Two non-Arkansas games take center stage on an important Saturday in the SEC
This upcoming Saturday of SEC basketball has two feature attractions other than Arkansas' game against Auburn. The Razorbacks play at night against the Tigers. When they take the court in Bud Walton Arena, they will know how the SEC basketball standings have shifted.
Florida, Texas A&M, and Kentucky are Arkansas' three foremost competitors for the SEC basketball championship and -- crucially -- the top four seeds at the SEC Tournament, which confer a double-bye into the quarterfinals and provide an easier, lower-stress weekend just before the NCAA Tournament. That matters.
The first two games on the Saturday card are Texas A&M at Vanderbilt and Kentucky at Florida.
A&M-Vanderbilt is a fascinating game because it's really hard to know which version of either team will show up. A&M defied expectations for a month but has finally begun to take some hits against the tougher SEC schedule. Are we going to see the Aggies bounce back in this game, or will they continue to sink and fade away in the pursuit of an SEC title?
Vanderbilt has been a below-average team the past few weeks. The team which stormed to an unbeaten record over the first two months of the season and started brightly in SEC play has been brought down to earth. It's true that injuries have played a role in dragging down the Commodores, but nothing explains their horrible home loss to Oklahoma a week ago. The Sooners had lost nine in a row. Even with two important players out, VU never should have lost to OU.
Yet, after that awful performance at home, Vanderbilt bounced back on the road and beat the Auburn team Arkansas is about to play in a regular-season rematch. Knowing whether Good Vandy or Bad Vandy will show up in this game feels like a fool's errand. It makes the game against A&M highly intriguing.
When the Aggies and Commodores are done, the scene shifts to Gainesville for a five-star attraction, the battle of the biggest brand names in SEC basketball. Florida has been playing like the class of the conference, while Kentucky has had a remarkable ability to come back from big deficits. The Wildcats were down by 13 or more against Tennessee twice, also against LSU, and won all three of those games. UK won at Bud Walton Arena, the first team to beat Arkansas in Fayetteville this season. Mark Pope has gotten the most out of his roster even without guard Jaland Lowe, who is out for the season with an injury. If Pope severely underachieved in the first two months of the season, he has overachieved in the past month. One would think that if Kentucky falls behind by 15, however, it won't mount a comeback this time. Florida is playing at a higher level than Tennessee and UK's other opponents.