Scores
Tuesday, December 13
Mississippi State 75, Florida Atlantic 68
South Carolina 66, Presbyterian 58
Wednesday, December 14
Ole Miss 66, Louisiana-Lafayette 54
Charleston 71, Tennessee 65
Auburn 52, South Florida 40
Thursday, December 15
LSU 66, UC Irvine 59
Saturday, December 17
Kentucky 87, Chattanooga 62
Mississippi State 80, Detroit 75
Ohio State 74, South Carolina 66
Southern Mississippi 86, Ole Miss 82
Florida 84, Texas A&M 64
Kansas State 71, Alabama 58
Indiana State 61, Vanderbilt 55
Arkansas 62, Southeast Louisiana 55
Auburn 84, North Florida 71
Georgia 63, USC 59
This was, on balance, a slightly disappointing week for the SEC. There are a few good stories developing in the conference, but they’re outweighed by the negative trends unfolding on the hardwood. The good news for SEC brass is that Mississippi State is holding steady. The Bulldogs have a well-established reputation for being flaky and unreliable, but so far this season, they’ve remained focused and dedicated. Coach Rick Stansbury is getting the most out of his players, who are withstanding the pressure of high expectations. Mississippi State dug out two hard-earned wins over the past seven days, fighting past Florida Atlantic – one of the very best teams in the Sun Belt Conference – and Detroit, a pesky Horizon League foe, to forge a 10-game winning streak. These are not RPI top 25 wins, but they’re decent wins, and they’re coming on the road as well as at home. Mississippi State is slowly but surely crafting the kind of profile that, if coupled with a solid (not spectacular, just solid) SEC season, will get the Bulldogs into the Big Dance, thereby giving ballast to the SEC as a basketball league.
The other particularly positive story for the Southeastern Conference is Florida. The Gators look good and appear to be getting better as the season goes along. Coach Billy Donovan’s team thumped Texas A&M in a matchup of ranked schools this past Saturday in Miami. Florida’s defense overwhelmed the Aggies from the start, and the Gators showed tremendous energy at both ends of the floor. The laziness that defined the 2008 through 2010 Gator teams is a thing of the past. The program has seemingly worked through a multi-year rut after winning back-to-back national championships. There seemed to be a sense of entitlement on the post-championship teams, who expected to win just because of the name across the front of the jersey. Last year’s Florida squad and this year’s version are both putting in the work, and the results are not surprising.
The bad news in the SEC is that some programs are not pulling their weight. Vanderbilt is the leading (or should we say faltering?) example in this regard. The Commodores were ranked seventh in the preseason polls, but are now looking like an NIT team after getting ambushed at home by Indiana State. Vanderbilt has been playing without big man Festus Ezeli for much of the season, but Ezeli was on hand against Indiana State, and the Dores still lost at home to last season’s Missouri Valley Conference Tournament champion. Vanderbilt has to beat Marquette on Dec. 29 if it wants to shore up its at-large profile for the NCAAs.
Alabama is also taking some backward steps this season. Coach Anthony Grant’s team can certainly defend, but it can’t hit the side of a barn from three-point range. Another poor shooting performance doomed the Tide in a 13-point loss against Kansas State. Alabama has to find some offense in short order if it wants to make the NCAAs.
Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer