SEC Basketball Teams Set to Start Beating Up on Each Other
The SEC spent the first couple weeks of the men’s college basketball season beating up on the rest of the nation, and the result was No. 1 Tennessee and second-ranked Auburn leading nine teams from the league into this week’s AP Top 25.
Now, after opening up conference play last weekend, they begin to beat each other up in earnest.
The Vols hit the road to face eighth-ranked Florida on Tuesday, the same night sixth-ranked Kentucky heads to Georgia, which is among three more SEC teams receiving votes in the poll. On Wednesday, it is No. 23 Ole Miss visiting Arkansas — which just fell out this week following a lopsided loss to Tennessee — and No. 10 Texas A&M visiting No. 17 Oklahoma.
Then comes what can only be described as Super Saturday: Among other games, the Vols head to Texas, No. 5 Alabama visits the Aggies, sixth-ranked Kentucky travels to No. 14 Mississippi State, the Gators head to Arkansas and Oklahoma visits Georgia.
“In this league, every game you’re going to play is going to be a hard game. Every one,” said Arkansas coach John Calipari, whose team was whipped 76-52 by the Vols on Saturday, the first of three straight it will have against ranked SEC foes.
Alabama plays four of its first five conference games against teams in the Top 25. So does Kentucky and Texas A&M.
Auburn gets a relatively mild start to conference play by opening against Missouri, Texas and South Carolina. But Auburn will make up for it later with three straight Top 25 games to start February and four in a row to wrap up the league race.
