SEC report

The stars so far in SEC race

LSU's Ben Simmons drive to the basket against Auburn in the first half of their NCAA college basketball game on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016 in Auburn, Ala. LSU won 80-68.(Todd J. Van Emst/Opelika-Auburn News via AP)

FAYETTEVILLE -- The SEC hit the midway point of conference play last week, which provides an opportunity for an early look at postseason awards.

The pool of candidates for SEC MVP will probably be reserved for a small handful of players, among them being guards Stefan Moody of Ole Miss and Tyler Ulis of Kentucky and forwards Jalen Jones of Texas A&M and Ben Simmons of LSU. Arkansas center Moses Kingsley and South Carolina forward Michael Carrera, strong All-SEC contenders, could be in the conversation as well, along with Florida guard Dorian Finney-Smith.

South Carolina's Frank Martin, LSU's Johnny Jones and Texas A&M's Billy Kennedy head the list of contenders for SEC coach of the year.

Simmons should be a landslide choice for SEC freshman of the year, and the 6-10 point forward should be in the mix for national player of the year. Simmons leads the SEC with 12.3 rebounds per game and he ranks third with 19.4 points per game.

Moody, the SEC leader with 23.5 points per game, and Tennessee's Kevin Punter (23.2 scoring average) are the only players in the conference to average 20-plus points per game.

Kentucky's Ulis is 10th in the SEC with 16.3 points per game and second with 6.4 assists per game, behind Arkansas' Jabril Durham (6.8).

Jones leads the balanced Texas A&M attack with 16.0 points per game, tied for 12th in the league, and he's 10th with 7.2 rebounds per game.

Kingsley is second in SEC rebounding with 9.2 per game and eighth in scoring at 16.4 per game. Carrera has scored 20-plus points in four of the past five games, including a career-high 34 in an 84-74 victory over Mississippi State, to push his way into all-SEC consideration. Finney-Smith is fourth in rebounding (8.2) and 16th in scoring (15.5).

Tigers lead

LSU holds the top spot in the SEC with a 8-2 record and eight games remaining. The Tigers have a challenging week ahead, with a road game at South Carolina on Wednesday, followed by a home game Saturday against Texas A&M, which has lost three SEC games in a row to fall into a second-place tie with South Carolina and Kentucky at 7-3.

"We're halfway through the league and with those two teams at the top of the standings, I think you could really position yourself to be challenging for a top spot in the league provided we have success over these next couple of games," LSU Coach Johnny Jones said.

In and out

ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi added LSU to his latest NCAA Tournament projection Monday. The five SEC teams Lunardi projects into the field, along with their seeding: No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Kentucky, No. 7 Florida, No. 7 South Carolina and No. 10 LSU.

Lunardi also lists Vanderbilt among his first four teams out of the tournament and Georgia among the next four out.

CBSsports.com's Jerry Palm also added LSU to his Monday bracket projection, but said the Tigers' spot atop the SEC is the key reason and called them a "bid stealer" because "other than a home win over Kentucky, there wouldn't be anything to talk about" for the Tigers' tourney profile.

Palm projects No. 4 Texas A&M, No. 7 Kentucky, No. 7 South Carolina, No. 10 Florida and No. 12 LSU into the field. He lists Georgia among his first four out.

Suspension watch

Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl said guard Kareem Canty would not be available for tonight's game at Tennessee and that his suspension remained on "indefinite" status. Asked what Canty would need to do to come off suspension, Pearl said, "That would be between Kareem and myself."

Missouri Coach Kim Anderson did not update the status of suspended freshmen Jakeenan Gant and Russell Woods during Monday's SEC coaches teleconference, saying, "We're still evaluating and we should know something by game time on Wednesday."

Gant and Woods were arrested last Thursday on suspicion of possession of drug paraphernalia after a police search at their apartment "in order to locate and preserve evidence pertaining to a home invasion robbery." A roommate of the pair is a suspect in the robbery.

Triple header

South Carolina is in the middle of what is probably the toughest three-game stretch an SEC team will face in league play this season.

The Gamecocks dealt Texas A&M its first home loss of the season, 81-78, last Saturday. South Carolina forced 17 turnovers and shot 52.6 percent from the field to knock the Aggies out of first place in the SEC standings.

Now the Gamecocks are back home in Columbia, S.C., for two games against tough competition, with LSU on Wednesday and Kentucky coming to town for an 11 a.m. game Saturday.

"League play in the SEC is no fun," South Carolina Coach Frank Martin said. "There's no one league opponent greater than the other. Every single game is just a head smasher."

Changing stripes

Florida reversed what had been a year-long struggle at the free-throw line in its recent victories over West Virginia and Arkansas.

The Gators had been the worst free throw shooting team in the SEC before going 24 of 31 (77.4 percent) in their 88-71 victory over West Virginia and 30 of 36 (83.3 percent) in holding off Arkansas 87-83 last Wednesday.

Florida is now shooting 64.6 percent from the line for the season, ahead of only Auburn (63.7) in the SEC.

Ay, Caruso!

Texas A&M senior Alex Caruso is the SEC's active leader in both assists and steals by a huge margin.

Caruso has 583 assists, 217 more than Georgia's Charles Mann, who has the second-most among active players with 366. Caruso's 251 steals are 76 more than Mississippi State's Craig Sword, whose 174 steals rank second.

East vs. West

The SEC does not differentiate between the East and West divisions in basketball as it does in football, but the annual head-to-head standings will be documented here.

The Western Division teams went 3-2 against the East last Saturday to improve their standing to 19-21 in the series. The best records in cross-division games belong to Florida and South Carolina, which are each 5-1. On the other side, LSU leads the way with a 3-1 mark, while Texas A&M is 4-2, along with Kentucky from the East. The teams with 3-3 records against the other division are Alabama, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.

Missouri has the worst record at 1-5 against the other division, while both Mississippi State and Tennessee are 1-4.

Streaks

Four SEC teams have put together winning streaks of seven or more games this season, led by South Carolina's 15-0 start. But long streaks have otherwise been difficult to come by, particularly in league play.

Texas A&M enjoyed a 10-game winning streak, which included a 7-0 start in conference games, the best this season. Kentucky and Ole Miss had seven-game winning streaks earlier in the season, while Alabama and Vanderbilt each won five in a row and Georgia won four.

Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri and Tennessee have all maxed out with three-game winning streaks.

In league games, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky and Vanderbilt have managed to win three in a row for the second-longest streak behind the Aggies. Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, LSU (four times), Ole Miss and South Carolina (three times) have topped out at two SEC victories in a row, while Mississippi State, Missouri and Tennessee have not won back-to-back conference games.

Tip ins

• Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said center Moses Kingsley would return to the starting lineup tonight at Mississippi State after a one-game hiatus if all goes well until tipoff.

• No. 15 Texas A&M and No. 22 Kentucky are the only SEC teams in Monday's Associated Press men's poll. South Carolina is listed first among others receiving votes. The USA Today coaches poll has No. 13 Texas A&M, No. 20 South Carolina and No. 21 Kentucky.

• Kentucky forward Alex Poythress (knee) is day to day, Coach John Calipari said Monday.

• SEC teams have won 81.6 percent of their home games overall and 72.9 percent (51-19) of their conference home games this season.

• Of the 10 SEC players to score 30-plus points in a game this season, four are freshmen: Florida's KeVaughn Allen, Kentucky's Jamal Murray and LSU's Antonio Blakeney and Ben Simmons.

Sports on 02/09/2016