As soon as I think there has been separation from the top teams in the SEC, college basketball reminds me how awesome of a sport it is.

South Carolina picked up a huge win over the Kentucky Wildcats in Columbia on Tuesday night. The win sets them up to make a run in the SEC. The defensive performance that the Gamecocks displayed was rather impressive.

I thought the defensive pressure by the Gamecocks really sped the Wildcats up and the physicality bothered the young bigs of Kentucky. If you look at the stats there is one stat that sticks out and that is the three point shooting. South Carolina hit 11 threes and Kentucky only hit four.

South Carolina did a great job of playing inside out on offense. Whether it was from driving the ball into the paint or posting up and kicking the ball out, South Carolina was getting kick out threes. From experience, it is so much easier to make shots when the pass is coming from the paint and the shooter can just set his feet and shoot.

Lamont Paris really had a great game plan as far as playing elbows and blocks with his big men. Usually there would be a big on the elbow and a big on the opposite block. This spacing allowed for so many options. Specifically, one they used was South Carolina would hit the big man on the block with a quick reversal to the elbow big into a hand off. This is great action and had Kentucky fooled all night.

After this win, there is no doubt that South Carolina is a Top 25 team. The job Lamont Parish is doing should be celebrated. I believe he is the early front runner for Coach of the Year in the league and maybe National Coach of the Year.

Kentucky fans should be a little worried

I have been warning Kentucky fans these past few weeks on the lack of defense this team plays.

Throughout the season, you are going to have games where you just do not make shots. It happens to every team. You can’t rely on just trying to out score people all the time. If Kentucky wants to have a chance to make the Final Four the defense has to drastically improve.

South Carolina scored more points in this game than any conference game so far this year. The Gamecocks did make some hard shots, but they had a lot of open looks. Most of those open looks came from bad positioning from Kentucky and not being able to keep the ball in front of them.

The inability to guard the ball has been an ongoing problem. Georgia drove Kentucky every time down the floor in the second half on Saturday and this continued on Tuesday. If you can’t keep the ball in front of you as the primary defender then Kentucky is going to continue to struggle on this end.

It’s not time to panic on Kentucky but there is some reason to be concerned with this team.

The jury is still out on Auburn

I took a lot of heat earlier in the year when I said we need to pump the brakes on Auburn and my reasoning was I need to see them execute offensively against top competition. Wednesday, Auburn had the chance to pick up that defining win of the season. They fell just short of that and Alabama picked up their first quad 1 win of the year.

The past few years Auburn has been out of control on offense with turnovers and bad shots. This year, for the most part, it looked like they had changed. Auburn in the first half of this game looked like the old Auburn. They were very careless with the basketball and looked as if they were trying to make the highlight play every play. Auburn was down 14 at the half as a result.

In the second half the Tigers finally stopped settling for threes and just got the ball to Johni Broome, who was really the only Auburn offense in this game. To beat a good team on the road, you have to play 40 minutes of sound basketball. Auburn has yet to prove they can.

I thought Alabama made a great adjustment in the game going small. They allowed Johni Broome to work one on one, but forced the Auburn guards to make quick decisions and create chaos in this game. Alabama I thought really frustrated this Auburn team, especially in the first half.

For Alabama, this was a much needed bounce back win after the embarrassing performance in Knoxville on Saturday. The energy in the building is what makes college athletics the best. Besides Alabama needing to find some new lights maybe, this was a great night to be a Tide fan.

Marc Sears was great in this game. He controlled the entire game with the pace he played. Alabama played fast and pushed the ball in transition, which put a lot of pressure on Auburn’s defense. Also, it never let the Tigers defense get set.

Alabama didn’t shoot the ball well at all in the second half, but made some key free throws down the stretch. Alabama desperately needed a quad 1 win and they found it against Auburn. If Nate Oaks can get this team to defend the way they did against the Tigers, they could make some serious noise.

It still drives me crazy that this Alabama team refuses to take mid range jumpers. I understand the analytics, but if a team is going to give you open jumpers you have to shoot them.

It’s time to be honest and say Arkansas is a bottom half SEC team

The Arkansas Razorbacks lost to Ole miss on the road on Wednesday. In honest terms, this was a beat down of epic proportions.

Ole Miss did anything they wanted against the Razorbacks and Chris Beards' team picked up a win at home. For Arkansas, this performance was just embarrassing. I never thought an Eric Mussleman team would be weak and play with zero fight, but that’s what happened in this game. It seems that this team struggles when adversity hits and can’t fight back when other teams go on runs.

As a road team, there are a couple of things that you have to do to be successful. The most important thing to do on the road is that you have to handle adversity and not overreact to runs from the home team. Arkansas seems to pack it in when adversity hits and when things are not going their way.

For Ole Miss, this was a great bounce back win after a bad performance at Auburn. It was also good to see Allen Flannigan play well, as he had a triple double. Chris Beard continues to get the most out of these guys and I still believe this could be a tournament team.

Best of the rest

The Georgia Bulldogs picked a big one over the LSU Tigers in what was a fantastic back and forth game. Russel Tchewa grabbed an offensive rebound and was able to convert a three point play with two seconds left to win by two.

I talked about it in the preview that these mid-tier SEC games are going to be great games to watch as these teams are so evenly matched.

Freshman Silas Demary continues to impress me, as he was the leading scorer with 15 points. Georgia's split actions with the flashing big at the top of the key continues to give teams trouble. For the LSU Tigers, this loss has to feel like an opportunity missed. This team will be fighting to make the tournament and road wins are hard to find.

The Florida Gators picked up a win over MIssissippi State in Gainesville. If the Gators want to make the tournament these are the games at home they have to win. Todd Golden continues to impress me as a bright young coach in this league.

Texas A&M defeated Missouri at home, as well. We will see if the Aggies can make a push in the SEC, as they have the talent to do so.                        

Looking ahead to the weekend

There are many interesting games this weekend in the SEC, but I will have to go with Ole MIss going to College Station as the game of the week. These teams are in very similar spots in the league and this game has the making to be a great watch.

Ole Miss has been pretty bad on the road and this is something that needs to be fixed if they want to be in the big dance come March. For Texas A&M, these are games you have to win on your court. I still think this Aggies team has the talent to challenge some of the top teams in the league.

Kentucky will travel to Bud Walton arena to face off against Arkansas, as College Gameday will be there.

Kentucky has struggled on the road in conference play and I’m interested to see how they handle the environment on Saturday.  This team has to defend better if they want to accomplish the goals they have at the end of the year. South Carolina out-physicaled the young Wildcats and I assume Arkansas will use the same blueprint.

Arkansas is in a now or never type of situation. If they want any hope of turning this season around they have to win this game. I look for Bud Walton to play a big factor in this game.    

The Auburn Tigers look to bounce back as they travel to Starkville to take on MIssissippi State. I look for Auburn to build off their second half performance in Tuscaloosa. This is a huge game for Mississippi State as they look to add to their resume.

As a bubble team, having wins over Tennessee and Auburn would be huge. Alabama hosts LSU in what is a trap game for the Tide. If Alabama is not focused this could be a close game come late second half.

Georgia travels to Florida in what is a very intriguing game. These teams are so evenly matched that it could be a classic college basketball game.

South Carolina hosts Missouri in what should be a win for the Gamecocks.

Lastly, Tennessee travels to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt. I have heard from numerous sources that this could very well be a big orange takeover in the music city. I expect there to be over 10,000 Vol fans in attendance. This game could get ugly very quickly.

Enjoy this college basketball weekend, as conference play heats up and the games start to take on meaning. The environments in the sport this year have been absolutely amazing.

The atmosphere in Tuscaloosa Wednesday was amazing and if fans watched the NBA game after, it was night and day different from the college atmosphere.