The race for this year's Southeastern Conference men's regular-season basketball championship is all but over, as Kentucky can clinch its 37th outright league title with a win Saturday at Rupp Arena against second-place Arkansas.
For those keeping count, SEC schools not located in Lexington have combined for 34 outright titles.
Kentucky has not, however, had a single SEC player of the week despite its 15-0 start, reflecting a hazy landscape for the league's top player for the season. The Wildcats are not low on candidates, with sophomore guard Aaron Harrison averaging a team-high 11.2 points and 25.9 minutes, freshman guard Devin Booker averaging 11.1 points and shooting 45.3 percent from 3-point range and freshman forward Karl-Anthony Towns averaging 9.3 points and 6.6 rebounds and collecting 66 blocked shots.
Then there is junior forward Willie Cauley-Stein, who was the favorite before the start of conference games and has been solid with 9.1 points a game on 60.7-percent shooting and 6.4 rebounds per contest.
Other players who could be in the running are Arkansas sophomore forward Bobby Portis, LSU's sophomore forward tandem of Jarell Martin and Jordan Mickey and Ole Miss junior guard Stefan Moody. All four of those players average at least 16.5 points per game, with Moody owning his share of late-game heroics.
"I don't think there is any question Moody should be considered, because I don't think anybody has been able to guard him," Georgia coach Mark Fox said this week. "He's had a great year and has played a big role on their team, and their team is in contention. Obviously Kentucky has a lot of guys who have played very well, and those kids shouldn't be penalized because they're sharing time with other great players."
Desiring no rematch
Kentucky was a 27-point favorite last Saturday night in its game against visiting Auburn.
It wasn't that close.
The No. 1 Wildcats raced out to a 30-4 lead and cruised to a 110-75 victory. Auburn senior guard Antoine Mason scored 29 points, the highest tally in Rupp this season, but Tigers coach Bruce Pearl isn't exactly clamoring for a rematch.
"We're the smallest team probably of any Big Five conference, and so it was just a really tough matchup for us," Pearl said this week. "You look at the teams that have a chance against Kentucky, and it's because of the way Ole Miss is built and Texas A&M is built and Arkansas is built. Even Vanderbilt has three 6-10s on its roster, and Georgia has a couple of front-line guys who can hang in there with them.
"You have to have size. Kentucky was the most physical team offensively that we've played by far, and it isn't even close. With the way they post and the way they seal and the way they pound it inside, they are by far the most physical team in the country."
And what about the 26-point deficit in the early going?
"It was overwhelming," Pearl said. "We weren't able to get a stop, and we struggled to score at the rim."
From bad to worse
A forgettable season at Florida reached a new low Tuesday night when the Gators lost 64-52 at Missouri, which had lost 13 games in a row.
Florida won 30 straight games last season and advanced to the Final Four, but this year's team is 13-15 with games remaining against Tennessee, Texas A&M and Kentucky. Simply making postseason play would seem to be the only goal left, and that obviously will take some work.
"I don't think you need to get into that stuff," Gators coach Billy Donovan said. "We've got to get better each day, and I know that sounds like a coaching cliche, but we just need to get better. We've got two of our better players out with (Michael) Frazier and (Dorian) Finney-Smith, and we've obviously been challenged offensively these last several games, but this group can still play better."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.