SEC basketball standings remain congested as most teams play their seventh league game. A week ago, a bold prediction was offered grouping the 16 teams into Contenders, Maybe Contenders, Longshots, and a bottom tier labeled "Forget About It."
Since then two of the 'Forget About It' teams; Texas and Arkansas won an SEC game. among the other three, South Carolina found a way to lose again in a home game collapse against Florida. Four of the six 'Contenders' won midweek games; Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida. The only losing contender was Ole Miss, with a close home loss to Texas A&M. The other contender, Kentucky did not have a midweek game.
In Saturday's games home teams are favored in six contests, The two road favorites are Mississippi State at South Carolina and Kentucky at Vanderbilt. According to FanDuel, the Wildcats are a slight 2.5-point favorite to win in Nashville.
The Texas Longhorns are technically the favorite against Texas A&M in Austin, but computer models basically have the game as a tossup.
The big SEC favorites are Florida (11.5 points) over Georgia in Gainesville and the Alabama Crimson Tide; a whopping 17.5 points over the LSU Bengal Tigers in Tuscaloosa.
Missouri is projected to hand Ole Miss a third SEC loss in Columbia. Auburn, with or without Johni Broome is favored to beat the Tennessee Vols in Neville Arena. Broome's availability is categorized as a game-time decision.
If FanDuel is correct Arkansas will win back-to-back games. After losing Boogie Fland to injury the Hogs finally won an SEC game. Credit to the Razorbacks and John Calipari for finally breaking into the SEC win column, but a second-half collapse by the Georgia Bulldogs led to the Arkansas win. The Hogs are favored by 3.5 points for a home win over Oklahoma on Saturday.
It is not easy for some Alabama basketball fans to have a preference in the Tennessee at Auburn matchup. In terms of SEC standings, a win by the Vols would help the Alabama Crimson Tide.