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

This isn’t homerism, believe it or not. Sure, you can be mad about a 1-2 team being so high in our SEC Power Rankings. But the Vols are the only team in the conference to beat the Kentucky Wildcats, and they beat them pretty significantly.

Also, they should be 2-1. One of those losses came on the road to the Arkansas Razorbacks in overtime. Grant Williams fouled out of that game due to terrible officiating, and Admiral Schofield eventually fouled out, neutralizing what the Vols could do inside.

So this team is 1-2 but has played far and away the toughest conference schedule so far. And the Vols have shown enough to be significantly higher than Arkansas, despite losing to them.

Rick Barnes’s team has played far and away the toughest schedule in the conference, which is why they still are in the Top 25 and have the highest RPI of any team at No. 10. But with all this being said, the Vols need to improve.

They need more consistent scoring from the guards, and they have to be able to stay focused on a weekly basis. The Vanderbilt Commodores on the road and Texas A&M Aggies at home are on the slate this week. They will be favored in both but could easily lose both as well. Their tough schedule means they don’t have to do too much to get to the NCAA Tournament. But nothing is a given.

Simply put, this team can’t ignore games the way it did last week at home in one game. That game was against the next team in our SEC Power Rankings.