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

Last week: Defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks; Lost to the Alabama Crimson Tide

Last rank: 13th

Will Wade is building a program in Baton Rouge! And despite a home loss this past weekend, back to back quality wins were enough for us to shoot this team up in our SEC Power Rankings. By the way, as you’ll see on the next slide, the Alabama Crimson Tide are no longer a bad loss.

And let’s go back to what they did before that. LSU scored the biggest win over the Arkansas Razorbacks in the conference. They destroyed them, winning the game by over 20 points in dominant fashion.

All of a sudden, the Tigers look like a potential NCAA Tournament team. Their strength of schedule is No. 64 overall in the country. Meanwhile, they have the No. 65 overall RPI. And there are plenty of chances to move up on the horizon.

With four Top 50 wins already, the quality wins are really helping this team. And they are about to have a chance at quite a few more.

This week will give us a better read on where the team truly stands in our SEC Power Rankings as they host the Georgia Bulldogs and visit the Vanderbilt Commodores. They need to prove they’re in this tier.

But then they host a Texas A&M Aggies team sure to be much better by then, and following that is a visit to the Auburn Tigers and Tennessee Vols. Another game against Arkansas and then a road game against the Florida Gators makes for a brutal five-game stretch after this week. It’ll boost their schedule rank. But they’ll have a hard time scoring wins.