SEC Basketball Power Rankings, Dec. 9: Kentucky falls, Vanderbilt on the rise

We’re about a month into the college basketball season. We’ve made it through Feast Week, but still have some holiday tournaments to get through and some other electric nonconference games on the schedule before SEC league play tips off in January.

This seems like a great time to take a look back at my preseason men’s hoops power rankings and figure out what has changed.

Spoiler alert: A lot has changed. Seriously, almost every team has moved either up or down in my rankings over the past month. We’ve had teams like Kentucky disappoint. Vanderbilt has looked incredible. Alabama, Tennessee, Auburn, Arkansas and others continue to challenge themselves in nonconference play, which could end up paying dividends come SEC season.

For now, though, we’ll take a snapshot of the state of SEC men’s basketball as we enter the second week of December.

Here are my updated power rankings, starting with No. 16:

16. Mississippi State (4-5 overall)

• Preseason power ranking: 11

Looks like I was too high on Mississippi State entering 2025-26. This team is a mess. A loss to Iowa State? I can forgive that. Losses to Kansas State (by 21 points), New Mexico and San Francisco are much less forgivable. The Bulldogs just aren’t really good at anything this year (No. 85 offensively, per KenPom, and No. 86 defensively) and don’t play fast (144th in adjusted tempo, per KenPom). More losses are coming if these metrics don’t improve.

15. Ole Miss (5-4)

• Preseason power ranking: 9

After starting off 5-0 (beating up on a bunch of lower-level schools), the Rebels are in a free-fall. Utah is one of the worst Power 4 teams. Miami is not good. Ole Miss lost to both of them. Coach Chris Beard is very frustrated with AJ Storr (shocker) and his team’s overall effort. The Rebels have a lot of work to do if they want to compete in the SEC.

14. South Carolina (6-3)

• Preseason power ranking: 16

Look, the Gamecocks haven’t done much, if anything, to impress me. South Carolina’s 3 losses were to Butler, Northwestern and Virginia Tech. The only reason South Carolina has risen 2 spots is because the state of Mississippi is a dumpster fire this year when it comes to men’s hoops. The Gamecocks look like they’ll struggle mightily in SEC play.

13. Texas A&M (7-3)

• Preseason power ranking: 12

I’m not going to hammer the Aggies like I did the teams below them. Texas A&M has a new coach and an entirely new identity. Bucky Ball was always going to take some time to implement. As long as they’re at least competitive in SEC play more often than not, I’m staying calm with the Aggies this season. Losses to Oklahoma State, UCF and SMU certainly don’t look great on a résumé, though.

12. LSU (8-1)

• Preseason power ranking: 15

The Tigers have beaten up on a lot of nobodies and then lost their 1 ranked matchup (to Texas Tech), but there are some positive signs in Baton Rouge. Four different guys are averaging 11+ points for LSU. The offense is solid. The defense is OK. Again, the Tigers haven’t really played anyone yet, but there are signs of progress.

11. Oklahoma (6-3)

• Preseason power ranking: 14

The Sooners have put together a couple of decent efforts against decent teams. They’ve also suffered a couple of disappointing losses. Oklahoma, as things stand right now, does not look like an NCAA Tournament squad. We’ll see if things change in SEC play, but I’m not holding my breath.

10. Texas (7-3)

• Preseason power ranking: 8

Texas has been… fine… this season. Losing to start the year against Duke? Not going to get too down about that. Losing to Arizona State? That’s not great. Losing by 19 against Virginia? That’s bad. But the Horns also have a nice win over NC State that will age well. Sean Miller and company are going to be flirting with the bubble all year, I think.

9. Mizzou (8-2)

• Preseason power ranking: 6

I’m still not entirely sure what to make of Mizzou. The Tigers seem firmly middle-of-the-pack this year. Dangerous at home, not so dangerous away from Columbia. We’ll see if the Tigers can get a nonconference win that’s better than Minnesota in a couple of weeks when they play Illinois in St. Louis for the Braggin’ Rights rivalry.

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8. Georgia (8-1)

• Preseason power ranking: 13

I was skeptical of Georgia until I looked at the metrics. The Bulldogs are No. 22 in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency rankings, No. 44 defensively and play at the 6th-fastest adjusted tempo. Their only loss is by 3 points to a Clemson squad that will be in the NCAA Tournament picture. We’ll see what that leads to in SEC play, but this could be a middle-tier or slightly better team in league action.

7. Kentucky (5-4)

• Preseason power ranking: 3

I really thought about dropping Kentucky much further. The only thing that saved the Wildcats is that their 4 losses are all to ranked teams — Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina and Gonzaga. The Gonzaga game was embarrassing, though, as the Cats lost to the Dogs 94-59 in Nashville. Yikes. This team cannot shoot. It doesn’t have a ton of defensive intensity. There are injuries, sure, but this should be a much better Kentucky squad.

6. Arkansas (7-2)

• Preseason power ranking: 5

Competitive losses at Michigan State and vs. Duke keep the Razorbacks from falling too far. The Hogs also have a really nice win over Louisville. Barely beating Samford and Winthrop a couple of weeks ago made me sour on Arkansas a bit, but John Calipari has his team playing some solid basketball right now with Texas Tech coming to town this weekend.

5. Auburn (7-3)

• Preseason power ranking: 7

Auburn got blown out by Arizona and Michigan, sure, but the Tigers only lost by 1 to Houston. Arizona is No. 1 in the latest AP Poll. Michigan is No. 2. Houston is No. 7. The Tigers also have a win over then-No. 14 St. John’s on their résumé. Steven Pearl’s team will be battle-tested heading into SEC play, that’s for sure. Oh and the Tigers play preseason No. 1 (and current No. 6) Purdue on Dec. 20. What a nonconference slate!

4. Tennessee (7-3)

• Preseason power ranking: 2

The Vols have perhaps the best win in the SEC this year, taking down then-No. 3 Houston in the Players Era Tournament. But Tennessee needs to snap out of its recent skid that has seen Rick Barnes and company fall to unranked Kansas, unranked Syracuse and No. 14 Illinois in 3-straight games. Louisville comes to town next week to give the Vols a chance to add another key win to their résum

3. Florida (5-3)

• Preseason power ranking: 1

The Gators nearly pulled off an upset win over Duke in Cameron Indoor. They deserve some credit for that. But Florida falls out of the top spot after a month because of the 3-point shooting woes. The Gators currently rank dead-last in the SEC in 3-point shooting percentage, making only 27.4% of their triples. For contest, No. 15 in the league is Georgia. The Bulldogs make 30.8% of their 3s. Florida faces a tough test against UConn on Tuesday night.

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2. Vanderbilt (9-0)

• Preseason power ranking: 10

It’s time to give the Commodores their due. Vanderbilt hasn’t played a ranked opponent yet, and won’t until SEC play. But the Commodores aren’t playing a ton of cupcakes, either. Wins over SMU and Saint Mary’s are solid. The metrics love the Commodores; KenPom has Vanderbilt ranked 8th overall. I’m not sure exactly how good Vandy is, but I’m confident that the ‘Dores are much better than the No. 10 spot where I had them in the preseason (and I was higher than consensus on Vanderbilt, for the record).

1. Alabama (7-2)

• Preseason power ranking: 4

Alabama takes the No. 1 spot because of wins over top-10 foes in St. John’s and Illinois. The Tide’s 2 losses are to Purdue and Gonzaga — not exactly something that hurts the ol’ résumé. This weekend features Alabama making the short trip to Birmingham to face new No. 1 squad Arizona. That game will be Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. Don’t miss it!