It’s getting to the point now where the tournament is starting to shake out and take shape as to who is almost guaranteed to get in and what needs to be done by everybody else to get in.
Arkansas sits at 11 right now, but other than Ole Miss, Arkansas is playing 5 straight tourney teams, which works in our favor.
Auburn #8 RPI and #2 seeding
Alabama #33 RPI and #8 seeding
Mizzou #23 RPI and #7 seeding
A&M #17 RPI and #7 seeding
Kentucky #20 RPI and #7 seeding
Fact is, a few wins in these games can easily flip the seeding on its head.
But which ones are the most vital?
In my opinion, we have been terrible on the road, but we CAN’T lose to Ole Miss! They are a below 100 RPI team and if we lose this game, by the numbers we shouldn’t be right on the bubble, but we’ll be teetering. The biggest game will be the Alabama game. Alabama has some nice RPI wins where you would think their RPI would be higher, but they are ALL at home. Even Arkansas has a nice top 25 RPI win on a neutral site, but not Alabama. If we can win this game, not only would it be a nice road win, but it would definitely push our perception in the tourney seeding up high beating a team that’s killing people at home.
As for the rest of the games, we have to at least split the A&M and Kentucky game. I believe we can and should beat both but we must at least beat one of them. Auburn is a toss up because it’s a home, but I can also easily see them lighting up the scoreboard as well. Mizzou? I don’t really know to tell you the truth. I still don’t think their that good, but they are definitely on a hot streak at the moment. Plus, they might get Porter Jr. back, which may be a good or bad thing. Too many variables for me to make a prediction there, but a win on the road is always good.
Bottom line is, depending on how the next 6 games shake out, we maybe going into the SEC tourney playing for seeding only or trying to get those extra wins to push us into the NCAA tourney. I don’t think we will need to win the SEC tourney to get in at this point, but it wouldn’t hurt to win it either.