All for Tennessee Men’s Basketball SEC Power Rankings for Feb. 7: Vols Slip a Bit

The Mississippi State Bulldogs definitely deserved a bump in our SEC Power Rankings after such an amazing comeback over the Tennessee Vols this past Saturday, and for another week they remain .500 in SEC play.

Ben Howland’s team has a good record on paper with that .500 percentage and a 14-8 record overall. However, they are still outside of the Top 100 of the RPI, at No. 113 overall, due to their No. 114 ranked strength of schedule.

Mississippi State also still has a lot more to prove, as they are only here because of one great half of basketball on their home court.

That does not mean they’ll stay here, and they’ve got a lot more work to do to prove they belong here, especially if they want to reach the NCAA Tournament bubble.

The Auburn Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs on the road are two of their next three games, and their only home game in between that is the South Carolina Gamecocks. Then come the Florida Gators at home after that three-game stretch.

So they have a brutal four-game stretch coming up that will at least boost their schedule strength, but without wins it’ll kill their standings. These next four games will tell us exactly where Mississippi State belongs.