I’ve said it enough at this point that it shouldn’t be a surprise with how I feel. But the SEC is very, very mid. It’s not bad like the ACC has been the last few years. It’s not bad like it was years ago when it was sending 3 teams to the NCAA tournament, but it’s also nothing like it was last year.
It’s wide open.
So allow yourself to feel frustration after watching Mizzou lose at Ole Miss, with a chance to move to 3-0 in league play.
3-0 is a special mark, as noted by our own Matt Harris, from his
social media post: “Since the SEC expanded, 30 teams have started 3-0. Only four finished worse than 0.500 in conference play. The floor is 10-8. If nothing else, that start has historically locked in a mid-table finish. And roughly 84 percent of teams to tick off 3-0 made the NCAA Tournament.”
With a loss in Oxford, Missouri failed to take advantage of a league with a whole lot of wide open lanes towards a top level finish.
Right now there are two teams at 3-0, and only one of them is in the top 40 in KenPom.com, that’s Vanderbilt. Vandy is currently 5th, and Texas A&M is 41st. Everyone else has at least one loss, seven teams have two losses, and LSU is 0-3. Teams with two losses you might not expect? Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama. Mizzou is tied with 5 teams at 2-1.
We’ve seen enough of the Tigers this season to know they’re not a great team. Last year they teased us with greatness, but ended up just being a very good team. This team isn’t very good. They might be good, but I think the issue all year is going to be what showed up when they were shorthanded during the month of December… they don’t have depth. If you consult EvanMiya.com’s BPR rankings for players, the Tigers have 7 players with a BPR rating over 2, which is basically “in the top 1,000”. Those players are Anthony Robinson (6.99, 58th), Mark Mitchell (6.13, 103rd), Jayden Stone (3.94, 340th), Jacob Crews (3.40, 448th), Trent Pierce (3.36, 457th), Jevon Porter (2.88, 597th), and Luke Northweather (2.10, 857th). The next highest rated player is Annor Boateng at 0.32, and 1733rd in the country.
The Tigers have 5 players in the top 100 in the SEC, but just two in the top 50. Ant is 9th, Mark is 19th, nobody else is in the top 50. How does every other SEC team look in the top 50? Alabama has 3, Arkansas has 6, Auburn has 2, Florida has 5, Georgia has 3, Kentucky has 6, LSU has 1, Mississippi State has 1, Oklahoma has 3, Ole Miss has 0, South Carolina has 1, Tennessee has 4, Texas has 4, Texas A&M has 3, Vanderbilt has 6. Just for some context. Here’s the same in ranking form:
- Vanderbilt 6
- Arkansas 6
- Kentucky 6
- Florida 5
- Tennessee 4
- Texas 4
- Alabama 3
- Georgia 3
- Texas A&M 3
- Oklahoma 3
- Missouri 2
- Auburn 2
- Mississippi State 1
- LSU 1
- South Carolina 1
- Ole Miss 0
Since SEC play has started, Dennis Gates has had Mark Mitchell on the floor for 90% of the available minutes, and Anthony Robinson on the floor for 87.5% of the minutes. Ant played 56% of the minutes last year, and has seen 78% of the minutes overall this year. Mitchell was at 67% last year and has seen 78.8% this year. Going from 31 minutes to 35 minutes may not seem like much, but it’s a pretty significant jump for College Basketball games.
Against Ole Miss the Tigers had a rotation of basically 6 players. Without Jevon Porter available, Jacob Crews played 21 minutes, Trent Pierce played 25, Shawn Phillips played 29, Jayden Stone, Ant and Mark all played north of 30 minutes. Against Kentucky 5 players saw more than 20 minutes, with Crews, TO Barrett and Nicholas Randall all getting north of 11 minutes. Against Florida, Gates played 6 guys 19 minutes or more, and nobody else more than 10 minutes.
The pairing down of the rotation coincides with Mizzou being a bit more consistent.
Beating Florida was great, beating Kentucky at Rupp was great, both have proven quality wins since they occurred. The Gators boat-raced Tennessee, and beat Georgia soundly after their loss at Missouri. Then Kentucky beat Mississippi State by 24 last night. And I don’t want to sound like I’m downplaying the loss at Ole Miss, but going 2-1 with those three on your schedule is solid work.
Solid. Not great.
Not great because you allowed a down Ole Miss team, with zero players in the top 50, to get off the mat and capture their first SEC win. The Rebels aren’t devoid of talent, they’ve just failed to mesh, and they don’t play with a real identity. But they’re a high major team with players who can make shots, and some of those players made shots like they haven’t in a while.
Meanwhile for Mizzou, they turned the ball over and missed free throws. Those piled up to the point where it was still a single possession game with less than a minute to play.
You can’t be perfect in basketball. But you strive for better. And Missouri got better twice these past 8 days, but the game in Oxford left a lot on the table. Study Hall with full numbers and the breakdown of the differences is coming tomorrow. For now we’ll just wait on Mizzou Football commitments.
Other SEC Scores:
- 11. Vanderbilt 84, LSU 73
- Texas 92, 13. Alabama 88
- Auburn 95, 15. Arkansas 73
- 18. Georgia 75, South Carolina 70
- Florida 91, 21. Tennessee 67
- Texas A&M 83, Oklahoma 76
- Kentucky 92, Mississippi State 68
SEC Standings
- Vanderbilt 3-0
- Texas A&M 3-0
- Missouri 2-1
- Florida 2-1
- Arkansas 2-1
- Georgia 2-1
- Mississippi State 2-1
- Texas 1-2
- Alabama 1-2
- Tennessee 1-2
- Auburn 1-2
- Kentucky 1-2
- Ole Miss 1-2
- South Carolina 1-2
- Oklahoma 1-2
- LSU 0-3
