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Auburn is currently the best basketball team in the SEC no matter what metric you’re using.
That was further proven on Monday as the Tigers are at No. 8 in the updated NET rankings released by the NCAA. Auburn is 11-0 after its wins over NC State and Lehigh last week, while no other SEC team is ranked higher than No. 34 in the NET rankings.
The NET rankings debuted last season as a tool to help the NCAA Tournament committee evaluate teams. These rankings replaced RPI and rely on game results, strength of schedule, the quality of wins and losses and more in an effort to try to show which teams are the best in the country.
Auburn hasn’t had the most difficult schedule, but it’s picked up some quality wins and avoided any upset losses during the early part of the season. The Tigers play Lipscomb on Sunday before opening SEC play with a road matchup at Mississippi State on Jan. 4.
Here are the SEC teams in order of NET ranking, with their overall position in parentheses:
- Auburn (8)
- Arkansas (34)
- Tennessee (46)
- Ole Miss (52)
- Florida (56)
- LSU (57)
- Missouri (67)
- Kentucky (74)
- Alabama (77)
- Georgia (83)
- South Carolina (93)
- Mississippi State (100)
- Vanderbilt (133)
- Texas A&M (204)
Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.
