Men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings for Jan. 29: Vols near the top

Last week: Defeated Mississippi State Bulldogs and West Virginia Mountaineers

Last rank: 5th

The Kentucky Wildcats have finally hit their stride. After playing a brutal schedule that saw them lose two straight games the week before, they got back on track with two huge wins last week. And you can’t understate either one.

Sure, the Mississippi State Bulldogs are a team they should have beaten. But it was huge for their confidence to get that win. Then, on Saturday, John Calipari’s team finally showed it could close out games and handle close contests by beating the West Virginia Mountaineers on the road thanks to a late surge.

That was a huge win for the Wildcats and the SEC in the SEC-Big 12 challenge. It did more than enough for us to move these guys up at least one spot in our SEC Power Rankings. And yes, they belonged back in the Top 25.

Right now, they are the second-highest ranked team in the conference in the RPI at No. 12 thanks to their strength of schedule. But that doesn’t make things any easier for them going forward, and they still have work to do if they’re going to move up these SEC Power Rankings.

A home game against the Vanderbilt Commodores is next and should be a win. After that, though, they face the Missouri Tigers on the road, the Tennessee Vols at home, and then the Texas A&M Aggies and Auburn Tigers on the road. All four games could be losses. But given this team’s talent all four could be wins as well.