Bracket Watch: Ole Miss men's team still on the verge of first NCAA Tournament bid since 2019
The weeks of the regular season in college basketball are dwindling as are the opportunities to get on the good side of the bubble for the Ole Miss men’s team.
With six games remaining before heading to Nashville for the SEC Tournament the Rebels will try to keep its winning ways going with a trip to Mississippi State on Wednesday. After holding on to beat Missouri after trailing by 10 points Ole Miss snapped a three-game skid.
The win was good news for the Rebels in their attempt to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years. A loss to the Tigers — winless in the Southeastern Conference — would have spelled doom for their résumé.
Instead, Ole Miss got back on track and still sees itself on the good side of the bubble in the latest ‘Bracketology’ update from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.
Tuesday’s fresh set of projections has the Rebels as the final team of the Last Four In, squeaking into the dance before the door closes. Ole Miss (19-6, 6-6 SEC) is projected by Lunardi to play Seton Hall in Dayton for the right to be the 11-Seed in the East Region (Boston).
Following Lunardi’s projection, if the Rebels got past Seton Hall they would head to Pittsburgh for a First Round meeting with 6-Seed Colorado State.
Jerry Palm of CBS Sports is still bullish on the Rebels when it comes to his projections. Palm’s Tuesday update has them as the 10-Seed in the South Region (Dallas), playing 7-Seed Washington State in Indianapolis for a First Round meeting.
Metrics are the reason Ole Miss is living on the bubble. In Tuesday’s NET rankings update the Rebels are sitting at 65 with a 5-6 record against Quad 1 and 2 teams. They are 14-0 against everybody else. The KenPom rankings has them at 68. The only thing that looks good at the moment is their RPI, sitting at No. 23, though that carries less weight than it once did.
The Ole Miss women’s team continues to have the best chance of the two teams to reach the NCAA Tournament.
After beating Mississippi State at home on Sunday the Rebels ended their two-game losing streak. In doing so they also secured their eighth SEC win of the season and made program history with three straight years of at least eight conference victories for the first time.
Charlie Creme of ESPN updated his projections on Tuesday, keeping Ole Miss (18-7, 8-4 SEC) as the 8-Seed in the Portland 2 Region. Going by Creme’s projections the Rebels are in the Palo Alto quadrant with 1-Seed Stanford and could potentially have a rematch of last year’s Second Round if they can get past 9-Seed Marquette.
Sunday’s win over the Bulldogs gave the Rebels sole possession of fourth place in the SEC standings and inching them closer to a double-bye in next month’s SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. The next three games for them are against the three worst teams in the league — Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky.
Ole Miss hosts Georgia on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CT
