Men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings for Jan. 15: Vols move up

Last week: Defeated the Georgia Bulldogs; Lost to the Arkansas Razorbacks

Last rank: 5th

Cuonzo Martin’s Missouri Tigers don’t have too much to be ashamed of. Given their struggles of the last four years, they have to be ecstatic about simply being in the mix his first year on the job. And with a 2-2 record and 12-5 record overall, this team is in decent shape.

Still, they had to drop in our SEC Power Rankings because of that loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks. That’s not a bad loss on the road, to be fair. And it followed a decent home win over the Georgia Bulldogs. But given Arkansas’s inconsistencies, we had to indict them a bit.

But this team is currently in the NCAA Tournament if the season ends today. They have the No. 27 ranked strength of schedule and a No. 35 RPI ranking. As a result, this team is sitting in pretty good shape.

Going forward, though, they are about to begin a brutal slate to shoot up their schedule strength. But without wins, it won’t matter.

This week, they host the Missouri Tigers. Then they visit a now healthy Texas A&M Aggies team before hosting the Auburn Tigers next week. That’s a pretty rough three-game stretch, and it will truly define how good these guys are. So far, Mizzou has decent wins against the Dawgs, the UCF Knights and the South Carolina Gamecocks on the road.

However, they need to get some big quality wins. These next few weeks give them the chance to do that.