It’s an important Saturday of basketball in the SEC.
Will bubble teams find victories? Can Florida take down Kentucky? And who wins the rivalry game in Tuscaloosa?
Let’s dive into the Saturday predictions.
Georgia (13-9, 4-5) at No. 19 South Carolina (18-4, 8-1) – 2 PM ET, ESPN2
In this week’s mailbag, I talked about how Georgia’s upcoming schedule will decide its NCAA tournament fate. And the outlook isn’t pretty.
Yes, the Bulldogs have played better basketball in the past few games and nearly pulled off the upset at Kentucky. However, South Carolina has shown no signs of slowing down.
The Gamecocks are still creating chaos for opposing teams, and they’ll sweep the season series between these two teams.
Prediction: South Carolina 70, Georgia 65
Ole Miss (13-9, 4-5) at Vanderbilt (11-11, 4-5) – 3 PM ET, ESPNU
The Rebels dominated rival Mississippi State on Tuesday, which was much-needed after back-to-back close losses to Texas A&M and Baylor.
Meanwhile, the Commodores controlled the game from start to finish in their win over the Aggies in College Station. Bryce Drew once again got great balance from his team, with players like Jeff Roberson and Nolan Cressler coming on strong in recent weeks.
One area that Ole Miss has the advantage is offensive rebounding. That’s been an area of weakness for Vandy at times, so winning that battle will be crucial for the home team.
I’ve incorrectly picked the outcome of the last four games that the Commodores have played.
So you’ll understand if you see a lot of nervous Vandy fans after this pick.
Prediction: Vanderbilt 77, Ole Miss 69
Tennessee (13-9, 5-4) at Mississippi State (13-8, 4-5) – 3:30 PM ET, SEC Network
Ben Howland’s squad just hasn’t been the same after that deflating home loss to Kentucky on January 17.
On the other side, Tennessee has played its way into the NCAA tournament discussion thanks to victories in five of its last six games. If I had to vote for SEC Coach of the Year today, I’d likely give it to Rick Barnes.
I thought the Vols may slip up at Auburn on Tuesday, but they proved that they have no desire to let up now.
This game will go down to the wire, but it’s hard to pick against Barnes and company.
Prediction: Tennessee 76, Mississippi State 73
Arkansas (17-5, 6-3) at Missouri (5-16, 0-9) – 6 PM ET, SEC Network
Although the Razorbacks are safely in the NCAA tournament as of today, losing at Missouri would do serious damage.
Don’t believe me? Consider the current RPI placement of both teams:
- Arkansas – No. 28
- Missouri – No. 262
Losing just isn’t an option for Mike Anderson’s team. However, this is still an Arkansas team that’s had long stretches of bad play during games. Even in the blowout win over Alabama, there were times where the Razorbacks couldn’t do much of anything.
They can’t have those stretches against Missouri. The Tigers just lost by 39 points at Florida, and have no business winning this game.
That’s exactly why I think they’ll make this interesting for a while until Arkansas finally realizes that it’s the better team.
Prediction: Arkansas 74, Missouri 67
No. 8 Kentucky at No. 24 Florida – 8:15 PM ET, ESPN
When SEC play started, this is the game that everyone circled.
Many of us thought that it would be Kentucky’s only shot at a conference loss, but instead, the Wildcats have already lost one and have lost two of three overall.
As for the Gators? Their last three games: 35-point win at LSU, 32-point win at Oklahoma and 39-point win vs. Missouri.
Now, let’s point out the obvious: none of those teams are Kentucky. Not even close.
But there’s no doubting that the Gators are on a roll. Getting De’Aaron Fox back will certainly help the Wildcats, but I don’t know that it’ll be enough to take down Florida in Gainesville.
Prediction: Florida 83, Kentucky 81
Auburn at Alabama – 8:30 PM ET, SEC Network
Things got ugly for the Crimson Tide in a disappointing loss at Arkansas earlier in the week. Of course, things also got ugly the last time Alabama played Auburn.
I don’t see that happening this time around. Avery Johnson has continually talked about his team’s ability to bounce back from adversity, which is exactly what they did after losing to Auburn in the first meeting (Alabama won by 20 at Georgia in the following game).
Something tells me we could see a similar scenario here. After getting trounced in Fayetteville, the Crimson Tide should come home looking for revenge.
And given the up and down nature of Bruce Pearl’s young Auburn squad, Alabama should get its payback.
Prediction: Alabama 78, Auburn 72
Texas A&M (11-10, 3-6) at LSU (9-12, 1-8) – 9 PM ET, ESPNU
The Aggies destroyed LSU by 30 the last time these two met. Of course, the time they met before that was in the SEC tournament semifinal last year, with Texas A&M scoring a 33-point victory in that game.
So, you could say that Billy Kennedy has Johnny Jones’ number these days.
The Tigers continue to play little defense, and that should bode well for the Aggies in this one.
A part of me thinks that LSU might actually win this game due to Texas A&M being in an obvious funk.
But the other part of me looks at LSU’s recent body of work and realizes that there’s no way that I can pick the Tigers.
Prediction: Texas A&M 81, LSU 78
Blake Lovell has worked in sports media for over 10 years. He currently covers SEC football and basketball for various publications.