SEC Basketball Power Poll Ballot - Post Week 2 (through January 15th, 2012)

by KingJamesIV on Jan 17, 2012 5:17 PM EST in Vanderbilt Commodores Basketball

Anchor of Gold Ballot /// Results at Garnet and Black Attack on Wednesday-ish

Since the table doesn't fit on the main page, here are the rankings with commentary. The full table after the jump.

Kentucky Wildcats - Not getting knocked off their perch until they lose in conference
Vanderbilt Commodores - A completely different team now that they’re getting Ezeli back to full strength. Chance to secure #2 spot this week.
Mississippi St. Bulldogs - The transfer Moultrie is making a major impact for the Bulldogs. We’ll learn more about them this week.
Florida Gators - The Gators were stunned by Tennessee on the road, a costly slip up this early.
Alabama Crimson Tide - Is Bama as good as their KenPom ranking? We’ll find out this week.
Tennessee Volunteers - If I’m giving VU some slack for losing without Ezeli, I’m giving UT some slack for just adding Stokes. They get the chance to earn it for keeps this week.
Arkansas Razorbacks - Arkansas takes the 7th spot thanks to their victory over LSU this past weekend.
LSU Tigers - It’s interesting to see how quickly the luster of that "surprise" team moniker evaporated.
Mississippi Rebels - Quick math formula: Best player dismissed (Dundrecous Nelson, the marjuana) =/= Dubyas. Alternative: if Dundrecous Nelson hadn’t been dismissed, Ole Miss would be much higher
Auburn Tigers - If the light preconference schedule doesn’t come back to bite them, I could see Auburn finishing the season much higher.
Georgia Bulldogs - After the results against Bama and Florida, I thought the Bulldogs showed a lot more heart against Vandy. If Fox can get that effort from them consistently, the Bulldogs will move up. Kentavious is a player.
South Carolina Gamecocks - The Gamecocks need a little more time for Bruce Ellington to gel. Darrin Horn hopes it doesn’t happen too late.

##	Team	Overall	SEC	KenPom	Last Week	This Week
01	Kentucky Wildcats	17-01	3-0	005	W15-@Aub, W3-@UT	vs. Ark, vs. Ala
02	Vanderbilt Commodores	13-04	3-0	036	W10-@SC, W11-vUGA	@ Ala, vs. MSt
03	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	15-03	2-1	056	W4-vUT, W4-vAla	@MS, @VU
04	Florida Gators	14-04	2-1	012	W22-vUGA, W14-@SC	vs. LSU
05	Alabama Crimson Tide	13-04	2-1	014	W16-vLSU, L4-@MSt	vs. VU, @ UK
06	Tennessee Volunteers	08-09	1-2	100	L4-@MSt, L3-vUK	@ UGA, vs. UConn
07	Arkansas Razorbacks	13-04	2-1	079	L8-@MS, W9-vLSU	@ UK, vs. Mich
08	LSU Tigers	11-06	1-2	077	L16-@Ala, L9-@Ark	vs. Aub, @ UF
09	Mississippi Rebels	11-06	1-2	124	W8-vArk, L1-@Aub (2OT)	vs. MSt, @ UGA
10	Auburn Tigers	11-06	1-2	207	L15-vUK, W1-vMS (2OT)	@ LSU, vs. SC
11	Georgia Bulldogs	09-08	0-3	135	L22-@UF, L11-@VU	vs. UT, vs. MS
12	South Carolina Gamecocks	08-09	0-3	130	L10-vVU, L14-vUF	@ Aub, vs. Ala

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by KingJamesIV on Jan 17, 2012 5:39 PM EST reply actions

a little surprised Vandy is ranked #2 when its SEC wins are against #10, #11, and #12. Would probably have us behind MSU right now. But obviously these next few games will give us a much better idea of where we stand in the conference.

by dawease on Jan 17, 2012 5:44 PM EST reply actions

We're definitely

going to have a better idea after this week. Two huge games.

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by KingJamesIV on Jan 17, 2012 5:51 PM EST up reply actions

I would move Vandy down a spot. I would also move Alabama ahead of Florida.

by vandyjl on Jan 17, 2012 6:39 PM EST up reply actions

It's tough to sort out.

Vanderbilt has worse losses than Florida, but better wins. Mississippi State has been playing very well, highlighted by the close loss at Baylor, but on the other hand the closeness of that loss is probably their greatest accomplishment this year. Alabama has no bad losses (perhaps the margin of the Dayton loss), but no particularly compelling wins either (Wichita State?, Purdue?).

All four teams are hard to figure out right now. We’ll know a lot more after this week. Right now it looks to me like:

1. Kentucky
2-5. MSU, UF, VU, UA in some order (MSU above UA the only major stipulation)
6-8. the OK teams, with LSU last among them
9-12. the bad teams in some order

by Aaron Novick on Jan 17, 2012 10:30 PM EST reply actions

Thinking about this for more than the second

This is totally useless, since I avoided all the hard work of actually ranking the teams.

by Aaron Novick on Jan 17, 2012 10:31 PM EST up reply actions

I guess it depends on the metric employed.

If you look at overall resume to this point, of course Vandy should not be #2.

But, if you base your opinion on just watching the teams perform, especially over the last month, then it is pretty easy to put Vandy at #2. Of course, Vandy has played like a different team over that span, thus it makes is easier to sort of discard those early stumbles.

So, Train, I like your rankings and probably wouldn’t change much if we are going with the latter metric – except I still like UF ahead of MSU.

I think MSU is the wildcard here. I’ve seen them on the TV a couple of times lately and they strike me as a VERY talented team with some make-up issues – the body language, especially from Sidney, is the kind of thing that would drive me crazy if he were on my team, and their horrid assists numbers make you wonder how well they can play as a unit – of course this is the same thing we’ve said about them the last couple years.

by Pope Vanderbilt on Jan 18, 2012 11:08 AM EST reply actions

We are a different team, quite literally.

Our struggles largely took place without Festus. Now that Festus is back (though he is not 100%), we are clearly a better team. It isn’t just because we were somehow sleepwalking earlier and have all of a sudden turned it on.

Otherwise, this is a snapshot, based on a pretty small number of games with teams playing wildly varying levels of competition. You can argue a spot here or there, but what he shows kind of “feels” right at the moment.

by Jason Fukuda on Jan 18, 2012 11:39 AM EST up reply actions