The SEC: who’s trending up, who’s trending down

Mississippi State Bulldogs

I mean, where else could I possibly start than here? Winners of 23 straight games overall and sitting at 9-0 in conference, the Bulldogs are two games up on Georgia and South Carolina with only seven games left on the schedule. That almost wasn’t the case as MSU struggled mightily in the first half of their road contest last night with Missouri, trailing 34-25 at halftime. A change in offensive focus out of the break saw the Bulldogs knot things up and, after a back and forth affair, eventually ended on a Victoria Vivians shot and a Blair Schaefer drawn charge.

The win sets up a huge matchup on Monday with the defending national champion Gamecocks, a game that MSU has already announced as a sellout. A win would extend the program’s record for best start to the season and, with another Georgia loss, would all but insure a Bulldogs SEC regular season title. In addition to the South Carolina game, the only game you could conceivably talk yourself into MSU losing would be to Texas A&M at home on Feb. 18. A huge reason for the Bulldogs success has been the play of… well, we’ll get into that later.

South Carolina Gamecocks

Yes, I saw the UConn game last night, a game that South Carolina looked completely overwhelmed in. However, I refuse to be a prisoner of the moment. Prior to the loss, South Carolina had won four straight conference games, including a win over Missouri that included some, umm, controversy. After losing to UConn last season, the Gamecocks went on to win 12 of their next 13 games, all of it culminating in a national championship. I know that was a different team than this one, but this year’s squad is still just two games out of first despite its constant health issues. In addition to the game at MSU on Monday, the Gamecocks still have to go to Georgia and Tennessee, plus play a sneaky LSU team. One way or the other, South Carolina will reveal their true colors to us soon. Speaking of the Tigers…

LSU Tigers

Don’t look now but here comes LSU! Winners of two straight and four of their last five, Nikki Fargas’ squad is starting to make believers out of many, myself included. Their past two wins were at home, both double digit victories over Tennessee and Georgia. Those performances should, assuming they take care of business Sunday, put them in the Top 25 conversation at the very least. Raigyne Louis and Chloe Jackson have both been excellent over the Tiger’s recent stretch and they now find themselves with a realistic chance to finish in the Top 3 of the SEC, something the team has yet to do under Fargas. Games against Texas A&M and South Carolina loom, but the rest are against teams below them in conference. If LSU can continue their recent play, they’ve got a shot in every remaining game on their schedule.

Kentucky Wildcats

When the Wildcats were picked to finish sixth preseason by both the and coaches, I was really surprised (I picked them eighth). The team lost the majority of its scoring from a season ago and besides Taylor Murray and Maci Morris, I didn’t feel like anyone on the roster had proven anything yet. Well, what I expected played out as the team struggled through early conference play, sitting at 1-5 at one point. Since that low mark, however, the Wildcats have reeled off three straight wins to move to 4-5, just two games out of third place. As noted, Murray and Morris have been good, but so has freshman Keke McKinney, a player who was most recently named SEC freshman of the week. Now don’t get it twisted; Kentucky still has done very little to convince me that they are anything more than I thought they were. Their wins were over teams in the bottom half of the conference, but regardless, they have won them and deserve credit for doing so.