Men’s basketball SEC Power Rankings Feb. 5: Vols remain among elites
Last week: Lost to Auburn Tigers and Tennessee Volunteers
Last rank: 8th
They are the No. 82 ranked team in the RPI. Honestly, there’s really no shame in what the Ole Miss Rebels did last week. So they lost to the Tennessee Vols and the Auburn Tigers. Why should that matter?
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Well, it matters because of how badly they lost to Tennessee on the road. A 33-point loss cannot be forgiven. And considering the fact that they are on a three-game losing streak, they have to be dead last in our SEC Power Rankings.
Andy Kennedy’s team has shown that it can play with anybody, but it’s most recent outing was so bad that we couldn’t do anything but knock them here. The Rebels have to prove that they deserve more respect.
They have four decent wins over the year, but only two have come against Top 50 RPI teams. To be fair, they have no bad losses. So this makes them a typical SEC team in many ways. However, they now have a losing record.
So despite the No. 6 ranked strength of schedule, the RPI ranking outside of the Top 80 is justified. After two bad losses, though, they have a chance to get back on track this week. Ole Miss has a major opportunity at home against the Missouri Tigers. Then they have a very winnable game on the road against the LSU Tigers. And they follow that up with a home game against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
All three games are winnable, and winning all three would keep their schedule strength in tact while shooting them up the RPI. So they aren’t completely over yet.