We’ve reached the midseason mark in SEC action, which means your southern basketball bard is handing out some honors and hardware this week.
We’ll also circle the SEC to talk about Florida’s dominant win over Alabama, Kentucky’s quiet resurgence, what makes Texas A&M such a tough scout, and the SEC’s incredible depth.
Before we dive in, let’s all pay homage to Aden Holloway’s remarkable shot late Wednesday night in Alabama’s much-needed 100-97 win over Texas A&M. I don’t think Aden even made that shot on the Charlotte playgrounds he graced growing up. But we’re all witnesses.
With joy in my heart and the faint scent of March in my soul, here are 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to at the halfway point of the SEC league play.
Opening Tip: The SEC is America’s Deepest Conference. What’s with the “overrated league” narrative?
As I’ve previously written in this space, there was almost no way the 2025-26 SEC was going to emulate the historic success it had in the 2024-25 basketball season. With 14 NCAA Tournament bids, 7 Sweet 16 qualifiers, half the Elite 8 and Final 4, and national champion Florida, the league was a wagon unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the sport of college basketball. Even then, there were whispers on Selection Sunday that the league was “overrated,” a product of legacy media hype and viewership drive. Those arguments proved preposterous come tournament time, of course. Ironically, the aftermath of last year’s historic success set the bar so high for the conference that almost anything the league produced this year would seem to be a failure.
The truth, though, is that the SEC remains the deepest, best league in America. The B1G has a “top” similar to the SEC’s a year ago, with a staggering 6 of the top 15 teams in KenPom and 5 of the top 15 in Torvik, 2 analytical benchmarks used by the Selection Committee. That’s impressive stuff, and it makes it reasonable to argue that the B1G is the best league in the sport this season.
The Big 12 is elite at the top as well, with 3 of the top 5 teams in Torvik (Arizona, Houston, Iowa State) and 5 in the KenPom top 20 (add BYU and Kansas). The Big 12 also has Kansas’s Darryn Peterson, probably the nation’s best player, at least when he’s on the floor.
Then again, there are only 6 B1G and Big 12 squads in the top 32 of KenPom — a range that tends to be predictive of the subset of teams that can win more than 1 game in the NCAA Tournament. The SEC? It has 8 teams in the KenPom top 32 (and Torvik’s top 32), the most of any league by 2 spots!
In other words, the depth of the SEC is unparalleled—again. Would it be stunning if zero SEC teams advanced to the Final Four? Not at all. As we wrote last week, the SEC has Final Four “contenders” this year, not “favorites.” But the rumors of the SEC’s demise are foolish and misstated, rebutted by the data and likely, the number of SEC teams that will be hanging around after the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Florida beats down Bediako and Bama to cap epic week
Playing in front of a nationally televised audience on ABC, the reigning national champions looked capable of a return to the Final Four on Sunday, bulldozing Charles Bediako and Alabama 100-77 at Exactech Arena in Gainesville.
The Gators controlled the glass, out-rebounding Alabama 44-33, and dominated the turnover battle, forcing 13 live-ball Alabama turnovers and cashing those in for 25 points. The Gators committed just 2 turnovers on the afternoon, the lowest amount for any team in a SEC game this season.
Florida’s frontcourt lived up to its preseason billing as the best in America on Sunday, scoring an SEC-record 72 points in the paint, led by Rueben Chinyelu, who outclassed Bediako (6 points, 7 rebounds, fouled out) with 14 points and 17 rebounds in the victory. Chinyelu also put together probably the single-best defensive basketball possession of the season, locking up Labaron Philon and then Latrell Wrightsell in 1-on-1 scenarios after switches late in the first half.
Chinyelu earned Naismith National Player of the Week for his outings against South Carolina and Alabama, which saw the junior center average 14 points and 14 rebounds per contest.
Florida’s “other” starting forwards, Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon, were also brilliant. Haugh scored 22 points, above his team-high average of 17.6 per game, and Alex Condon, a preseason All-American, scored a game-high 25 points on a stupendously efficient 11-for-15 from the floor.
Not to be left out, Florida’s backcourt outplayed Alabama’s talented guards, with Boogie Fland especially brilliant, scoring 15 points, dishing out 8 assists, and tying a school record with 8 steals. Fland became just the second Power 5 player this century to record at least 15 points, 8 assists and 8 steals with just 1 turnover, joining LSU’s Tremont Waters (1/23/18 vs. Texas A&M).
Staggering stuff.
The Gators did this to Alabama after walloping South Carolina 95-48 at Colonial Life Arena on Sunday. Two SEC games with an average margin of victory of 35? That’s an epic week, and one that shows the Gators are capable of returning to the Final Four.
The next test? Playing well when the spotlight is back on them. Florida started the year 5-4 as a fixture in the national spotlight and had just begun receiving acclaim and attention again when Auburn punked the Gators in Gainesville on January 24. With the national media talking about Florida again, can the Gators handle the spotlight? It’s harder than you think.
Last year’s Florida team won a national title flying under the radar until tournament time, then embraced the expectation of being a tournament favorite. Will this team be capable of the same? We’ll find out quickly, with a tough 2 game road trip (at Texas A&M, at Georgia) ahead this week.
Quietly, Kentucky is playing some of the best basketball in America
It isn’t often a Kentucky team flies under the radar.
After a miserable start to the season, though, many outside (and too many inside) the Commonwealth wrote the Wildcats off.
Mark Pope kept grinding, and Kentucky’s now won 7 of 8 after an 0-2 start to SEC play. Wednesday night’s 94-78 win over Oklahoma was progress of a different sort, too. Kentucky won a league game by 5 or more points for just the third time and broke 90 offensively for just the second time in SEC action.
Otega Oweh capped a brilliant week with 24 points on a tidy 7-11 from the field, marking the fourth consecutive game the preseason SEC Player of the Year has scored 20 or more for Big Blue.
Kentucky’s domination of Oklahoma also showed it could handle success. A letdown would have been natural after an emotional, impressive 85-77 road win over John Calipari’s Arkansas last Saturday. No one expected much from Kentucky in that game, coming off a 25-point drubbing at the hands of Vanderbilt. In a reversal of a year prior, though, when Arkansas upset Kentucky as a heavy road underdog, Kentucky smashed Arkansas on the glass and frustrated the Hogs perimeter offense (3-14 from 3) to grab easily their best win of the season.
Kentucky’s next 4-game stretch includes 4 NCAA Tournament teams, including road tilts at Florida and Auburn. We’ll learn plenty in those games, but they no longer feel season-defining for the Wildcats, who have gotten off the mat and are playing some of the best basketball in America over the past month, even if only a few of us have noticed.
Midseason Awards, Part I
It’s only midseason, which means if your favorite player isn’t on this list, there’s still plenty of time. The reality is that there are at least 15 SEC players who merit first, second, or third team All-SEC consideration through 9 or 10 SEC games, and willowing that list down to just 6 names (a starting 5 and a Sixth Man) is extremely difficult. With that in mind, we won’t narrow it down to 6 just yet. Instead, here’s a Midseason First and Second Team All-SEC grouping.
First Team:
Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
Thomas Haugh, Florida
Rueben Chinyelu, Florida
Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Tennessee
Tyler Tanner, Vanderbilt
Second Team:
Labaron Philon, Alabama
Keyshawn Hall, Auburn
Alex Condon, Florida
Otega Oweh, Kentucky
Rashaun Agee, Texas A&M
Midseason Awards, Part II
Midseason Awards aren’t complete without handing out some sure to look foolish individual awards. Here are our choices for those, along with an SEC All-Defensive Team at the midway point of the 2025-26 campaign.
Player of the Year: Thomas Haugh, Florida
Freshman of the Year: Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas
SEC Defensive Player of the Year: Rueben Chinyelu, Florida
Coach of the Year: Bucky McMillan, Texas A&M
All-Defensive Team:
KeShawn Murphy, Auburn
Boogie Fland, Florida
Rueben Chinyelu, Florida
Felix Okpara, Tennessee
Devin McGlockton, Vanderbilt
Player of the Week: Nate Ament, Tennessee
A star is being born in Knoxville.
Tennessee’s outstanding freshman was instrumental in big wins over Auburn and Ole Miss, averaging 25 points in those contests and hauling in 7 rebounds per game. Ament didn’t shoot the ball well in the win over Auburn, connecting on just 4-of-16 shots from the floor, but he didn’t let that phase his willingness to attack. Ament drew a game high 9 fouls and connected on 12-for-15 free throws in the victory.
That was huge on an afternoon when Ja’Kobi Gillespie was held largely in check (11 points, 5 assists, 3 turnovers). Earlier this season, the Volunteers struggled to weather quieter games from Gillespie, including a blowout loss at Florida where Gillespie shot just 3-10 from the floor and coughed up 4 turnovers. Now, thanks in part to the jump in production from Ament, Tennessee has rattled off 4 consecutive wins, with 2 of those victories coming in the coveted Quadrant 1A (at Alabama, at Georgia).
Team of the Week: Kentucky Wildcats
Florida would garner this honor if our column ran on Mondays, but last week’s 95-48 win over South Carolina is removed from “Team of the Week” consideration based on our Thursday evening publication date.
Kentucky earns the honor in Florida’s stead, getting a statement win at Bud Walton Arena on Saturday and following that with a drubbing of Oklahoma on Wednesday night at Rupp Arena. In a stunning stat, given Kentucky’s storied history, the win was the largest SEC road win for an unranked Kentucky team against a ranked opponent.
Kentucky still struggles to score at times, especially when Denzel Aberdeen, the Robin to Oweh’s Batman, has an off night. But if the Wildcats hold serve Saturday against Tennessee in Rupp Arena, they’ll head into their bye week firmly in the SEC Championship conversation, something that felt unbelievably distant after a dire nonconference slate and the team’s 0-2 start in league play.
Stat of the Week: Kill Shots and Kill Shot Margin
The outstanding Evan Miyakawa tracks a statistic called a “kill shot,” which is a 10-0 run or more within a single game. It’s a great measure of explosiveness and spurtability and the data shows that teams with a high “kill shot margin” (the number of kill shots a team registers per game vs. how many their opponents register) are significantly more likely to win basketball games.
Who in the SEC is elite at registering “kill shots?”
Would it surprise you that Texas A&M, playing its unique, high-tempo, hard-pressing style under first year head coach Bucky McMillan, leads the SEC in kill shots per game (1.09)? It shouldn’t. The Aggies turn opponents over on 19.6% of possessions, the highest number in the SEC, and 11.8 of those come off live-ball steals. That opens up transition opportunities and easy points. Couple that with a SEC-best 38% 3-point shooting percentage and you see why the Aggies are explosive.
Georgia does it at a high clip, too (1.05), thanks to a quartet of playmaking guards who can explode at any moment. Georgia also blocks more shots than any team in the SEC (16.4), which allows it to thrive in transition, where it scores more points than all but 1 team in the SEC (Alabama). Couple that with high tempo hoops and it’s easy to see why Mike White’s team is so difficult to guard.
The best kill shot margin? That belongs to Florida (0.91). The Gators have given up just 1 kill shot this season, the fewest in college basketball. Credit elite rebounding, a frontcourt with 2 of the best defenders in the sport in Rueben Chinyelu and Alex Condon, a steal merchant defender on the perimeter in Boogie Fland — all of which combine to make Florida mostly “run proof.”
Where to Eat on an SEC Hoops weekend in: College Station, Texas
There’s a battle for first place in the SEC on tap when Texas A&M welcomes No. 17 Florida to Reed Arena on Saturday night.
If I’m in Texas, I am seeking out barbeque at its finest, and 1775 Pit BBQ delivers the goods. Sitting in a trailer housed just before the Brazos River, 1775 Pit BBQ has been serving happy customers in the Bryan-College Station area since 2017. Veteran-owned and operated, 1775 Pit BBQ is now a mainstay on the Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ spots in Texas list, and one bite into the brisket, it’s easy to figure out why. The chef, Brad Doan, is careful about the meats he picks and attentive in how he prepares things, which results in succulent brisket that falls off the fork and some of the best pulled pork your Carolina-born author has ever tried. The briskets are all Prime grade, and the ribs are from fatty Duroc pigs. With just 5 meats and 6 sides on the menu, 1775 Pit BBQ is the kind of restaurant that knows what it is good at and doesn’t try to be something it is not. That formula works just fine, and if you have room for dessert, they serve a house made item on Fridays and Saturdays.
One word of warning? 1775 Pit BBQ tends to sell out of brisket and the smoked turkey by about 2-3 p.m. That’s a testament to quality, but also a reminder that at a family-run place doing it as well as 1775 Pit BBQ, you better arrive early.
The SEC’s 10 NCAA Tournament Teams Will Be:
Florida, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn, Alabama, Texas A&M, Georgia, and Texas.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
