Saturday featured a classic SEC football championship game, but it also saw a solid 4-1 record for SEC basketball teams in action.
Kentucky, Ole Miss, LSU, and Arkansas all scored victories, but Vanderbilt came up short against a good NC State squad in Miami.
There are only two games on Sunday’s slate, with No. 6 Tennessee looking to stay hot while Missouri tries to get back on track after its loss to Temple.
Let’s get to the picks.
Season Predictions Record (straight up): 75-16
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (4-3) at No. 6 Tennessee (5-1) – Noon EST, SEC Network
The Vols bounced from the overtime loss to No. 2 Kansas with a 95-67 win over Eastern Kentucky earlier in the week, and they should add another victory to their total in this spot.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi does have a road win over UT Arlington on its resume, but the other three wins have come against non-Division I competition.
However, the Islanders’ three losses have all been by single digits, so that’s a bright spot.
But it may be difficult to keep this one to single digits, as Tennessee is way better offensively and has a significant size advantage.
Rick Barnes’ team should cruise to victory.
Prediction: Tennessee 79, Texas A&M-CC 50
UCF (6-1) at Missouri (3-3) – 3 p.m. EST, ESPNU
UCF has already scored a win over one SEC team this week, with Johnny Dawkins’ squad holding off Alabama for a 70-64 victory in Orlando.
But this will mark the first true road game for the Knights this season, and that could play a factor even against a struggling Missouri team.
The Tigers haven’t been all that bad this season, but there hasn’t been enough consistency to pull out wins against quality competition like Iowa State, Kansas State, and Temple.
This will likely be a low-scoring contest, as both teams rank 272nd or lower in average offensive possession length.
What will likely decide the game will be Missouri’s ability to take care of the ball and find good looks against an opponent that ranks 19th nationally in both defensive efficiency and effective field-goal percentage defense (43.5 percent).
UCF is a terrible free-throw shooting team (344th nationally at 57.4 percent), so that could play a role in a game like this one that’s expected to be close.
As much as this feels like a favorable matchup for Missouri due to the style of play, the Knights are more experienced and have proven to be pretty consistent through seven games.
I’ll lean towards UCF to grab the win.
Prediction: UCF 64, Missouri 62
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