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

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 06: Tennessee Volunteers fans try to distract a free throw attempt by PJ Washington
KNOXVILLE, TN - JANUARY 06: Tennessee Volunteers fans try to distract a free throw attempt by PJ Washington /
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Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images
Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images /

Last week: Defeated Texas A&M Aggies; Lost to Auburn Tigers

Last rank: 14th

Just when we’re ready to create a clear bottom of our SEC Power Rankings, the LSU Tigers come out and pull off the shocker of the year. Their first win over the Texas A&M Aggies wasn’t that crazy because of the fact that the whole team was out.

This past week, though, pulling off another win by an even greater margin to complete a sweep was shocking. All of a sudden, Will Wade’s team is looking pretty decent. A 25-point loss to the Auburn Tigers was bad, don’t get me wrong.

But this team still has two wins against Texas A&M and an unlikely road win against the Arkansas Razorbacks. Sure, they lost to the Vanderbilt Commodores last week. But that was on the road, where the Tennessee Vols struggled and the TCU Horned Frogs lost.

So with this win, LSU did enough to move up to No. 11 in our SEC Power Rankings. That’s still near the bottom, but they are in the Top 100 of the RPI with a 12-8 record. And this week, they have a chance at a few more upsets, as they visit Tennessee and then host Arkansas.

Splitting that would do wonders for them because the schedule gets a bit easier after that. But, as we already said, there are no easy games left in this conference. So even getting easier doesn’t really mean easy. As a result, postseason play is still going to be extremely difficult for these guys.

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