Alabama Basketball: SEC Basketball Power Rankings Jan. 27

Alabama basketball maintained its winning ways last week, pushing its conference record to 4-2 and overall record to 12-7.

The Crimson Tide was 2-0 last week, winning in Nashville against Vanderbilt and at home over Kansas State. A win is a win but neither win followed Nate Oats’ script for Alabama basketball.

A careless Tide committed 25 turnovers in the win over Vandy. The Tide was pushed around under the glass against Kansas State. The visiting Wildcats owned 22 offensive rebounds against only three for the Crimson Tide.

Nate Oats was not pleased with his team’s rebounding effort. To an extent, Nate Oats called out his Alabama basketball team in post-game comments.

"We want to be tougher than the teams we play, and I felt like we got — one of the areas where you can look on the stat sheet and see how hard you play is rebounding, and they destroyed us on the glass.I know we play small sometimes, but I don’t think that was as much of the issue as we just didn’t give an effort when we needed to. … I thought Herb [Jones] crashed, but I thought some of our other guys just didn’t give an effort."

Oats needs to get the Tide’s attention quickly. A tough pair of games this week will require maximum focus and effort. Wednesday night, the Tide takes on league leader, LSU, in Baton Rouge. The Saturday matchup is against a hot Arkansas team. Speaking of LSU, Oats said,

"LSU crashes the boards hard. I’ve watched a half-dozen games of theirs already. We’re gonna have a problem if we don’t start rebounding the ball a lot better than we did today."

LSU, at 15-4, is a college basketball enigma. The Bengal Tigers have won their last six games by a total of 15 points. Earlier in the season, they lost three games by a total of six points.

Check out the SEC team rankings in the latest NCAA Net Ranking and Ken Pomeroy’s ranking below. This post will be updated with new AP Poll numbers on Monday afternoon.

Auburn – No. 17 (AP); No. 19 (NCAA Net); No. 33 (kenpom)

Kentucky – No. 13 (AP); No. 22 (NCAA Net); No. 25 (kenpom)

LSU – No. 22 (AP); No. 24 (NCAA Net); No. 34 (kenpom)

Arkansas – Not ranked (AP); No. 28 (NCAA Net); No. 29 (kenpom)

Florida – Not ranked (AP); No. 35 (NCAA Net); No. 36 (kenpom)

Alabama – Not ranked (AP); No. 42 (NCAA Net); No. 42 (kenpom)

Mississippi State – Not ranked (AP); No. 48 (NCAA Net); No. 41 (kenpom)

Tennessee – Not ranked  (AP); No. 54 (NCAA Net); No. 49 (kenpom)

Georgia – Not ranked (Ap); No. 87 (NCAA Net); No. 94 (kenpom)

Missouri – Not ranked (AP); No. 88 (NCAA); No. 92 (kenpom)

South Carolina – Not ranked (AP); No. 91 (NCAA Net); No. 91 (kenpom)

Ole Miss – Not ranked (AP Poll); No. 107 (NCAA Net); No. 118 (kenpom)

Texas A&M – Not ranked (AP Poll); No. 151 (NCAA Net); No. 169 (kenpom)

Vanderbilt – Not ranked (AP); No. 163 (NCAA Net); No. 183 (kenpom)

Some fans are perplexed by the NCAA’s algorithm. After beating Kansas State, the Alabama basketball Net Ranking dropped. Mississippi State lost a tough contest to Oklahoma by one point. The Bulldogs Net Ranking improved. The closely guarded algorithm never measures a game. It measures all games and adjusts accordingly. As with all teams, every team the Crimson Tide has played and every opponent those teams have faced drives data points leading to the Tide’s ranking.

Our weekly Bama Hammer SEC Power Ranking is offered below. It is simply a subjective listing of the best SEC teams from top to bottom. Actual win-loss records are a guide but do not determine each week’s rankings.

SEC Power Rankings – Jan. 27

1. LSU; 15-4
2. Kentucky; 15-4
3. Auburn; 17-2
4. Arkansas; 15-4
5. Florida; 12-7
6. tie: Alabama; 12-7; Mississippi State; 12-7
8. Tennessee; 12-7
9. South Carolina; 11-8
10. Ole Miss; 10-9
11. Georgia; 11-8
12. Texas A&M; 9-9
13. Missouri; 9-10
14. Vanderbilt; 8-11

More detailed SEC basketball standings are available here.

The bottom three in our ranking are struggling to keep pace. Ole Miss and Georgia can still make up ground. Except for Vandy, writing off any of the bottom five is a mistake. The top nine teams are in a large dogfight. February is going to fun for SEC basketball fans.