December 21 SEC Basketball Schedule: TV, Tip Times, Streaming, How to Watch, Odds and Picks

What Happened Last Night

• Georgia 60, Georgia Tech 43: No, Georgia Tech isn’t very good, but this is important for what it wasn’t: a loss. That’s something the Bulldogs absolutely couldn’t afford. Yante Maten had 16 points and 7 boards, but the most impressive factor here was Georgia’s defense, which held the Yellow Jackets to a paltry 0.63 points per possession, their worst offensive performance of the season.
• Arkansas 71, North Dakota State 55: Quietly, the Razorbacks are now 10-1 and have won seven in a row. Part of that has been the schedule: Arkansas hasn’t beaten any teams that command respect, but they also haven’t lost to those teams. This was much the same story, except the Razorbacks mostly did this with defense: NDSU shot 33 percent from the floor. Daryl Macon had 15 points to lead the Razorbacks.

Today’s Schedule

Nonconference play is starting to wind down: for four teams (Kentucky, Florida, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt), tonight will be their last game before SEC play starts next week. The obvious headliner is Kentucky’s trip to Louisville; per Ken Pomeroy, this is actually the last game of the regular season in which the Wildcats are not favored to win. There are also a couple more rivalry games: Missouri faces Illinois in St. Louis in the annual Braggin’ Rights game, which might wind up being the beginning of the end of the Kim Anderson era. South Carolina hosts Clemson, who’s quietly ranked 26th in KenPom.

Also, Florida plays its first game in Gainesville this season after playing a bunch of road and neutral-court games while the O’Connell Center underwent renovations. Auburn heads up to Connecticut to play Oklahoma (a game that was almost certainly set up so that Connecticut native Mustapha Heron could play in front of his home crowd), and Alabama plays a “neutral-court” game in Huntsville. And yes, you’re reading that correctly: the Vanderbilt-Dayton game will be streamed on Facebook Live.

Odds and Picks

Yesterday: 2-0 ATS (#winningstreak); Season to Date: 42-66-1 ATS

• Kentucky (Pick) at Louisville: I do not feel like picking against Kentucky at the moment, as the Wildcats are 8-3 ATS this season.
• Missouri vs. Illinois (-6): While a 6-point spread feels a little bit like a trap (it opened at 7.5), I have zero confidence in Missouri right now, and for good reason.
• Vanderbilt (+8) at Dayton: Vanderbilt looked like they had figured out a few things on Saturday, while Dayton suffered a deflating loss at Northwestern. I don’t think Vanderbilt will win outright, but the momentum looks to be on their side.
• Little Rock at Florida (-20): The emotion should be running high as Florida returns to the O-Dome for the first time this season, and they’re facing a team that lost to Oral Roberts by 15 a couple of nights ago.
• Auburn (+6) vs. Oklahoma: This isn’t the Oklahoma team of a year ago, or the Auburn team of a year ago for that matter. I still suspect Auburn is better than where the oddsmakers have them and this is making them a smart play a lot this season.
• Clemson at South Carolina (-1.5): Sindarius Thornwell isn’t expected to be back for this one, but the Gamecocks seem to be figuring out how to keep it together without him, and of course they’ll be fired up to beat Clemson on their home floor.
• Arkansas State (+6) vs. Alabama: I bet you didn’t know that Arkansas State is 9-2 this season, with a win over Georgetown. At the very least they should keep this close and they might even win this game outright.