Why Razorbacks Keep Climbing as SEC Basketball Power Rankings Reshuffle

Arkansas sits near the top as SEC power rankings shift again, with Meleek Thomas providing the spark behind the Razorbacks’ surge.

Arkansas Razorbacks guard Meleek Thomas (1) drives during the first half against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

The SEC doesn’t sit still, and neither do the Arkansas Razorbacks.

That’s been the lesson of this season, especially as the league’s power rankings keep reshuffling like a deck of cards nobody can quite organize.

One week, an SEC team near the top looks settled like Kentucky and its five-game winning streak, and the next it falls off the cliff with a 25-point blowout with a difficult road trip to Bud Walton where the Hogs are currently undefeated.

Arkansas has lived right in the middle of that churn trying to find a balance that will consistently bring wins on the road to complement how strong the Razorbacks are at home.

For the Hogs, the story isn’t about chasing a number generated by a random person's opinion when it comes to SEC power rankings. It’s about finding rhythm in a league that is just inconsistent enough to make it hard to do so.

Most nights the Hogs get their flow from freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr., who keeps stacking of SEC Freshman of the Week awards while recently finding himself ranked high against the entire college basketball roster in ESPN's Top 50 players.

Other nights, it comes from Meleek Thomas, who has found a way to keep up with Acuff in the stat sheets as of late as he has begun to find full chemistry with the team around him. That was the case in an 83-79 win over Oklahoma on Tuesday night.

Watch Meleek Thomas (#1 in corner) celebrate after this huge and-one by Darius Acuff

Chemistry is flowing! pic.twitter.com/RFQo0Gx9aA

— Will Whitson (@will2whitson) January 28, 2026

Acuff Jr. got the headlines later, but it was Thomas' free throws with 11 seconds left that closed out the win.

Thomas has begun to follow in the footsteps of Billy Richmond as someone who can come in and immediately change the energy on the floor for Arkansas. He's figured out how to do the little things that gets the crowd fired up.

While Acuff has become the face of the freshman class, Thomas has become its spark when it comes to the Razorbacks.

That matters in the SEC, where games swing in two-minute spurts.

The Razorbacks are navigating the same thing everyone else is — a league with depth, physicality, and no easy outs from top to bottom..

Arkansas hasn’t separated itself from the pack yet, but defending national champion Florida had rebound from a loss to Auburn with a blowout of South Carolina to keep in a tie with the Hogs in second place in the SEC.

And that’s why the power rankings matter less as predictions and more as snapshots.

They don’t tell you where Arkansas will finish. They tell you where the Razorbacks are standing while everything moves around them.

This week’s SEC basketball power rankings, compiled by Adam Spencer of Saturday Down South, reflect that ongoing motion. There’s another new No. 1 in Texas A&M, although that's unsurprising as the Aggies have held a tight grip on the No. 1 spot in the standings for a couple of weeks now.

The rankings came out before Kentucky fell flat on its face in the ice in Nashville against Vanderbilt and also prior to Thomas knocking down the free throws needed to hold off Oklahoma on the road for Arkansas. That's why the Wildcats still show at No. 3 after moving up five spots while the Razorbacks sit just behind them at No. 4.

Coach Cal has praised Meleek Thomas for overcoming poor-shooting first halves and making shots that helped the Hogs stay close in back-to-back games.

Thomas nailed two free-throws with 0:11 left to ice the game in Arkansas's road win at OU. He finished with 16 points. #wps pic.twitter.com/D2flGstnQE

— Armando Barry (@ArmandoBarry6) January 28, 2026

The power rankings show the Hogs are in the mix to have good shot at getting that bye at the SEC Tournament, although the actual standings are a much better gauge as to how that will play out.

For the Razorbacks, sitting fourth is merely a matter of opinion that will change once again after Saturday's showdown against Mark Pope's Wildcats.

Arkansas is still shaping its identity, still leaning on youth, still figuring out how to finish games cleanly against a league full of grown men.

Acuff gives the Hogs steadiness. Thomas gives them edge. Together, they give Arkansas something it hasn’t always had this season — options.

And in the SEC, options matter.