The Auburn Tigers and the Tennessee Vols couldn't cut it on the SEC road Tuesday night. Going into Tuesday's action, Alabama basketball fans were hoping for, but not expecting, Missouri to knock off Tennessee. The Tigers outlasted the Vols, winning 73-69. The 'other' Tigers were outclassed by Oklahoma, losing 91-79 in Norman.
Tuesday night's other game went as expected with the Kentucky Wildcats beating South Carolina 72-63.
Alabama and Arkansas in SEC Second Place
At 10-4, Alabama and the Arkansas Razorbacks are now tied in second place in the SEC standings. If the Crimson Tide and the Razorbacks finish the regular season in a two-way tie, Alabama's win over the Hogs would give the Tide a higher SEC Tournament seeding. Complete SEC standings after Tuesday's games are available here.
Tennessee's loss gives the Crimson Tide some wiggle room in gaining the SEC Tournament 2-seed. Alabama could lose to the Vols on Saturday and still gain the 2-seed; if in other games, Alabama wins over Mississippi State, Georgia, and Auburn; Arkansas loses to Florida on Saturday; and Vanderbilt beats Tennessee on Mar. 7.
Auburn now looks like a team that will not be dancing in March. The Sooners went into Tuesday's game having lost 11 of their last 13 contests and were double-digit underdogs at home. After the game, Steven Pearl said, "Saturday is a must win. ... We have to play desperate. We have to play hungry. We have to do everything opposite of what we did tonight. We were entitled tonight. We were selfish tonight on the defensive end. We had no urgency. That's unacceptable." Many Auburn fans have that 'Pearl The Younger' is unacceptable as Auburn's head coach.
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes concisely summed up the Vols' performance against Missouri: "The way we played, we really didn’t deserve to win."
Note: SEC Tournament Seedings projections provided by not.nothing.net