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

Avery Johnson had us thinking the Alabama Crimson Tide had arrived a little over a week ago. They shut down the Texas A&M Aggies in dominant fashion. But this past week, the opposite came true for them.

And despite high expectations for the year, Alabama suffered two bad losses to the Vanderbilt Commodores and Georgia Bulldogs. That’s why they had to move to No. 12 in our SEC Power Rankings.

Beating Texas A&M, who is winless in the conference, keeps them from last place. And they’re ahead of LSU because both teams’ only conference wins are against A&M, but the Tide looked better.

Still, that doesn’t mean they aren’t at the bottom of the pack in the conference right now. This team most certainly is.

Part of this is due to injury. Losing Riley Norris for the rest of the season is a killer when it comes to depth on the inside. But he wasn’t a huge part of the team, and that was no excuse to lose to Vanderbilt and get blown out by Georgia.

Collin Sexton is still putting up huge numbers for the Tide. These guys have a collection of guys that can play. It’s time they put it together.

The good news is the Tide still are in the Top 60 in the RPI and have a Top 10 strength of schedule, so if they get on a roll at 9-6, they’ll still be in the NCAA Tournament. But they can’t relax. The South Carolina Gamecocks at home and LSU Tigers on the road are two must-wins to get back on track.