There are four weeks left in the SEC basketball regular season, five weeks until Selection Sunday. The SEC's best are emerging.
The Arkansas Razorbacks aren't the favorite to win the SEC championship, but they are in the mix as one of the top teams in the conference trying to finish with a flourish. We are now one week into February, the shortest month of the year. In less than three weeks, March begins. In just under four weeks, the SEC regular season ends. In just under five weeks, Selection Sunday arrives. Yes, it's going by very quickly. There is no time to waste and there are no games to be lost. Arkansas has to take care of business at LSU on Tuesday night and begin to stack wins after displaying a win-lose-win-lose pattern for large portions of January.
As we look at the SEC basketball landscape in this second week of February, we can see that the hierarchy is beginning to be established in the conference. Florida is the favorite after blasting Texas A&M on the road this past weekend. The Gators have planted their flag as the team to beat. The defending national champions clearly look the part. If Arkansas wants to win the SEC title, it will have to go through Florida and take down Todd Golden's improving squad.
The Texas A&M team Florida handled in College Station on Saturday has come down to earth. Bucky McMillan has done a fine job this season, but everyone who follows SEC basketball knew A&M was due for regression, and also that the Aggies didn't play the challenging nonconference schedule Arkansas or Florida did. A&M is a good team but not a heavyweight.
The same can be said for Vanderbilt. The Commodores impressed in nonconference play but did not face a supremely challenging schedule. Now the SEC is taking bites out of the Dores, who are plummeting in the standings after a bad home loss to Oklahoma. We can safely cross VU off the list of SEC contenders.
Florida and Arkansas are right there. The other two teams joining them are Kentucky -- which swept Tennessee in the season series with yet another comeback win on Saturday -- and Alabama, which went on the road and beat Auburn.
Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama. These are the top four teams in the SEC with four weeks left in the regular season. Arkansas gets a chance to play the Gators and Crimson Tide. We're going to learn a lot about the Hogs and the other top teams in the SEC in this fight to the finish.