FAYETTEVILLE -- These last two weeks should have opened eyes of national basketball pundits previously dismissing the SEC as Kentucky and little else.
Kentucky now has lost two of its last three SEC games, falling at Tennessee and at Florida and nearly lost all three, being extended to overtime before defeating Georgia at home.
Florida flogged rather than merely edged the mighty Wildcats Saturday night, 88-66.
Before dismissing the SEC merely as Kentucky just isn't as good as initially believed, it might behoove the national experts to take a closer look at the league.
Frank Martin's South Carolina Gamecocks, leading the SEC at 9-1 while 19-4 overall, are awfully good and so are Mike White's Florida Gators tied for second with Kentucky with matching 18-5, 8-2 overall and SEC records.
On the bottom end, the Missouri Tigers, 6-16, 1-9, just showed newly discovered SEC balance by upsetting fourth-place Arkansas, 83-78 Saturday at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo.
A last-place team biting a big one allegedly impresses pundits about a league's balance.
Funny how that works by reputation, though. In SEC football, particularly the SEC West, beating up on each other signifies parity of the highest order from kingpin Alabama on down.
In SEC basketball after Nolan Richardson at Arkansas and after Billy Donovan at Florida, the same formula seems regarded as merely mediocrity below Kentucky.
However, off the previous week splitting 5-5 its SEC/Big12 Challenge against a more highly regarded basketball league, last week should improve the SEC's stock.
While the loss at Missouri likely did the league's image good for depth, it obviously harmed the Razorbacks nationally.
Now 17-6, and 6-4 tied for fourth with Alabama, the Razorbacks, with a 28 RPI, were generally regarded by so-called bracketologists as a SEC fourth at-large qualifier to the NCAA Tournament.
Losing to Missouri with the Tigers' 262 RPI should drop the Hogs in an RPI free fall that perhaps only can be atoned by upsetting either South Carolina or Florida on the road.
In the meantime, losing at Missouri underscores they can look no further than their next game, Tuesday night at Walton Arena against the Vanderbilt Commodores they escaped, 71-70 on Jan. 24 in Nashville, Tenn.
"We stole one there and you know they are going to come in charged up," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. "So we have to get our thoughts on the right thing."
Though Arkansas thumped Missouri, 92-73 on Jan. 14 at Walton Arena, from the second half of that game on Anderson was concerned about the Feb. 4 rematch in Columbia.
Though victorious, the Hogs had turned it over too much and fouled too often.
What concerned Anderson in Fayetteville, committing 14 turnovers and allowing Mizzou 32 free throws, beat his Hogs in Columbia.
Mizzou doesn't win without Arkansas' 17 turnovers and sending the Tigers to the line to make 23 of 29.
Sports on 02/06/2017