SEC Women's Basketball Power Rankings, South Carolina takes lead in title race – Knoxville News Sentinel

A lot can change in a week of SEC women’s basketball.
South Carolina now some separation at the top of the standings after notching an 18th straight victory over LSU. Vanderbilt and Texas both have three losses now after the Commodores beat the Longhorns and then immediately lost to Georgia. Tennessee also picked up a third loss, falling by two points to Texas.
So, the SEC regular-season championship is the Gamecocks’ for the taking if they win out – and while Alabama, Ole Miss, Missouri and Kentucky don’t seem like teams capable of upsetting USC, crazier things have happened.
Rankings based on games as of Feb. 17.
Last week: 1
What to know: South Carolina vs. LSU can’t be taken seriously as a “rivalry” – Kim Mulkey led the Tigers to a championship and still hasn’t beaten the Gamecocks as LSU coach. Which begs the question – is it harder to beat South Carolina than it is to win a championship?
Last week: 3
What to know: Vanderbilt beat Texas so badly, coach Vic Schaefer ranted hard enough to go viral, which isn’t the hardest thing to do, but still a big moment for the Commodores.
Last week: 2
What to know: After a gritty win at Tennessee, Schaefer monologued for five minutes in one answer that ranged from the team’s response to his Vanderbilt rant to a defense of both himself and Kim Caldwell holding their teams accountable publicly. What a week of Schaefer speeches.
Last week: 4
What to know: Word on the street is Mulkey is still asking her team who can guard Tessa Johnson.
Last week: 5
What to know: Coach Yo didn’t take any offense to Kim Caldwell’s blow-by handshake, she even joked that Caldwell “probably was just really ready to go,” after Ole Miss steamrolled Tennessee.
Last week: 9
What to know: Two more wins for the Wildcats and they’re starting to look like a team that you really, really don’t want to run into in March when they’re inevitably under-seeded.
Last week: 7
What to know: The Lady Vols almost convinced me they turned a corner, but they went right back to another blowout loss on the road. Unfortunately for them, they have two more ranked road games.
Last week: 8
What to know: Georgia may have found a formula for beating Vanderbilt – keep Mikayla Blakes from hitting shots by fouling her every possession and sending her to the free throw line 20 times.
Last week: 10
What to know: The Sooners escaped Tuscaloosa with a win, and it’s a good thing, too, or it was about to start looking really tough for Oklahoma.
Last week: 6
What to know: The Tide are clinging to .500 in SEC play right now, but they might only have one win left, if that, in their last four games.
Last week: 12
What to know: The Bulldogs won two straight games for the first time in SEC play, but can someone explain how they beat Georgia worse than Arkansas?
Last week: 11
What to know: Kellie Harper’s return to Knoxville went about how you’d expect, but in Harper’s words, man, her players really try.
Last week: 13
What to know: Outside of a handful of games, Florida’s SEC season can pretty much be summed up with, “close, but no cigar.”
Last week: 14
What to know: The Aggies dominated every aspect of the game in their third SEC win, so much so that it didn’t even matter they had 18 turnovers.
Last week: 15
What to know: To say Auburn is struggling offensively is a bit of an understatement. The Tigers only scored more than 60 points for the second time in SEC play against Texas A&M, and they lost both games.
Last week: 16
What to know: Arkansas has four more chances to avoid going winless in SEC play … stay tuned, folks. I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seats.
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: [email protected]; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social‬. 

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