The SEC men’s basketball season is a month in and… let’s just say there have been plenty of surprises.
It has been an eventful nonconference slate, to say the least. Vanderbilt, Georgia and LSU have been pleasant surprises after being picked to finish 11th, 14th and 15th in the media’s preseason poll, respectively.
Kentucky and Florida have been relative disappointments, considering they were picked to finish 2nd and 1st, respectively.
So what should we make of nonconference play so far? What do football enthusiasts need to catch up on now that there’s a lull between the end of the regular season and the start of the Playoff?
Here’s a look at 5 surprising stats through the first few weeks of the men’s college hoops season:
1. Florida already has as many losses as it had all of last year
I mentioned this in my Starting 5 column earlier this week, but Florida went 36-4 last season en route to the national championship. The Gators lost at rival Georgia on Feb. 25 to “drop” to 24-4 on the season and then went on a 12-game winning streak that featured SEC and national titles.
After losing to UConn in the Jimmy V Classic on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, the Gators are now 5-4 on the season. Does this team have a 31-0 run in it?
Uh… I’m not so sure.
This is still a Final Four-caliber Florida team, don’t get me wrong. The Gators’ 4 losses have been by 1 at Duke (excusable), by 4 vs. UConn in NYC (excusable), by 6 in Las Vegas against Arizona to start the season (excusable) and by 4 to TCU (inexcusable).
It’s not time to panic yet in Gainesville, but there’s another surprising stat involving the reigning national champions:
2. Florida is the SEC’s worst 3-point shooting team (by far)
Florida is shooting an abysmal 27.3% from beyond the arc this season. That’s by far the worst mark in the SEC. In 15th place is Georgia, and the Bulldogs are making 30.8% of their long-range attempts. That’s brutal.
Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland haven’t quite settled into this offense yet. They’re not producing at the same level as guys like Walter Clayton Jr., Will Richard, Alijah Martin and Denzel Aberdeen from last year.
That’s OK… for now. It’s all about how you play in March. This team still has Final Four potential, but Lee and Fland need to lead the way from beyond the arc if things are going to improve in Gainesville.
3. Auburn’s nonconference schedule has been a roller coaster
Auburn is currently 7-3 on the season. But those 3 losses are something else.
The Tigers, now under the leadership of Steven Pearl, lost 73-72 to then-No. 1 Houston. A couple of weeks later, they lost by 30 to then-No. 7 (and now No. 2) Michigan in the Players Era Festival. Recently, Auburn lost by 29 to then-No. 2 (and now No. 1) Arizona.
That’s an absolutely brutal schedule. Obviously, losing by 29-30 points to anyone isn’t a great sign. But battling Houston hard was definitely a positive.
On December 20, Auburn plays Purdue, another team that has spent time at No. 1 in the polls this year. The Tigers will certainly be battle-tested by the time SEC play rolls around.
4. Georgia is leading the nation in a whole bunch of categories
To borrow a bit from my colleague, Connor O’Gara — which of these stats are true about Georgia Bulldogs basketball in 2025-26 so far?
- A: Georgia leads the nation with 99.9 points per game
- B: Georgia leads the nation with 78 blocks
- C: Georgia leads the nation with 44.6 bench points per game
- D: Georgia leads the SEC with 100 total steals
- E: All of the above
It’s “E.” It’s always “E.”
Georgia also plays at the fastest tempo of any power conference team, per KenPom. It shows up on the scoreboard and on the defensive end of the court.
Mike White’s crew has scored 100+ points in 4 of 9 games thus far, including a 107-73 blowout win at Florida State recently. No, the Dawgs’ 8-1 record doesn’t have any ranked wins on it, but Georgia has certainly been impressive through the early going. This is a team that should finish much higher than 14th in the SEC, where it was picked to finish by media members this preseason.
5. Vanderbilt and Alabama are also in the top 6 nationally for scoring offense
Georgia may be No. 1 in the nation in offense, but it isn’t alone among the elites in Division I this season. Two other SEC programs — the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Alabama Crimson Tide — are also in the top 6 nationally.
Vanderbilt — who is a perfect 9-0, it should be mentioned — is No. 4 with 96.8 points per game, and Alabama is No. 6 at 95.1 points per contest.
It’s arguably most impressive what Nate Oats and the Tide are doing. They’re averaging those 95.1 points per game against the nation’s second-toughest nonconference schedule, per KenPom. Indeed, the Tide have faced then-No. 5 St. John’s (103-96 W), then-No. 2 Purdue (87-80 L), then-No. 8 Illinois (90-86 W), then-No. 12 Gonzaga (95-85 L) and also have a game coming up against current No. 1 Arizona this weekend.
The Tide continue to challenge themselves against the other top teams in the nation. At least offensively, they’re more than holding their own so far!
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
