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Women’s basketball Jan. 23 SEC Power Rankings: Lady Vols take significant dive

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 21: Tennessee Volunteers fans hold up a cardboard photo of women's basketball coach Pat Summitt during the game against the Connecticut Huskies at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 21, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Connecticut 60-57. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 21: Tennessee Volunteers fans hold up a cardboard photo of women's basketball coach Pat Summitt during the game against the Connecticut Huskies at Thompson-Boling Arena on January 21, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee defeated Connecticut 60-57. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images
Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images /

Last week: Lost to South Carolina Gamecocks

Last rank: 13th

This isn’t really about the Kentucky Wildcats. Losing to the South Carolina Gamecocks, after all, shouldn’t be enough to knock you down to the bottom of our SEC Power Rankings when they are now fully healthy.

More from Vols Women's Basketball

However, a collection of other things that happened with other teams is why we have to put them at No. 14. We’ll get to those later.

What’s clear for this team, though, is that their eight-year streak of going to NCAA Tournaments is about to come to an end barring a miracle. This team is in blatant rebuilding mode, and its 9-11 record and 1-5 SEC record shows that. Losing to South Carolina is one thing. They got blown out.

Despite their No. 39 ranked strength of schedule, this record drops them to No. 110 in the RPI. After only one game last week, though, maybe they got some rest even with the loss. Their next three games are against the Alabama Crimson Tide, Arkansas Razorbacks and Auburn Tigers.

All three games are potentially winnable if they get on a roll, but this team has shown too much evidence that it’s not good enough. It’s hard to envision them winning more than six games the rest of the way. This is just not a good team.

And looking further back from this past week, Kentucky suffered a 15-point loss to another team that still has an impact on our SEC Power Rankings. They are up next.