SEC Bulletin Board: A month in and it’s still anybody’s league

Welcome back to our weekly trip around the Southeastern Conference. It’s another edition of KSR’s SEC Bulletin Board, when we step away from our Kentucky fandom to check in on the league as a whole. It’s a league that is still wide open after its first month of play, with five teams within two games of the lead. Four teams are ranked, but not the one in first place. Let’s talk about it. Hop in.

What The Weekend Taught Us

The weekend taught us that Florida is, in fact, a problem, especially inside. Playing a rare Sunday game, the Gators beat Alabama by 23 points in a top-25 matchup, sending a message to the rest of the SEC and the country. Florida scored 72 points in the paint and forced 18 Crimson Tide turnovers, while only turning the ball over twice in the entire game. It was a full-on beatdown of Alabama.

Meanwhile, Kentucky’s upset of John Calipari‘s Hogs co-headlined the weekend in the SEC. The Wildcats looked like a completely different team than the one that lost by 25 at Vanderbilt.

Elsewhere, Texas A&M proved that its first-place spot is no fluke, as the Aggies beat Georgia at Georgia, and Steven Pearl couldn’t beat Tennessee, his alma mater, in Knoxville.

The Standings

• Texas A&M 7-1 (17-4)
• #17 Florida 7-2 (16-6)
• #15 Vanderbilt 6-3 (19-3)
• #21 Arkansas 6-3 (16-6)
• Kentucky 6-3 (15-7)
• #25 Tennessee 5-3 (15-6)
• Missouri 5-4 (15-7)
• Auburn 5-4 (14-8)
• Alabama 4-4 (14-7)
• Georgia 4-5 (16-6)
• Texas 4-5 (13-9)
• Ole Miss 3-5 (11-10)
• Mississippi State 3-6 (11-11)
• LSU 2-7 (14-8)
• South Carolina 2-7 (11-11)
• Oklahoma 1-8 (11-11)

Co-SEC Players of the Week:

Florida’s Alex Condon and Texas A&M’s Rashaun Agee share the SEC’s Player of the Week honor. Condon was selected for his 17.5 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists per game average in wins at South Carolina and against Alabama. He went 11-for-15 from the field against the Tide on Sunday.

Agee played only one game, in which he flirted with a triple-double on the road. The 6-7 senior forward tallied 18 points with 15 rebounds and seven assists in A&M’s 92-77 win at Georgia.

The Other SEC Player of the Week

With Condon and Agee already taken, we’ll recognize Texas guard Dailyn Swain as The Other SEC Player of the Week. In the Longhorns’ comeback win at Oklahoma, Swain put together one of the most complete stat lines in the league all week: 18 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists. Texas erased a 14-point deficit, and Swain was the glue guy through the run.

Before that, Swain scored 30 in a loss at Auburn, shooting 62.5% from the field and 57.1% from three. He added seven rebounds and four assists in that one. Big-time transfer who followed Sean Miller to Austin from Xavier.

Box Score Shenanigans

• A&M’s 22-0 run: At Georgia, the Aggies opened the game on a 22-0 run, holding one of the highest-scoring teams in the country to just two points in the opening five minutes. A&M is now 10-0 when scoring 90+. Bucky Ball.
• Fayetteville tech fest: As we know, Kentucky-Arkansas featured six technical fouls, including three on Kentucky in a 38-second span. The Wildcats were fortunate to survive the stretch in which Doug Shows flipped the game in the Hogs’ favor, but Kentucky quickly recovered and didn’t look back.
• Florida’s frontcourt: In the win over Alabama, Florida’s frontcourt of Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, and Rueben Chinyelu combined for 61 points, 29 rebounds, and five blocks. The Gators scored 72 paint points as a team in the 100-77 win.
• Mizzou’s flamethrowing start: Missouri made five of six three-pointers to start its game against Mississippi State, building a double-digit lead early. The hot start helped the Tigers weather a 10-0 Bulldog run. Mizzou held on to win by five.
• LSU’s FT shooting: Let’s draw attention to a game that not many people watched. LSU beat South Carolina in overtime in Columbia, helped out by 21-for-25 shooting at the foul line, and 8-of-8 shooting at the stripe in OT.
• First since 2017-18: Sunday’s Florida-Alabama game was the first Sunday game since the 2017-18 season.

Game of the Week

With only four games on the midweek schedule, Alabama-Texas A&M is the must-watch of the bunch. Neither team is ranked, but A&M is playing to hold onto first place in the SEC, while the Tide will have either a winning or losing conference record at the end of the night.

Tuesday, Feb. 3

• Ole Miss at #25 Tennessee (ESPN2) – 7:00 p.m. ET
• South Carolina at Texas (SEC Network) – 7:00 p.m. ET

Wednesday, Feb. 4

• Texas A&M at Alabama (SEC Network) – 7:00 p.m. ET
• Oklahoma at Kentucky (ESPN2) – 9:00 p.m. ET

Looking Forward To Saturday

Then on the weekend, we have co-headliners tipping off at the same time on Saturday night. A&M-Florida could be for first place in the league, and Tennessee is looking for revenge in Lexington.

Saturday, Feb. 7

• #21 Arkansas at Mississippi State (ESPN2) – 12:00 p.m. ET
• Missouri at South Carolina (SEC Network) – 1:00 p.m. ET
• Ole Miss at Texas (ESPN2) – 2:00 p.m. ET
• Oklahoma at #15 Vanderbilt (SEC Network) – 3:30 p.m. ET
• Alabama at Auburn (ESPN2) – 4:00 p.m. ET
• Georgia at LSU (SEC Network) – 6:00 p.m. ET
• #17 Florida at Texas A&M (SEC Network) – 8:30 p.m. ET
• #25 Tennessee at Kentucky (ESPN) – 8:30 p.m. ET

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Until next time, enjoy the basketball.