Southeastern Conference men’s basketball will reach the midway mark of league play beginning tonight, and the fact Kentucky is in first place comes as no surprise.
Texas A&M standing alone in second, however, was not in the forecast.
Picked to finish ninth in the 14-member league, Billy Kennedy’s Aggies won their sixth straight game Saturday with a 69-58 dumping of Vanderbilt. They are 15-5 overall and have rolled since starting 0-2 within the SEC, with the second of those losses coming in double-overtime to the nationally top-ranked Wildcats.
“They came in here a week ago and were very impressive,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said Monday. “They’ve got great size and skill level and depth and experience. They have the size and the depth to be able to look Kentucky maybe not in the eye, but they can at least stand up to Kentucky.”
Texas A&M went 7-11 and 8-10 during its first two seasons in the SEC after a 4-14 league finish in its Big 12 swan song. The six-game streak has resulted in the Aggies being a No. 11 seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest projected NCAA tournament bracket on ESPN.