Bracket Watch: Did the win over Florida affect the Ole Miss women's team's projections?
The Ole Miss women’s basketball team got back to its winning ways on Thursday, snapping a two-game skid with a thrilling overtime victory over Florida. Now it is the men’s team to try and get out of its slump on Saturday against floundering Missouri.
But before then it is time to take another look at the latest NCAA Tournament projections and see if the win in Gainesville did anything to the women’s current standings.
Every Tuesday and Friday through the rest of the regular season ESPN’s bracketologists Joe Lunardi and Charlie Creme will reveal updated tournament projections.
The latest for the women’s Field of 64 shows no change for Ole Miss (17-7, 7-4 Southeastern Conference) after rallying from 16 points down to steal a SEC road win.
Staying put as the 8-Seed in the Portland 2 Region, the Rebels still slotted to play 9-Seed Princeton in the Palo Alto quadrant. The winner would play 1-Seed Standford in the second round in what could be a potential rematch of last year’s Round of 32 if Creme’s projections hold true.
“This was a must-win for us,” said Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin after Thursday’s game. “We don’t want any questions when it comes to if we’re a NCAA Tournament team. Florida’s ahead of us in the NET. This was on the road. We should get a lot of positive points because of this.”
Entering Thursday’s game Florida was sitting at 52 in the NET rankings and Ole Miss at 54. In Friday’s update to the NET the Rebels jumped five spots to 49 while the Gators fell six spots to 58.
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Despite a three-game losing streak in the SEC the Ole Miss men’s team actually moved up in the latest ‘Bracketology.’
On Tuesday the Rebels suffered their third-straight loss, and second consecutive road loss, falling at No. 22 Kentucky.
Prior to that game Ole Miss (18-6, 5-6 SEC) was slotted as the second team in the Last Four In by Lunardi. But with how the rest of the week went across all college basketball the Rebels saw themselves move a little closer to getting off the bubble.
Friday’s tournament projections by Lunardi has Ole Miss as the first team in the Last Four In and essentially one slot away from moving into the Last Four Byes category.
The Rebels are still a projected 11-Seed by Lunardi and heading for the ‘First Four’ in Dayton. They are projected to play bracket newcomer Gonzaga for the right to be the 11-Seed in the West Region (Los Angeles).
Following the projection further a win would send Ole Miss close to home and play in Memphis for a first round matchup with 6-Seed Florida Atlantic. A potential second round showdown with 3-Seed Alabama would be in the cards if the Tide could beat 14-Seed Morehead State.
The Rebels continue to over around 60 in the NET rankings, sitting at 62 as of Friday. Saturday’s game with Missouri is a résumé killer and a must-win with the Tigers at 153 in the NET.
