SEC Basketball: Power rankings heading into the SEC season
By Kevin Miller
SEC Basketball Power Rankings:
No. 2 Auburn Tigers
Auburn had not been to an NCAA Tournament (or even spent one single week ranked) since the 2002-2003 season, but now, the Tigers have made four of the past five NCAA Tournaments.
Pearl’s team is always good on offense, and this season, they rank in the top-5 in the SEC in scoring, field goal percentage, assists, turnovers, assist-to-turnover ratio, offensive rebounding, and free throw percentage.
What might separate this year’s Auburn team from some of the past is the fact that they play pretty good defense. Ranking near the top of the league in rebounding and blocked shots, Auburn also ranks second in the SEC in 3-point percentage allowed and fourth in the conference in field goal defense.
While Pearl’s team is led by All-SEC candidate Johni Broome, the Tigers have most of their production split up across their roster. 7 different players score at least 7.5 points per game, and 10 contributors play at least 16 minutes per game, while none play over 23.
To open the season, War Eagle lost a neutral site game against ranked Baylor and later dropped a true road game in Boone, North Carolina against Appalachian State, but their 10-2 record (with one more out-of-conference game coming against Penn on January 2nd) also includes nice wins over St. Bonaventure, Virginia Tech, and Southern Cal.
Auburn might be good enough to earn a top-3 (top-12 overall) seed when March rolls around.