Bracket Watch: Ole Miss basketball still trending towards history in latest projections
Despite a split week for both the Ole Miss men’s and women’s basketball teams the NCAA Tournament chances are still strong and history can still be made next month.
While it seems the women’s team has checked off a lot un-checked boxes in recent years the men’s team is trying to dust off its NCAA Tournament history under first-year head coach Chris Beard. If both teams can punch their ticket to their respective tournaments it would be the first time the entire basketball program has gone dancing in the same season.
Tuesday brought about the latest round of ‘Bracketology’ updates from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and Charlie Creme. Each still have Ole Miss in the field of 68 when looking at the men’s and women’s projections.
Saturday saw a major opportunity slip away for the Ole Miss men’s team after giving up a nine-point lead over No. 16 Auburn and losing by 14. The Rebels (18-4, 5-4 Southeastern Conference) did beat Mississippi State last Tuesday to avoid a 0-2 week.
Due to that Lunardi has Ole Miss as one of Last Four Byes and dropped them to the 9-Seed in the Midwest Region (Detroit). The Rebels, paired with 8-Seed Saint Mary’s, are back in the Indianapolis quadrant with No. 1 overall seed Purdue.
In CBS Sports’ latest projections by Jerry Palm on Monday the Rebels were the 8-Seed in the West (Los Angeles), taking on 9-Seed TCU and paired with 1-Seed North Carolina in the Charlotte Quadrant.
This week provides another road opportunity, traveling to red hot South Carolina on Tuesday for a 5:30 p.m. CT tip-off. The game against the Gamecocks (19-3, 7-2) is the only one on the schedule this week before traveling to No. 17 Kentucky (15-6, 5-4) next Tuesday.
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Entering Tuesday’s game Ole Miss is sitting with a NET ranking of 61 but South Carolina is at No. 39, serving up a potentially big NET win.
The Ole Miss women’s team traveled to Columbia this past weekend and took one on the chin.
After getting to within a point of No. 1 South Carolina late in the second quarter a 53-25 run by the Gamecocks provided a 29-point loss for the Rebels and snapping a four-game SEC win streak in the process.
But similar to the men’s team Ole Miss did split its road trip last week with a rare win at Vanderbilt last Thursday. With that the Rebels (16-6, 6-3) are also still firmly in the NCAA Tournament field, for now.
Creme kept Ole Miss as a 7-Seed but moved them to the Portland 4 Region and in the Austin quadrant with 2-Seed Texas. The Rebels would play 10-Seed Green Bay if this projection proved true.
Also like the men’s team Ole Miss has only one game this week, hosting Texas A&M (15-6, 3-5) on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CT.
In the women’s NET rankings the Rebels are sitting at No. 48 and the Aggies are at No. 35.
