Bracket Watch: Where do the Ole Miss basketball teams stand as non-conference play winds down
Saturday brings a doubleheader of action to the SJB Pavilion with both the Ole Miss men’s and women’s basketball teams playing in one of their final non-conference games this season.
The women’s team starts the day at Noon CT, hosting Mississippi Valley State followed by the men’s team playing Queens at 4 p.m. CT. A ticket for one of the games gets you into the other.
Both games are the penultimate non-conference game for each of the basketball programs before taking yet another week off for the Christmas break.
After this weekend’s game No. 17 Ole Miss (10-1) will travel up Interstate-55 next Saturday to play No. 21 Memphis at the FedEx Forum for its final tune-up for Southeastern Conference play.
The No. 25-ranked women’s team will host Alcorn State on December 30, three days before starting SEC play at Auburn on January 2.
So where do the two teams stand when it comes to NCAA Tournament projections? Currently they are still on track to make history as they are projected to both make the March tournament in the same season for the first in the school’s history.
Ole Miss was heading for this history-making moment last year before Chris Beard came up short with the men’s team in his first season. Things seem to be on a more stable path this Spring.
The latest ESPN Bracketology projects Ole Miss as a 6 Seed in the West Region. The Rebels would play 11 Seed Drake in the First Round in Wichita and paired with the winner of 3 Seed Kansas – 14 Seed South Dakota State.
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Plenty to happen between now and Selection Sunday, including an 18-game SEC slate starting January 4 against Georgia.
Ole Miss women’s team is slipping away from a potential host seeding.
With three losses against top competition in ranked opponents Southern California, UConn and then North Carolina State has dampened the chances for the Rebels to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
A team must be one of the top four seeds to be able to host a quadrant at their home arena and the SJB Pavilion could still see its first NCAA Tournament action. Though there is work to be done for Ole Miss.
ESPN’s Charlie Creme has slid the Rebels down from a 4 Seed projection earlier this season to currently a 7 Seed in Region 2 Birmingham. Ole Miss (7-3) would play 10 Seed Stanford in the College Park quadrant and paired with the 2 Seed Maryland – 15 Seed Purdue Fort Wayne winner in a potential second round meeting.
Same as the men’s team there is plenty that can happen once Ole Miss gets into its 16-game SEC schedule and look for these projections to continue to be fluid and maybe move closer back to a top four seeding.
