Saturday Shatters Everything We Thought We Knew About SEC Hoops

College basketball is a wacky sport.

Just when you think you've learned everything there is to know about the hierarchy of a league, a random Saturday blows it all to smithereens, and you have to wipe the erase board dry and start back at square one.

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Going into the weekend, we thought the two best teams in the league were Alabama and Florida.

While the Crimson Tide had a number of losses on their ledger, most, if not all, of those were quality losses while they racked up some fairly impressive wins as well.

It seemed as if Bama was beginning to stabilize just as the calendar was starting to flip to the all-important month of February, as the Tide also added a key piece (for now) in 7-foot-tall center, Charles Bediako.

Then they ran into an orange brick wall against Tennessee, leaving many to wonder if Bama is a pretender rather than a contender.

As for the Florida Gators, the defending national champions were riding high on a five-game winning streak, with wins over three consecutive ranked opponents including the previous SEC leader, Vanderbilt.

It seemed as if Todd Golden's team was poised to make another run at an SEC championship and a deep tournament run, steamrolling their way through the league at large.

Then they welcomed a middle-of-the-road Auburn team to Gainesville, missed nearly a dozen free throws, and lost to the Tigers on their home court for the first time since Bill Clinton was in office.

Alabama and Florida were on a collision course a week from Sunday, with potential SEC regular season championship implications on the line, and while there is still plenty of time to course correct for both, some hard questions need to be asked in both Tuscaloosa and Gainesville, respectively.

Bama – who was missing two starters in their game against Tennessee – will get healthy.

Florida will shoot better from the charity stripe.

But neither team is the juggernaut we thought they were becoming heading into Saturday's slate.

As for the rest of the SEC, it's as wide open as it's been all season.

Vanderbilt smoked Mississippi State to reestablish themselves as one of the alphas of the league, while teams like Arkansas and Texas A&M continue to rack up the wins.

And that doesn't even account for Kentucky, who has quietly put together a five-game winning streak of their own as they sit near the top of the conference.

Take everything you thought you knew about the SEC and throw it out the window.

Saturday proved that the race for the SEC crown is far from over, and as college basketball fans, we wouldn't have it any other way.