[Cactus Jack]

Auburn is the #1 team in the nation. Tennessee struggled with Middle Tennessee earlier tonight. They got it together and pushed it out late, but they trailed by 6 at halftime and it was a six point game with less than 6:00 to go.

Still time for things to correct, but Houston is a low at #15. They've lost three games, but those were to Auburn, Alabama, and San Diego State by a combined 13 points. Two of those were in Las Vegas with both coming in OT; their other loss to Auburn was in Houston but technically on a "neutral" floor as well. Same thing for UConn at #11; in games where Hurley hasn't pissed off the officials (or those played in the mainland US), they've been pretty good.

Unsure what's keeping Purdue in the rankings, much less at #21, to be quite honest. They've beaten Ole Miss and Alabama but Ole Miss is pretty untested. They've also lost to Penn State and got annihilated by Marquette and Auburn.


Florida and Oklahoma need to beat someone other than North Carolina and Michigan respectively, so these rankings are going to look much different after the first full week in January.

After the New Year, Florida is at Kentucky, vs. Tennessee, and at Arkansas in an eight day, three game stretch. Likewise, Oklahoma is at Alabama, vs. Texas A&M and at Georgia. Don't be shocked if both of those come out of that stretch with a pair of losses.


Wouldn't have been surprised if Kentucky dropped past #10 but then again, looking at who would have had to have been moved ahead of them, it also makes sense that they didn't fall out entirely.

Kentucky has vs. Florida (1/4), at Georgia (1/7), at Mississippi State (1/11), vs. Texas A&M (1/14), vs. Alabama (1/18)-- five games in a fourteen day period. Know that 'Cats aren't playing well, but expect them to handle business against Florida and Texas A&M. Georgia will be sneaky tough, and we've had a tendency to struggle at Mississippi State, especially when they're up. Alabama will be an interesting game. The last time we played, we put a pretty bad beat down on them; doubt they've forgotten this, but it will be in Rupp and the noon tipoff probably works in our favor. Alabama will be coming off games at Texas A&M (1/11) and against Ole Miss (1/14) in the lead-in. Think we could come out of this 3-2 with wins against Florida, Texas A&M, and Alabama and actually move up a few spots in the rankings due to the perceived quality of the wins.