Vicky Graff Photo
Ansley Almonor wanted to make one thing clear after Kentucky won 78-73 at No. 8 Tennessee Tuesday.
“It shows how tough we are. A lot of people out there were saying we were a soft team. We heard all the noise,” said Almonor. “We took it and turned it into motivation.
“We got guys from 1-14 who can play at this level. That’s how Coach (Mark Pope) built this roster and we went out there and showed it today.”
Almonor showed a lot again by making four 3-pointers against Tennessee, the same number he put in the game before at Vanderbilt. The Tennessee win raised UK’s record to 6-1 against top 15 teams and the Cats have wins over rivals Duke, Louisville, Florida and Tennessee.
Kentucky, which hosts Arkansas tonight, now has seven Quad 1 wins, third most of any team this year, on its NCAA Tournament resume and plenty of chances to add more, including a home matchup with No. 1 Auburn March 1.
“It’s the toughest league in America right now, but Coach built this roster knowing what it was going to be like,” Almonor said after the Tennessee win. “We got great players, great coaches, and we go out there and fight every day to get better so that when it comes to March, we’ll be ready to go.”
So how good is the SEC? Here are numbers to back up Almonor’s claim about the SEC being the toughest league in the country.
SEC In The NET
— The SEC leads the nation with six teams (Auburn 1st, Tennessee 4th, Florida 5th, Alabama 6th, Kentucky 11th, and Texas A&M 15th) ranked in the Top 16 of the NCAA’s NET rankings.
— The SEC leads the nation with eight teams ranked in the Top 25 and 13 in the Top 50 of the NET.
— SEC teams have amassed 64 Quad 1 wins and 107 wins against Quad 1 & 2 teams combined.
— The SEC averages 4.00 Quad 1 wins per team and 6.69 Quad 1+2 wins per team, both lead the nation.
— Eight SEC teams have at least four Quad 1 wins.
More Metrics
— The SEC’s +21.25 KenPom rating is the highest rating by a conference since the ACC posted +21.37 in 1997.
— Four of the top five teams in KenPom’s Adjusted Offensive Efficiency are from the SEC: Auburn 1st, Florida 2nd, Alabama 3rd, and Kentucky 5th.
— Four SEC teams are ranked in the Top 10 of KenPom’s team rankings, eight are in the Top 25, 13 are in the Top 50 and all 16 teams rank in the Top 80.
In The Polls
— Four of the top eight teams, seven of the top 15 and 10 of the top 25 teams in the Associated Press Poll are from the SEC.
— Auburn is ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll for the second time in school history (January-February 2022). Alabama is No. 4 in the poll, Florida is No. 5, Tennessee is No. 8, Kentucky 12th, Texas A&M 13th, Mississippi State 14th, Missouri 20th, Ole Miss 23rd, and Vanderbilt 24th. Additionally, Texas and Oklahoma are among teams receiving votes.
— Fourteen of the SEC’s 16 teams have been ranked in the AP poll at one point this season.
4 Responses
I say use whatever motivation you need. I just want to say that being under the microscope and that opinions of all sorts are just plainly inherent with the jersey you have chosen to wear. Everyone knows that. With the "instant" of social media it would be hard as a player to block all that out. But I’d like to hear someday we’re motivated because we want to be better at basketball. Not because of what some TV personalities or sports writer or the general public says. Play hard, win , ascend , because it’s what you do.. not from another’s opinion.
If we play Pope ball, we will be fine. There is no more speculation on which way we should play. From this point forward, if we go back to playing hero ball we deserve the L that will come with that.
Barry I’m curious about a term thrown around called "momentum". I’m agnostic in sports when it comes to " momentum" .. Or even a team getting "on a
roll".This team has a hard time with that in the sense of stacking wins.. Which is a must to advance in March Madness.. How much do you think our losses were due to hero ball vs the other teams ability?
Guess we will see very soon if there is any carryover "momentum" from last couple. Am still wondering if Cats will be intense and tough enough to defend home court or will Cal have his team more jacked to take us down. Am also concerned about our continuing injury problems and wondering why we have to be most affected in SEC.