Tennessee became the seventh and most recent current SEC basketball team to ascend to No. 1 in the country. (Missouri and South Carolina achieved the feat before joining the league.)

The Vols had reached No. 1 one other time — for one week in 2007-08.

What’s the highest every other SEC basketball has climbed in the AP Top 25 Poll? Let’s take a look.

Alabama

Highest: No. 1

Most recently at highest rank: 2002-03 season.

Skinny: The Crimson Tide spent their only 2 weeks at No. 1 early in the 2002-03 season. They didn’t stay there long, though. They were 9-0 and ranked No. 1 when they lost at Utah. Shortly thereafter, they dropped 6 of 8 to fall out of the poll. They closed the season with a first-round loss in the SEC Tournament and a first-round loss in the NCAA Tournament.

Arkansas

Highest: No. 1

Most recently at highest rank: 1994-95 season.

Skinny: Arkansas has spent 12 weeks at No. 1, not surprising considering the Hogs are one of three SEC teams to hang an NCAA Tournament championship banner. That 1994 national title was clearly the ceiling. The Hogs started the 1994-95 season at No. 1 but dropped to as low as No. 12 that season. They rebounded to reach the NCAA final, but fell to UCLA and haven’t been in the Top 10 since.

Auburn

Highest: No. 2

Most recently at highest rank: 1999-2000 season.

Skinny: Auburn has reached No. 2 twice, in back-to-back seasons, 1998-99 and 1999-2000. Both seasons ended with earlier than expected exits in the NCAA Tournament, which is one reason the Tigers still haven’t made the Final Four. The Tigers have spent time in the Top 10 this season and last season but still are looking for that elusive deep run.

Florida

Highest: No. 1

Most recently at highest rank: 2013-14 season.

Skinny: The Gators have spent 14 weeks at No. 1, which seems low considering how dominant they were under Billy Donovan. The Gators won back-to-back NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007 and returned to the Final Four in 2014. Their high-point under Mike White is No. 5, which they reached last season.

Georgia

Highest: No. 10

Most recently at highest rank: 1983-84 season

Skinny: Three most amazing things about Georgia’s first and only Top 10 appearance: First, it came 2 years after Dominique Wilkins left early for the NBA. Second, it came the year after Georgia made its only Final Four appearance (also without Wilkins). Third, and most confounding, after reaching No. 10 in December, the Bulldogs dropped 8 of 10 games and missed the NCAA Tournament. Georgia hasn’t been ranked since the 2010-11 season.

Kentucky

Highest: No. 1

Most recently at highest rank: 2016-17 season.

Skinny: Kentucky has spent 124 weeks at No. 1, third all-time. The rest of the SEC has combined to spend 37 weeks at No. 1.

LSU

Highest: No. 2

Most recently at highest rank: 1989-90.

Skinny: Are you surprised that LSU has never been ranked No. 1? I am, given the Tigers’ history includes some of the college game’s greatest players, Pete Maravich, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Jackson (Mahmoud Abdul-Rouf). That 1989-1990 team feature Shaq and Jackson — and lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. O’Neal spent 3 seasons at LSU and went 2-3 in the NCAA Tournament.

In other words, O’Neal won more NBA titles (4) than NCAA Tournament games (2).

Mississippi State

Highest: No. 3

Most recently at highest rank: 1958-59 season.

Skinny: The Bulldogs have been in the Top 10 as recently as 2003-04 and already climbed to No. 14 this season after not appearing in the AP poll for the previous six seasons.

Missouri

Highest: No. 1

Most recently at highest rank: 1989-90 season.

Skinny: Those 1990 Tigers dominated the Big 8 regular season and spent 4 weeks at No. 1. They slumped late and lost in the first round of the Big 8 Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. Their highest ranking as an SEC team came in their first year, when they peaked at No. 7 in 2012-13.

Ole Miss

Highest: No. 10

Most recently at highest rank: 1997-98 season.

Skinny: The Rebels have spent 1 week in their history in the Top 10. They reached No. 10 just before the SEC Tournament and lost their second game. Seeded No. 4 in the NCAA Tournament, they lost their opener to No. 13 Valparaiso on one of the shots that makes March Madness the greatest show in sports: Bryce Drew’s game-winning 3 at the buzzer.


South Carolina

Highest ranking: No. 1

Most recently at highest ranking: 1969-70 season.

Skinny: Those Gamecocks were in the ACC, led by former North Carolina coach Frank McGuire, trading blows with Dean Smith and the Tar Heels. They only lost 3 games, but unfortunately, one was the ACC Tournament final to N.C. State in double overtime. Back then, only the conference champion advanced to the NCAA Tournament. One of the greatest teams in Gamecocks history never got the chance to win it all.

Interestingly, in 2016-17, when South Carolina reached its first Final Four, their highest rank was No. 16.

Tennessee

Highest ranking: No. 1.

Most recently at highest ranking: 2018-19 season.

Skinny: Will this be the year Tennessee reaches its first Final Four? Stay tuned. Rick Barnes’ team looks like a threat to win the NCAA Tournament.

Texas A&M

Highest ranking: No. 5

Most recently at highest ranking: 2017-18 season.

Skinny: For whatever reason, most logically the gap in program history, most looked at Texas A&M’s victory over UNC in the NCAA Tournament as a stunning upset. Truth be told, they simply weren’t paying enough attention to the Aggies. Granted, there were several strange moments — namely losing streaks of 5 games and 3 games, and an opening loss to Alabama in the SEC Tournament. But that team also knocked off 3 teams ranked in the top 11 before silencing UNC.

Vanderbilt

Highest ranking: No. 2

Most recently at highest ranking: 1965-66 season.

Skinny: There was a stretch in the mid-1960s when Vanderbilt posed the biggest threat to Adoph Rupp’s Kentucky kingdom. Beginning with the 1963-64 season, the Commodores reached the Top 10 in 5 consecutive seasons, the top 5 in 4 of them. In 1964-65, Vanderbilt swept Kentucky to win the SEC regular-season championship and NCAA Tournament berth. (The SEC Tournament didn’t restart until the 1978-79 season.) The 1965-66 team finished second in the SEC. Vandy last reached the Top 10 in the 2011-12 season, when it opened at preseason No. 7 and lost its second NCAA Tournament game.