Let's just be honest here. The SEC West stinks. There is nobody good. A loss by a bubble team to any team from the West except maybe Mississippi St, and Arkansas is a possibly critical blow to NCAA Tournament hopes. Yes, it's that bad. In fact, other than those two, the rest of the West should be preparing for trying to make a run through the conference tournament. They are non-BCS second class citizens.
Team capsules are in order of predicted finish
Mississippi St. - 6-2 so far with no quality wins and losses to Florida Atlantic and East Tennessee St.
The Bulldogs are only on top with that resume because of the weakness of the other teams in the division and the presence of top recruit Renardo Sidney who will finally become eligible to play when the team squares off against Virginia Tech. In fact, this team can erase quite a bit of the bad non-conference performance without Sidney by winning against the Hokies and then doing well at the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii with a field that includes a game against Washington St. and the presence of big resume builders Baylor, Butler, and Florida St. Also, the Bulldogs divert to Las Vegas for a neutral court game against St. Mary's. Win most or all of those and this team is NCAA Tourney good. They won't, but will win enough to get onto the bubble come March.
Arkansas – 6-1 so far with wins over Oklahoma and Seton Hall (not good but still BCS conferences) and a loss to UAB.
Not much was expected of Arkansas coming into the season, so the 6-1 record is a surprise. That said, there is still a lack of talent here and while the SEC West likely won't exploit that, games against the East and against Texas A&M and Texas likely will. The Hogs will win enough to see the NIT, but are not a serious threat to make the NCAA Tournament.
Ole Miss – 6-2 with no quality wins and losses to the two best teams they played (Dayton and Miami)
Chris Warren is a heck of a player and might be the best player in the division, but there is painfully little talent other than him. The remaining schedule until SEC play begins is easy and the Rebels should be 11-2, but that won't be good enough to overcome a .500 at best record because there aren't a whole lot of wins available against the better teams in the East.
LSU (6-3), Alabama (4-5) and Auburn (3-5) – I place these teams here collectively because they are all awful basketball teams. In fact, if any of these teams were in the Big Ten, Big 12 or Big East, I might call for a winless conference season. They will avoid that fate because of each other and the weakness of other teams in the West. In fact, it would qualify as one of the upsets of the season if any of these teams beat a team other than South Carolina from the East. They are that bad and lack that much talent. In fact, an all-star team comprised of players from these teams still would have almost no chance of making the NCAA Tournament. As for quality wins, between them, the closest is probably LSU's nine point home LOSS to Memphis. Needless to say, any loss to one of these three teams would be highly damaging to a bubble teams and might cost a seed line or even two for a lock team.
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