Hoops Notebook: Ole Miss men move into the Top 20 as it enters key December stretch
Outside of the final seconds against then No. 13 Purdue to first nine games of the season have gone exactly how Chris Beard and the Ole Miss men’s basketball program wanted.
Sitting at 8-1 the Rebels are coming off a four-game stretch that included wins over BYU in San Diego, Louisville on the road and a rout of Lindenwood after a slow start this past Saturday.
This recent success to close out November and start December bumped Ole Miss into the Top 20, being ranked No. 19 in the latest Associated Press Poll released on Monday. The Rebels were also No. 15 in the Coaches Poll.
They have earned a little rest with the week off due to exams, but there will be practices. Saturday’s trip to Biloxi to take on Southern Mississippi (4-4) at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum is the first of the Rebels final four non-conference games.
After that Ole Miss hosts Southern next Tuesday then Queens on December 21 before traveling up to Memphis to take on the Tigers inside the FedEx Forum on December 28 to wrap up the non-conference slate. Penny Hardaway’s squad is the toughest team remaining of the four.
Memphis (7-2) was ranked No. 16 last week after its strong showing out in Maui Thanksgiving week but a 10-point win over Louisiana Tech and a seven-point loss to Arkansas State on Sunday dropped them out of the AP poll to essentially No. 28.
This is an important stretch for the Rebels who currently have a NET ranking of 29 entering the week.
“After the Louisville game we said we have 16 days and in a lot of ways these 16 days will kind of determine what path we’re going to take when league play starts,” Beard said on Saturday. “For us and these 16 days …we got four games in this part of the schedule. That’s about three or four quality practices. That’s four days before games where they’re real mental days, preparation days. Got to keep the needle moving.”
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Ole Miss women’s team bounces back from road loss, drops in the polls
Three days after dropping a game at North Carolina State in the SEC/ACC Challenge the Ole Miss women’s basketball team took out its frustrations on Tennessee State, beating them by 47 points on Sunday.
The game in Raleigh was another missed opportunity against a tournament-quality team and third loss against such an opponent. The losses to Southern California, UConn and now the Wolfpack revealed that slow starts are not optimal and offense continues to lack.
Due to the loss on Thursday Ole Miss fell four spots to No. 22 in Monday’s AP Poll. The Rebels also have the week off before resuming its closing stretch to non-conference play.
Ole Miss (6-3) will host South Alabama on Sunday, Mississippi Valley State on December 21 and Alcorn State on December 30 to put a bow on its non-conference schedule.
Then a trip to Auburn awaits the Rebels on January 2 to begin SEC play.
Despite the up and down play through nine games Ole Miss is still inside the Top 20 of the NET rankings at No. 18.
