FAYETTEVILLE -- Tennessee shredded its last two opponents -- LSU and Ole Miss -- by a combined 56 points as the last two dates in its current five-game winning streak. The No. 15 Volunteers beat Ole Miss 94-61 with a 59-point second half on Saturday after thumping the Tigers 84-61 last Wednesday.
Tennessee has won eight of nine games since opening SEC play with losses at Arkansas and at home against Auburn. Next up for Coach Rick Barnes' club is a road date at No. 24 Kentucky today at 6 p.m. Central.
The Volunteers will be aiming for a season sweep of Kentucky after downing the Wildcats 76-65 on Jan. 6.
"Five in a row or whatever, I don't think of it like that," Barnes said. "We don't talk about getting on a roll, we talk about getting better. We're not going to get off that message. We're not looking back. We're looking at what's in front of us."
Kentucky Coach John Calipari, a long-time friend of Barnes, called the long-time Clemson and Texas coach to encourage him to take the Tennessee job in the spring of 2015.
"I mean, I told him Tennessee is not a good job, it's a great job" Calipari said. "I'm happy for him. I mean, I love the guy. ... I'm watching and learning from him. I always have.
"What Rick is doing at Tennessee is unbelievable. They share the ball, and their assists to made baskets is probably better than any team in the country."
Tennessee is also playing stiff defense, having held its last seven opponents to 65 points or less.
The Volunteers shot 71 percent in the second half in the rout of Ole Miss and made 20 of their final 26 shots.
"Well, probably the best half of the year we will play," Barnes said. "When the ball is going in, it makes everything look good. We were making shots."
Ole Miss Coach Andy Kennedy said Barnes is a Hall of Fame coach.
"He's always going to put them in a position to be successful, they've bought in, they're having a lot of success, and today obviously was an avalanche that unfortunately we were under," Kennedy said Saturday.
Blasts abound
Auburn (21-2, 9-1 SEC) improved to No. 8 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday after notching its 16th victory by double digits in Saturday's 93-81 decision over Vanderbilt at Auburn Arena.
"At least right now for this week, for Auburn basketball to be recognized in the top 10 it's a very positive thing in our attempts to gain some relevance," said Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl, who also talked up the school's football team and academics.
The Tigers snapped a 13-game losing streak to Vanderbilt with the victory at Auburn Arena. Auburn hit 17 of 26 three-point shots (65.4 percent), which was better than its two-point shooting of 15 of 31 (48.4 percent), against the Commodores.
Since dropping their only SEC game at Alabama by a 76-71 score on Jan. 17, the Tigers have won five games in a row by an average margin of 15.6 points, with only Ole Miss (79-70) able to stay within 10 points. The Rebels lost for the first time at The Pavilion in SEC play this year.
Pearl said being picked to finish 11th in the SEC will continue to be a rallying point.
"We never felt like we were being snubbed," Pearl said. "I said to the guys the other day, 'Where would you like us to have been picked? Who would you have picked us ahead of?'"
The Tigers host fast-rising Texas A&M on Wednesday before traveling to Georgia on Saturday.
Palm reading
CBS Sports' Jerry Palm included eight SEC teams in his NCAA Tournament bracket projection on Monday, including a No. 2 seed for Auburn. Palm even made a case for Auburn as a potential No. 1 seed.
"Auburn is still a team that can contend for a No. 1 seed," Palm said. "The problem for them is ... the best win they could possibly get on their schedule is already in the books with Tennessee. They do play Kentucky, but that's at home.
"All Auburn can do is stack good wins but not great wins in order to put pressure on teams on the top line. They're going to need help from above if they're going to move up to a 1."
Palm lists Villanova, Virginia, Purdue and Xavier as his No. 1 seeds, and has Auburn joining Kansas, Clemson and Duke as No. 2 seeds.
Palm has these projections for the other SEC team in his bracket: 3 seed Tennessee, 5 seed Kentucky, 8 seed Missouri, 9 seed Alabama, 10 seeds Florida and Texas A&M and 11 seed Arkansas.
Bracketology
ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi also lists eight SEC teams in his Monday projection, with Auburn a 2 seed, Tennessee a 4 seed, Kentucky a 5 seed, Florida an 8 seed, Alabama and Texas A&M as 9 seeds, and Arkansas and Missouri as 10 seeds.
Lunardi did not list any SEC teams on the bubble, meaning last four in, first four out or next four out.
Top players
Missouri guard Kassius Robertson and Mississippi State guard Nick Weatherspoon earned SEC honors from the league office on Monday.
Robertson was named the league's player of the week after averaging 19 points, 4 assists and 3.5 rebounds in victories over Alabama and Kentucky.
Weatherspoon was selected SEC freshman of the week after averaging 15.5 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists in victories over South Carolina and Georgia. Weatherspoon hit 14 of 22 shots (63.6 percent) in the two games.
In or out
The SEC Network duo of former Razorback Pat Bradley and former Auburn player Daymeon Fishback started their NCAA Tournament projections late Saturday by listing Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Texas A&M and Arkansas as in the field, in that order, with the Razorbacks having a 71 percent chance to make it, according to ESPN.com. The first four of those teams all had a 97 percent chance or better to get in the bracket, per ESPN.com.
Bradley put Georgia in his NCAA field, though Fishback pointed out "if I was Georgia I wouldn't sleep at night ... with much more work to do."
The analysts and host Peter Burns determined LSU, South Carolina and Mississippi State as not being worthy of an at-large selection right now.
Fishback touted Missouri's top 20 strength of schedule and said, "I don't even know why we're questioning them."
Gator grief
Florida has lost its last three SEC games, including home losses to South Carolina (77-72) and Alabama (68-50) and will try to snap their skid on Wednesday at home against LSU.
Coach Mike White, asked to identify what's led to the losses, said, "If you're going to clump a couple of things together, offensively our shot selection has really hurt us these last couple of games.
"A lot of that again has to do with playing two defenses who were playing at a really high level. Stifling defenses, talented and prepared defenses."
Since beating Kentucky 66-64 at Rupp Arena on Jan. 20, the Gators' only victory was an 81-60 smoking of Baylor in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
Tigers roar
Missouri has posted multiple wins over Associated Press top 25 opponents for the first time in five years. The Tigers followed a 59-55 victory over then-No. 21 Tennessee on Jan. 17 with their 69-60 triumph over No. 21 Kentucky on Saturday.
The Wildcats shot a season-low 31.3 percent overall, including 10 percent (2 of 20) from three-point range. Kentucky averaged .845 points per possession, its lowest of the season.
Pocket penalty
Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes' generosity led to a minor NCAA violation last year after he admitted shelling out some of his own money to supplement the salary of assistant coach Desmond Oliver.
"It was important to me that Des Oliver made the same amount of money," Barnes said told USA Today Network -- Tennessee, referencing Oliver's fellow assistant coach Michael Schwartz.
"I just felt those two positions needed to be equal. They felt it wasn't in the budget. I just said, 'I'm going to pay it myself.'"
Barnes stopped making the payments after he notified his UT supervisor and there were no further penalties administered to the Volunteers after they self-reported the violation and said Barnes had received education on the infraction.
Tip-ins
• Auburn's SEC-best 77.8 percent free throw shooting is 2.2 percentage points higher than second place Tennessee (.756)
• South Carolina has the league's worst field-goal shooting, its 39.9 percent almost three percentage points behind next-worst Georgia (.427).
• Tennessee had assists on 27 of its 33 made shots against Ole Miss on Saturday.
• Missouri freshman Jeremiah Tilmon is 10 of 10 from the floor the last two games.
FROM TOP TO BOTTOM
RANK;LAST WEEK;RPI;TEAM (RECORDS);COMMENT
1;1;5;Auburn (21-2, 9-1);Hosting Texas A&M, traveling to Georgia
2;3;13;Tennessee (17-5, 7-3);Won 8 of 9; at Kentucky, Bama this week
3;4;16;Kentucky (17-6, 6-4);3-3 in last 6 facing Tenn., at A&M this week
4;5;39;Alabama (15-8, 6-4);Rare road victory at UF after losing to Mizzou
5;2;49;Florida (15-8, 6-4);Lack of interior depth showed up during 0-2 week
6;9;33;Missouri (15-8, 5-5);Big week with wins at Bama, vs. Kentucky
7;13;57; Miss. State (17-6, 5-5);3 game win streak on line vs. Bama tonight
8;10;75;LSU (13-9, 4-6);4-0 vs. Arkansas and Texas A&M
9;6;41;Arkansas (15-8, 4-6);Fell to 1-6 in road games with loss at LSU
10;11;30; Texas A&M (15-8, 4-6);Finally has roster together and it's showing
11;7;63;South Carolina (13-10, 4-6);0-3 since winning at Florida; headed to Bud
12;12;59;Georgia (13-9, 4-6);Lost 4 of last 5, 6 of last 8 heading to Vandy
13;8;82;Ole Miss (11-12, 4-6);3-game losing streak with Mizzou headed in
14;14;120;Vanderbilt (8-15, 2-8);Uncharacteristic No. 11 in SEC shooting (.433)
The Ratings Percentage Index is a scale used by the NCAA Selection Committee to rank Division I basketball teams by their performance in light of strength of schedule. Low RPI ranking numbers denote strong teams; and high numbers, weaker ones.
Game of the week
No. 15 Tennessee at No. 24 Kentucky, 6 p.m. today (ESPN)
• The Volunteers put their five-game winning streak on the line against the up-and-down Wildcats, who struggled to beat last-place Vanderbilt in their last game at Rupp Arena.
QUOTEBOOK
"They make it difficult to run anything you want to run." -- Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson on South Carolina
"It's another challenging week in SEC, which has become the most incredible league in the country." -- South Carolina Coach Frank Martin
"This is year 12 for me, and top to bottom it's the best the league has ever been. I think the most bids that the SEC has ever gotten is six. That's going to get shattered I think." -- Ole Miss Coach Andy Kennedy
By the numbers
10
Consecutive all-time losses by Missouri to Kentucky before snapping the skid on Saturday
13
Consecutive losses to Vanderbilt snapped by Auburn on Saturday
14
SEC season-high assists for Auburn guard Jared Harper against Vanderbilt
18
First-half points for Kentucky, lowest of any half in the John Calipari era, in the Wildcats' loss at Missouri
Sports on 02/06/2018