With most Southeastern Conference men's basketball teams starting the second half of their league schedules this week, the race for MVP may be down to three.

Kentucky freshman guard John Wall, South Carolina senior guard Devan Downey and Kentucky freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins already have taken turns as the primary candidate for the honor. Wall was the favorite as the Wildcats raced to a 19-0 start, but he was overshadowed by Downey on Jan. 26, when the Gamecocks pulled off a 68-62 upset in Columbia.

The 5-foot-9 Downey leads the SEC with 23 points and 2.95 steals per game.

"For individual performance, you've got to put Devan up there just in terms of value to his team and the way he's producing individually every night out," Gamecocks coach Darrin Horn said Monday. "It's hard to argue that he's not having as good a season as anybody in the league."

Wall averages 16.4 points a game and leads the league with 6.64 assists per contest, but Kentucky's hottest player is the 6-11, 260-pound Cousins. In Saturday's 81-55 whipping of LSU in Baton Rouge, Cousins racked up 19 points and 14 rebounds in just 20 minutes.

He has six straight double-doubles, the first UK player with such a streak since Chris Mills in 1989.

"Everybody has seen DeMarcus finish and score," LSU coach Trent Johnson said, "but we had guys come across the baseline trying to set a screen, and he wasn't having any part of it. He's physical and is such a natural presence. The good thing about it is that he's going to be around for one year, and that's it."

Cousins also averages 16.4 points per game and ranks second in the SEC in field-goal percentage (.542) and rebounds (10 per game).

"I said after we played them that I thought he was as good and dominant a big man as I've seen in person in 15 years in college basketball," Horn said. "When you look at his numbers and compare that to his minutes played, he's another one that would be in the conversation."

National title material

LSU gave eventual champion North Carolina its stiffest challenge in last year's NCAA tournament. After falling behind Kentucky 42-14 at halftime this past Saturday, Johnson believes John Calipari's club has what it takes to supplant the Tar Heels.

"Now that I've seen them up close and personal -- obviously John wouldn't like me saying this -- they're pretty good and have got a chance to win it all," he said. "We were completely overmatched. It was men versus boys."

High on the Hogs

After finishing 2-14 last season in league play, Arkansas is the surprise leader in the SEC West with a 5-3 record. John Pelphrey's Razorbacks will be favored to go 6-3 Wednesday when they host LSU.

"I really appreciate our basketball team as far as getting up and going to work," Pelphrey said. "They've done that, whether they've gotten the desired result the night before or not. It's the hardest working group of guys I've been around in my three years at Arkansas, and they have a better understanding of what it's all about to go to school, be a student-athlete and be part of a team.

"I think that's a good place to start."