Ole Miss' 2024-25 SEC opponents will get retooled and revamped band of Rebels
Southeastern Conference fans were left to wonder how everything would work out schedule-wise in basketball with the new 16-team conference alignment, including Ole Miss.
Well, we found out recently and the formula is pretty simple, for now.
Every school will play every other school at least once – that’s 15 games – and three schools twice to make up the 18-game schedule on the men’s side.
For Chris Beard’s Rebels, that is undergoing a big transition with a major “remodeling” of the roster, the three teams they will play twice – home and away – are Auburn, LSU and Mississippi State.
Ole Miss will also play Georgia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Texas A&M at home and Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt on the road in the 2024-season.
We have not been told one way or another, but we assume the opponents that the Rebels will play twice during a season will rotate to the other schools, at least that is what the sports information department at Ole Miss believes, but all scheduling with the 16-team conference for now is “year to year” until a permanent formula is decided on.
Nine teams, counting SEC newcomer Texas, went to the NCAA Tournament last season with 4 seed Alabama making it all the way to the Final Four and 2 seed Tennessee making it to the Midwest Regional finals.
The rest of the SEC did not fare too well.
Number 4 seed Auburn was defeated by Yale in the first round; 8 seed Mississippi State lost to Michigan State in the first round; 9 seed Texas A&M lost to Houston in the second round; 3 seed Kentucky lost to Oakland in the first round; 7 seed Florida lost to Colorado in the first round; 6 seed South Carolina lost to Oregon in the first round; and 7 seed Texas lost to Tennessee in the second round.
Beard is retooling and revamping his roster this spring and has gained, thus far, the services of 6-foot-1 PG Sean Pedulla from Virginia Tech; 6-5 forward Davon Barnes from Sam Houston; 6-5 F Dre Davis from Seton Hall; 6-7 F Malik Dia from Belmont; 6-8 F Mikeal Brown-Jones from UNC Greensboro.
Ole Miss 6-9 F Jaemyn Brakefield and 5-11 G JuJu Murray are also set to come back from last year’s roster thus far. We have no confirmation on this yet, but we believe G TJ Caldwell and G Robert Cowherd will also stay on because neither is in the transfer portal.
Moussa Cisse, Brandon Murray, Jacob Gazzo, Austin Nunez, Cameron Barnes and Rashaud Marshall all got in the portal this fall and Jamarion Sharp, Allen Flanigan, Cam Brent and Matthew Murrell graduated.
Flanigan and Murrell are currently trying to land a spot in the G League, it has been reported previously.
Murrell has another year of eligibility if he chooses to come back if things don’t go well in his pursuit of a pro career.
