 0-1)
12. Auburn (6-4, 0-2)
13. Vanderbilt (4-3, 0-1)
14. South Carolina (2-2, 0-0)
Follow along at Bama Central every Sunday throughout the season for updated power rankings.
