Even SEC football is jealous of what SEC basketball is doing right now.
The league went 14-1 this weekend and has been so dominant that you’re going to hear a lot of “The SEC is the first league to (fill in the blank)” for the next few months. My Top 25 ballot this week includes 10 SEC teams, with five in the top 10. Three others — Missouri, Arkansas and Texas — have arguments to be included. Just going by the numbers, Auburn could be the best team at this point of the season in the last decade. (More on the Tigers below.)
Remember all of that preseason talk about how many Big 12 teams were in the top 10 and how ridiculously good that league was going to be? Well, the SEC is walking the walk.
This is going to be one fun league race to watch.
Reminder: Below my Top 25, I give nuggets on an unspecified number of teams each week. So when a team appears in the table but not in the text below, that’s why. Scroll on for notes on Auburn, Tennessee, Iowa State, Florida, Kentucky, Kansas, UConn, Texas A&M and Dayton.
1. Auburn
How good has Auburn been? After running previously Top 25 Ohio State off the floor in a 91-53 win in Atlanta on Saturday, Auburn now has an efficiency margin of 35.01 at KenPom. KenPom has this fun sorting tool that allows you to see the ratings at any point in the season dating back to the 2011-12 season. Turns out, Auburn is his database’s best team on Dec. 15 in the last 14 seasons — by a lot.
Now, you’ll notice that the best team at this point in time doesn’t always win the national championship. Three of the last 14 teams that were No. 1 on Dec. 15 went on to win it all: 2011-12 Kentucky, 2017-18 Villanova and 2022-23 UConn. What we can assume is that Auburn is probably going to have a No. 1 seed; 2016-17 Duke is the only team with a plus-30 efficiency margin at this snapshot in time that did not end up a No. 1 seed.
You’ll also notice this year’s Tennessee and Duke teams are also in this top-10, which is another way of saying that in just about any other year, those teams would be No. 1 at this point.
So, Auburn has been really, really, ridiculously good this season. I’m not going to argue against anyone ranking Tennessee No. 1, especially after the Vols won at Illinois on Saturday. But the Tigers have been historically dominant so far.
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2. Tennessee
The Vols started to close the resume gap with Auburn in a 66-64 win over the Illini in Champaign. (The one thing Auburn is missing is an impressive road win. Technically, beating Houston in Houston didn’t count because the game was played at the Rockets’ arena.)
Tennessee showed the value of a strong bench in its win at Illinois. Its best two players, Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler, both fouled out. Zeigler barely played the second half. Starting center Felix Okpara was also limited to nine minutes because of foul trouble, and he just didn’t really fit in this game. The Vols still found a way, mostly because sixth man Jordan Gainey stepped up to score 23 points, including the buzzer-beating game winner.
[Fran Fraschilla voice] A lesson for young guards: Be able to drive either direction. Gainey has had 12 drives to the bucket this season — seven to the right, five to the left — and has now converted four out of the five times he’s gone left. This play was going to allow him to go either direction. The Vols placed Cade Phillips near the top of the key and had him try to set a butt screen. He didn’t make any contact, but it was just another obstacle for the defense. Illinois was in a tricky spot from the start, with Gainey getting a running start and Kasparas Jakucionis backpedaling and eventually opening his hips when Gainey hit him with an in-and-out dribble.
Ideally, Illini big man Tomislav Ivisic would have tried to contest this shot, but he stopped to box out Phillips, who is one of the best offensive rebounders in the country. If the Illini had it to do over again, Kylan Boswell probably would have plugged that gap since he’s guarding Jahmai Mashack, whom the Illini cheated off all night. It’s hard to make those quick decisions in such a hectic setting, and credit to the Vols for knowing exactly what they wanted and executing it. That’s why you practice special situations. (Also, credit to Rick Barnes for the play call, one he got from legendary high school coach Morgan Wootten.)
Iowa State’s offense continues to hum along as one of the best in college basketball, which isn’t something most had on the preseason bingo card. One big boost to the Cyclones has been the passing of power forward Joshua Jefferson, who had a season-high seven assists to go along with 19 points and 10 rebounds in a 89-80 comeback win over Iowa on Thursday.
Jefferson is such a good passer because he stays composed in traffic and understands passing angles. Iowa was doubling the post, and Jefferson was welcoming that double. Watch how he takes a wide step to his left to pull the second defender further up the floor and create a better angle to feed Dishon Jackson.
This inbound is an example of a hectic situation that had to go off-script. This looked like it was designed to go to Jefferson, but he wasn’t able to get it as easily because Drew Thelwell (No. 3) was not where you’d expect him to be. Jefferson realized Iowa’s defense was misaligned, looked middle to assess and then made the skip pass to Nate Heise.
Jefferson always has great awareness of where the help is coming from. This was a smart and timely cut from Heise, as well.
This final Jefferson assist iced the game for the Cyclones. Iowa’s Josh Dix saw the short roll develop and came down from above the 3-point line to tag Jefferson. Again, Jefferson calmly assessed the floor, realized where Dix came from and got Curtis Jones a wide-open look:
Florida is the top-10 team you could most easily argue against because its schedule doesn’t compare to the others in this range. But the Gators have been dominant enough to justify their placement, off to a 10-0 start with every win by double-digits, and they have a star emerging in Walter Clayton. Averaging 23 points over the last four games, Clayton is one of the scariest volume scorers in the country because he can shoot with range and get it off quickly. During that four-game stretch, he has made 19 of 47 from 3-point range. Getting off 47 3s in four games and knocking them down at better than a 40 percent clip is an impressive feat.
A note to future opponents: Do not play a 1-3-1 zone when Clayton is in the game. Arizona State tried that twice on Saturday. This happened the first time:
And this happened the second time:
Clayton, by himself, is a zone buster.
6. Kentucky
Kentucky point guard Lamont Butler is arguably the team’s most important player because the Wildcats play faster when he’s on the floor. This is a team that thrives in transition: Kentucky scored 28 points on 14 transition opportunities against Louisville and is now scoring 1.32 points per transition opportunity, which is third-best in the country (per Synergy).
Butler is great at pitching it ahead, and he puts pressure on the defense with his speed, getting quick paint touches like this one that usually end in an easy bucket.
With Butler on the floor, Kentucky has an effective field goal percentage of 61.1 percent, per CBB Analytics. That’s higher than any eFG percentage in the history of KenPom, which dates back to 1997. In other words, Kentucky is a historically great offense with Butler on the floor.
Kansas looked like Kansas again in its win over NC State on Saturday. And if there’s a key to KU looking top-10 good compared to whatever it was against Creighton and Missouri, it’s Dajuan Harris Jr. and Zeke Mayo playing with confidence and making shots. Teams are usually willing to let Harris shoot, but the scouting report has been to try to take away Mayo. The Jayhawks need to find ways to get the South Dakota State transfer 3-point looks because in games when he has attempted five or more 3s — which has happened against NC State, Furman, Oakland, North Carolina and Howard — he has shot a solid 15 of 36 from 3 and KU has an efficiency of 123.3 in those games. That’d be the sixth-best offense in college hoops.
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13. UConn
Turns out the Huskies weren’t cooked. They now have three consecutive wins over top-40 KenPom teams (Baylor, Texas and Gonzaga), and that alone is Top 25 worthy. UConn is one of seven teams with at least three top 40 wins, joining Auburn (five wins), Marquette (four), Alabama (three), Kansas (three), Texas A&M (three) and Purdue (three).
Since the day after the Maui Invitational, UConn is the fifth-best team in college basketball, according to barttorvik.com. The schedule could also allow for the Huskies to keep climbing in the rankings over the next month-plus. They will likely be favored in their next 10 games. Credit to Dan Hurley and his players for turning things around so quickly. That Hurley swagger appears to be back.
14. Texas A&M
No one in college basketball is better during the one or two seconds that a shot is in the air than Texas A&M. The Aggies, who are the best offensive rebounding team in the country, should be the betting favorite to remain in that spot all season. Watch their effort when the shot is in the air:
Solomon Washington went about 40 feet to chase that board down, and even though the Aggies didn’t end up scoring, they took 45 seconds off that clock in that one possession, essentially icing the game. No matter where that ball bounced, the Aggies had someone in position to grab it. Whether it’s high-pointing a ball in the air or chasing down a long rebound, Buzz Williams has guys with the athleticism and desire to go get it.
Anthony Grant has had some great offensive teams at Dayton, but usually it’s the shooting that is the separator. This group is good in that category — ranking 24th in effective field goal percentage — but these Flyers take care of the basketball better than any of his previous teams. They are turning it over on only 13.1 percent of their possessions, and their aversion to turnovers helped them knock off Marquette on Saturday. Only three teams have had a turnover rate under 20 percent against the Golden Eagles this season. Dayton had the lowest (11.3), and Marquette is now 1-2 in those games.
Dropped out: Clemson, Wisconsin, Penn State.
Keeping an eye on: Memphis, Utah State, Drake, San Diego State, St. John’s, West Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati.
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
