1. LSU
Playing great ball right now. Hard to believe they opened conference play with a loss to Alabama.
2. Tennessee
Regained form against Florida. If this team begins to come together, they could make some noise, because the talent is there.
3. Florida
Same goes for these guys. Calathes has been great all year; if the rest of the team comes together, they could rise to the top quickly. They need more production in the post, especially.
4. South Carolina
If they could shoot free throws, they could very well have only one conference loss right now. Darrin Horn is doing a great job.
5. Mississippi State
I'm not sure if they can repeat the kind of shooting performance that helped them beat the Cats, but the Westrn Division Dawgs are looking decent right now.
6. Kentucky
There's talent there, but they're underperforming. Unsurprisingly, many Cats fans are already calling for Billy Gs head. While I can see the reasons behind the criticism, I say it never makes sense to talk about firing a coach until after his fourth year. I'm not a Kentucky alum, and these people march to a different drummer, which makes them both despicable and fascinating to me.
7. Ole Miss
If not for South Carolina's play, this would be the conference's surprise team. Most people thought they would wilt after the injury to Chris Warren, but David Huertas and a supporting cast of role players have picked up the slack now that they've had time to come together. Andy Kennedy, although a bit of a media relations liability, is apparently a pretty good coach.
8 (t). Alabama
8 (t). Vanderbilt
8 (t). Auburn
These three teams are all pretty bad and have beaten up on each other. Not much difference between them in the grand scheme of things.
11. Arkansas
They seem to be playing better now, after beating Alabama and pushing LSU and Tennessee to the wire. Can they rebound and get a few wins down the stretch?
12. Georgia
Blew their best chance of the year to win a game in conference play against Alabama.