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What Happened Last Night
- Arkansas 82, Tennessee 78: Arkansas had to win this one with Kentucky coming up, and they got the win they needed. The Razorbacks fell behind by 13 points in the first half, but closed the first half on a 11-0 run and then caught Tennessee in the second half. Anton Beard had 16 points off the bench to lead the Razorbacks; Robert Hubbs III had 21 points for the Vols.
- Florida 70, Ole Miss 63: This wasn’t as close as the final score made it look: Florida led by as much as 20 and was up by 16 at the final media timeout before Ole Miss went on a late run to cut the final to 7. Florida improved to 2-0 in the SEC behind 20 points from Canyon Barry, while Sebastian Saiz had his obligatory double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds, which was his fifth straight double-double and ninth of the season.
- Alabama 68, Mississippi State 58: In the SEC opener for both teams, Alabama closed the first half on a 24-9 run and then held off a Mississippi State rally early in the second half to go to 1-0. As usual, Alabama’s M.O. was to be bad on offense and simply make the other team worse: Mississippi State shot 36 percent from the floor and the Tide overcame 17 turnovers to win.
- Kentucky 100, Texas A&M 58: This was Kentucky’s first home game in almost a month and it wasn’t pretty. Kentucky led basically from start to finish while Texas A&M allowed walk-on Chris Collins to start and play 22 minutes for no particular reason. Malik Monk scored 26 points on just 11 field goal attempts.
Tonight’s Schedule
| Game | Time (ET) | TV/Streaming |
|---|---|---|
| Auburn at Vanderbilt | 7:00 PM | SEC Network/WatchESPN |
| South Carolina at Georgia | 7:00 PM | ESPNU/WatchESPN |
| LSU at Missouri | 9:00 PM | SEC Network/WatchESPN |
The big story tonight is that Sindarius Thornwell makes his return for South Carolina after serving a six-game suspension; the Gamecocks were 7-0 with Thornwell in the lineup and went 3-3 in his absence. South Carolina will be facing a Georgia team that has a very good chance to start SEC play at 3-0 if they can pick up a win at home tonight. Vanderbilt likewise is looking to capitalize on a road win in its SEC opener and Auburn would probably like to avoid an 0-2 start. In the late game, well, Missouri gets (per Ken Pomeroy) its best chance at an SEC win this season.
Odds and Picks
Yesterday: 3-1 ATS; Season to Date: 53-77-1 ATS
Had one of my best days in a while yesterday, and that was even with a bad beat in the Florida-Ole Miss game.
- Auburn (+5) at Vanderbilt: There’s pretty good value on the road team here, particularly since Auburn is good at defending the three-point line and that basically means they can take away the one thing Vanderbilt does well. Plus Auburn will want to avoid an 0-2 start to SEC play and I think they’ll cover.
- South Carolina (+2) at Georgia: I like the value on South Carolina here, as the odds may be overreacting to Georgia’s SEC opener win over Auburn (and also, possibly, overreacting to what South Carolina did with Sindarius Thornwell out of the lineup.)
- LSU (+1) at Missouri: Look, somebody has to win this game. Also what does it say about the regard that the oddsmakers have for Johnny Jones’ team that they’re an underdog against a wretched Missouri team, even on the road?