SEC Men's Basketball Power Rankings: Week 9

Alabama basketball continues its march into, over, around and through the SEC. Another week, two more additional wins for the Crimson Tide.

After starting the season 7-0 in SEC play, Alabama traveled to Baton Rouge on Tuesday night to take on the LSU Tigers, the No. 2 team in the conference. While the Tigers had the potential to provide quite a stumbling block for the Crimson Tide, Alabama played one of its best performances of the season, routing LSU 105-75 in 40 minutes.

In the game, the Crimson Tide shot 23 three-pointers, breaking its own SEC record of 22. In fact, seven of Alabama's first eight scores were threes — all coming in the first five minutes and 11 seconds.

Ironically, Mississippi State provided more difficulty for Alabama on Saturday afternoon inside Coleman Coliseum. While the Crimson Tide was ultimately able to pull out the win, Alabama was out-rebounded by the Bulldogs 36-32 and struggled off the offensive boards.

Regardless, Alabama is now 8-0 in the conference. However, two more tough opponents will take it on this week as the Crimson Tide hosts Kentucky on Tuesday night and then travels to Oklahoma on Saturday for the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

Around the SEC, one team continues its surge while another began to slide.

While Alabama might be the surprise team of the SEC West to the common basketball fan, Missouri is certainly the surprise team of the SEC East. The Tigers are now 4-2 in conference play and have won four of their last five SEC games. This past week, Missouri handled South Carolina with relative ease at home before defeating a tough Tennessee team on the road. Alabama fans should circle their calendars for Feb. 6, when the Crimson Tide travels to Columbia.

Regarding teams on the slide, LSU had its worst week of the season these past seven days. After being dismantled by Alabama at home on Tuesday night, the Tigers then lost at Kentucky 82-69. With the Wildcats having a down season, neither loss looks good for LSU. However, the Tigers still remain one of the teams to look out for in the SEC. LSU will look to turn its bad luck around this week at Texas A&M and against Texas Tech.

Here's how the teams of the SEC stack up heading into the 10th week of college basketball:

SEC Men's Basketball Power Rankings: Week 9

1. Alabama (13-3 overall, 8-0 SEC)

2. Missouri (10-2, 4-2)

3. Tennessee (10-3, 4-3)

4. LSU (10-4, 5-3)

5. Florida (8-4, 5-3)

6. Arkansas (12-4, 4-4)

7. Mississippi State (9-7, 4-4)

8. Auburn (9-7, 3-5)

9. Kentucky (5-9, 4-3)

10. Ole Miss (8-6, 3-4)

11. Georgia (9-5, 2-5)

12. Texas A&M (7-6, 2-5)

13. South Carolina (3-5, 1-3)

14. Vanderbilt (4-7, 0-5)

Follow along at Bama Central every Sunday throughout the season for updated power rankings.