4 Things You Need to Know About Ole Miss

Kentucky is traveling to Ole Miss for a Top 25 matchup in Oxford. Corey Price can fact-check me, but I believe it’s the most lopsided series in the SEC. Kentucky is 111-14 against Ole Miss, with four of those wins coming since 2000.

This isn’t your father’s Ole Miss team. Unlike many of its predecessors, Chris Beard has this team ranked in the Top 25. Here are a few things you need to know before Kentucky takes the court at The Pavilion at 7 pm EST on ESPN.

Ole Miss Wins the Turnover Battle

Chris Beard is kind of like a football coach. If you win the turnover battle on the gridiron, there’s a good chance you’re winning that game. Ole Miss is taking a similar approach.

The Rebels have the third-best turnover margin in the country, turning the ball over just 9.3 times per game while forcing 15.7 per game. As Jacob Polacheck detailed, they’re hard to beat when they are turning defense into easy offense.

More Like Old Miss, amirite?

Chris Beard got old and stayed old. Memphis native Matthew Murrell is in his fifth season at Ole Miss. Jaemyn Brakefield has been in Oxford for four seasons after starting his career at Duke. Sean Pedulla, the Rebels’ leading scorer, spent three years at Virginia Tech before transferring to Ole Miss this offseason.

Ole Miss has seven players who have scored 1,000+ career points. According to KenPom, they are the third-most experienced team in college basketball, one spot ahead of Kentucky.

Remember that Guy?

Does the name Dre Davis ring a bell? The 6-foot-6 forward from Indianapolis actually has a winning record against Kentucky from his time at Louisville, something almost no one can say.

Davis was a freshman for Chris Mack during the Covid-19 season who had five points and three rebounds in 31 minutes against John Calipari’s worst Kentucky basketball team. The Cards won that game at the Yum! Center 62-59. Davis spent one more season at UofL, in a year where the Cards canceled the game at the eleventh hour, before transferring to Seton Hall. Davis averaged 15 points and six rebounds per game for the Pirates last season, parlaying that into a spot in the starting lineup for Ole Miss.

Ole Miss Really Needs a Win

Halfway through January, Chris Beard had the hottest team in the SEC. They won their first four games in league play, punctuated by a 74-64 win over Alabama. Since that monumental win on the road, they’ve lost four of their last five. Their only win was at home against Texas in a game where they won by three, only after they gave Tre Johnson a chance to win it, followed by a clean look to send it into overtime.

It’s been a brutal stretch for Ole Miss. It lightens up a little in February, but they desperately need a win to continue to tread water. Which team will be more desperate, the Cats or the Rebels? We’ll find out tonight at 7 pm EST.