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Women’s SEC Power Rankings for Jan. 9: Are Lady Vols No. 1?

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 17: Tennessee Volunteers fans get ready before a game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Thompson-Boling Arena on December 17, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 17: Tennessee Volunteers fans get ready before a game against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Thompson-Boling Arena on December 17, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images
Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images /

The defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks have to be at No. 5 right now in our SEC Power Rankings by rule of head to head. You’ll see why as we move up the list, but right now, only three games into conference play, the breakdown only allowed for one other team to be below them that’s not. We’ll get to that team later.

For now, Dawn Staley’s team is on a one-game losing streak after falling to the Missouri Tigers. By the way, it wasn’t some fluke loss either. Mizzou beat the Gamecocks by nine points, even a greater margin than the Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat them by.

Also, it took everything these guys had to be able to put away the Texas A&M Aggies on the road. So their only breather so far in conference play has been a dominant win over the Ole Miss Rebels. But they are still 2-1.

Meanwhile, they Gamecocks are 13-2 overall and have played the No. 22 ranked strength of schedule to put them at No. 11 in the RPI. However, they want that No. 1 seed again. And getting it is going to require more work.

But before that happens, they have a chance to pad their wins. That’s because four of the next five games are against teams outside of the Top 60 of the RPI. The only other one is against the Tennessee Lady Vols, and that’s at home. So we’re about to see this team reel off some comfortable wins before the brutal part of conference play heads its way.