The SEC spent the first couple weeks of the men’s college basketball season beating up on the rest of the nation, and the result was No. 1 Tennessee and second-ranked Auburn leading nine teams from the league into this week’s AP Top 25.
Now, after opening up conference play last weekend, they begin to beat each other up in earnest.
The Vols hit the road to face eighth-ranked Florida on Tuesday, the same night sixth-ranked Kentucky heads to Georgia, which is among three more SEC teams receiving votes in the poll. On Wednesday, it is No. 23 Ole Miss visiting Arkansas — which just fell out this week following a lopsided loss to Tennessee — and No. 10 Texas A&M visiting No. 17 Oklahoma.
Then comes what can only be described as Super Saturday: Among other games, the Vols head to Texas, No. 5 Alabama visits the Aggies, sixth-ranked Kentucky travels to No. 14 Mississippi State, the Gators head to Arkansas and Oklahoma visits Georgia.
“In this league, every game you’re going to play is going to be a hard game. Every one,” said Arkansas coach John Calipari, whose team was whipped 76-52 by the Vols on Saturday, the first of three straight it will have against ranked SEC foes.
Alabama plays four of its first five conference games against teams in the Top 25. So does Kentucky and Texas A&M.
Auburn gets a relatively mild start to conference play by opening against Missouri, Texas and South Carolina. But Auburn will make up for it later with three straight Top 25 games to start February and four in a row to wrap up the league race.
“We’re good enough to win every game on the road. We’re good enough to lose every game at home. That’s how good the league is,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, who earned his 213th win on the Plains with the win over Missouri on Saturday, and who can break a tie with Joel Eaves for the most in program history by beating the Longhorns on Tuesday night.
Auburn has won seven straight against SEC opponents dating to last season.
“Honestly, nobody enjoys winning more than me. Nobody hates losing more than me. I’m a really bad loser,” Pearl added. “But you know me. You have to know I’m on to Texas, on to the next one. The only thing I’d rather do on (discussing the record) is talk about Joel Eaves, or some of the great coaches I get to join because I’m the coach at Auburn right now.”
One thing is certain: As SEC teams begin to fight amongst themselves, some winning streaks are bound to end.
Tennessee (14-0) can match the second-longest streak in school history by beating the Gators, trailing only a 19-game run during the 2018-19 season. The Aggies (12-2) have won eight in a row since their loss to No. 15 Oregon, tied for the fourth-longest streak in men’s Division I basketball. Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, both 13-1 and are among the biggest surprises so far this season, have won their last seven apiece, while Auburn and Alabama are riding six-game winning streaks.
“We’re in it now,” Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said simply. “We’re in SEC play.”
Big 12 battles
While the SEC has established itself as the preeminent league this year with three in the top 5 and six in the top 10, the Big 12 — which has long been considered the nation’s toughest basketball conference — continues to produce marquee teams.
Iowa State (13-1) has won nine straight since its 83-81 loss to Auburn at the Maui Invitational, while No. 11 Kansas showed why it was the preseason No. 1 by following a last-second loss to West Virginia with a record-setting rout of UCF last weekend.
Kansas plays Arizona State on Wednesday night before heading to Cincinnati, which dropped out of the Top 25 this week.
Mid-major markers
No. 18 Gonzaga takes on San Diego on Wednesday night before facing Washington State and Oregon State, who joined the West Coast Conference when the Pac-12 fell apart. The Cougars are 13-3 and have won their first three games in their new league, and the Beavers are 12-4 with two of those losses to Oregon and Nebraska.
Memphis, which climbed two spots to No. 19, plays East Carolina on Saturday in its only American Athletic Conference game of the week. No. 25 Utah State puts its new ranking on the line with games against San Jose State and Boise State.
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