Men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings for Jan. 29: Vols near the top
Last week: Lost to LSU Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks
Last rank: 13th
Perhaps this is an overreaction. After all, there’s no shame in losing to the Kansas Jayhawks. However, the Texas A&M Aggies showed they are not ready to fully return to form after losing to the LSU Tigers before that.
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Such a loss was enough for us to knock this team down to dead last in our SEC Power Rankings. In overall talent, we wouldn’t put them here. But Billy Kennedy’s team has not proven anything to move above this spot.
We could excuse the 2-6 conference record because of all the injuries to start league play. But getting healthy and still scoring a bad loss validates that bad start. So we have to move this team to No. 14 now.
The good news for these guys is that they remain in better position than anybody else in the bottom half of this conference to make a run. After all, they are still No. 37 in the RPI and likely in the NCAA Tournament, even now.
That’s because their 13-8 record comes with the No. 6 ranked strength of schedule. However, the schedule doesn’t get any easier.
Texas A&M’s next six games are all against Top 60 RPI teams, and four of them are against Top 25 RPI teams. Three of those games are at home. If this team just splits that run, though, they’ll be 16-11 with easily the No. 1 strength of schedule in the nation. Then a run of easy games allows them to beef up their record. So this stretch is huge for them.