Men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings for Jan. 8: Vols in top half

Cuonzo Martin has turned the Missouri Tigers around in a year. Playing a Top 25 ranked strength of schedule, Mizzou is 11-4 and split its first two SEC games. By the way, there’s no shame in losing to the Florida Gators either.

And the pride in beating the South Carolina Gamecocks remains strong. Martin’s team should have beaten Florida too along with the West Virginia Mountaineers. Jordan Barnett has had a complete turnaround year under him, and bringing in Kassius Robertson was clearly a bold move that paid off.

By the way, he’s doing this despite the fact that his prized recruit in Michael Porter Jr., the top player in the nation for 2017, has been injured and could likely miss the whole season. We’ll find out if that’s the case.

With a Top 30 RPI right now, Martin’s team is at this point firmly in the NCAA Tournament. But they need a few more big wins. Right now, the only two that stand out are South Carolina and the Iowa State Cyclones. This year, that’s hardly enough.

However, like everybody else, they have quite a few chances coming to beef up their resume. As we said, it’s a brutal SEC. And they still have to get through a lot of challenges to be sure they get in.

That starts this week as they host the Georgia Bulldogs and then travel to Fayetteville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks. Martin and Mike Anderson going at it with Mizzou and Arkansas is actually great for the SEC.