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

They are a bad team at 6-9, no doubt about it. But as we have said numerous times, SEC Power Rankings are based on how you’re playing at the moment. And at the moment, the Vanderbilt Commodores have beaten the Alabama Crimson Tide and lost to two teams better than anybody Alabama’s beaten at this moment.

As a result, in a crazy twist, we are putting Vandy at No. 11 right now in these rankings. What choice do we have? Say what you want, but Alabama never should have lost to them.

On top of that, with a 1-2 SEC record, Vanderbilt’s two conference losses are to two teams who played each other in the Elite Eight last week. So we give them a bit of a pass for that.

And despite their 6-9 record, this team has the No. 26 ranked strength of schedule. So they’ve played some decent competition up to this point.

This team’s biggest advantage is depth. They have one key player in senior Jeff Roberson. But they run 11 guys averaging at least 10 minutes a game. That could give them an advantage down the stretch of the season.

In his second year, though, Bryce Drew hoped to raise the expectations a bit. So he’s still got some serious work to do. With home games against the Tennessee Vols and Kentucky Wildcats this week, here is his chance to do that. He’ll need to get one of those wins to keep this group from falling apart.