Let us read it for you. Listen now. Your browser does not support the audio element.
FAYETTEVILLE — All 16 SEC men’s basketball teams, including No. 18 Arkansas, begin league play Saturday. The Razorbacks host No. 19 Tennessee at 2 p.m. at Walton Arena.
The conference sent a record 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament last season. LSU, one of the two outsiders with South Carolina, is now receiving votes in the top-25 Associated Press poll with a 12-1 record. The Tigers’ only loss was 82-58 to No. 15 Texas Tech on Dec. 7 in Fort Worth.
LSU was 3-15 in SEC play last season, though it is projected to perform better this year. No. 11 Vanderbilt, under second-year Coach Mark Byington, makes a case for the sharpest turnaround. The Commodores (13-0) are the only unbeaten SEC team left. A season ago, they ended 20-13 overall and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed.
“We had a really good 2025,” Byington said Dec. 29. “We know how difficult 2026 is going to be because we know how good the SEC is going to be. We’ve got to continue to get better. The SEC is just a brutal gauntlet of tremendous teams, coaches, talent, one after another. But this is a team that likes challenges.”
Vanderbilt has compiled quality wins against Central Florida, Virginia Commonwealth, Saint Mary’s and SMU. Its first game against a ranked team is Jan. 17 versus No. 22 Florida — the defending national champion and the SEC’s first since 2012. Next, the Commodores visit Arkansas on Jan. 20.
Those two, along with No. 23 Georgia (12-1), had 8-10 SEC records last season. The conference’s current six ranked teams are tied for the second-most in the nation: Vanderbilt, No. 14 Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida and Georgia. Only the Big Ten, headlined by No. 2 Michigan, has more with seven. The Big 12 has four teams in the top 10, while the SEC has zero.
The SEC won its head-to-head challenge against Atlantic Coast Conference teams 9-7 after thumping the ACC 14-2 last season. Labaron Philon Jr. scored 29 points for Alabama in a 90-84 win against Clemson on Dec. 3 to later be named the SEC Player of the Week. The 6-4 sophomore guard has earned the award three times and leads the SEC with 21.9 points per game.
“He’s making a lot of winning plays on the offensive end,” Alabama Coach Nate Oats said Dec. 3. “For those first 10 minutes, he was pretty good on defense. I think the foul trouble might have scared him away from being as aggressive as we need him to be on defense. … We’re just going to keep working on him to be the best two-way guard in the country, is my challenge to him.”
Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard (21.3), Auburn forward Keyshawn Hall (20.1), Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr. (18.8) and Tennessee guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie (17.8) round out the SEC’s top five leading scorers. Philon ranks eighth nationally in points per game.
Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu (10.9), LSU’s Marquel Sutton (9.6), Florida’s Alex Condon (8.9), Texas A&M’s Rashaun Agee (8.2) and Hall (8.0) are the SEC’s top rebounders. Chinyelu ranks ninth nationally. LSU’s Dedan Thomas Jr. (7.1), Acuff (6.2), Gillespie (5.8), Philon (5.6) and Vanderbilt’s Tyler Tanner (4.8) top the league in assists per game. Thomas is tied for eighth nationally.
The SEC weekly freshman honor has been a three-player swap between Acuff, Tennessee’s Nate Ament and Alabama’s Amari Allen.
Ament, a 6-10 forward, won the first two weeks and is averaging 15.4 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Allen, a 6-8 forward, claimed it the third week and is averaging 10.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. They split the fourth week before Acuff emerged as a three straight recipient.
“I love everything about him,” Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes said Dec. 30 about Ament, ESPN’s No. 4 recruit for the 2025 class. “I keep telling him when he drives, he’s going to have to learn to take on the physicality. … Again, I think potentially the most complete guy in the country.”
Auburn won the 2024-25 SEC regular season outright with a 15-3 record. The race resets Saturday.
