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Ole Miss continues to receive votes in latest polls following win over Memphis

11by:Jake Thompson•12/04/23•

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NCAA Basketball: Memphis at Mississippi
Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard (right) huddles with his players during a time out in the first half against the Memphis Tigers at The Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

The upward trajectory for the Ole Miss men’s basketball team continues after last week’s success and the national media is starting to take notice.

After beating North Carolina State by 20 last Tuesday the Rebels followed it up with a 80-77 win over Memphis on Saturday to stay undefeated on the young season. Ole Miss going 2-0 in what could be viewed as the toughest week of its non-conference schedule has the program sitting pretty the rest of December as the two toughest games remaining are a road game at Central Florida and a neutral site game against California in San Antonio.

With that in mind the voters of the Associated Press and Coaches Polls provided the Rebels with a little boost in this week’s polls. Ole Miss (7-0) is still a good ways from cracking the Top 25 but their vote count did increase from last Monday’s rankings.

In the AP Poll the Rebels received 15 votes, a jump of 10 from last week’s tally, 23 votes in the Coaches Poll. This the first week Ole Miss has received votes in the Coaches Poll.

“I thought we competed. We took some punches and we threw some punches and we give ourselves a chance to win a close game down the stretch,” said Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard after the Memphis game. “That’s what the story of our season will be, as every other team in the SEC. Got to learn how to win close games. It’s early, got a long way’s to go. We just got to validate this with the next time we play.”

The win also moved Ole Miss up the RPI rankings on Saturday to No. 23, a jump of 64 spots. While RPI is not the metric it once was in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament selection committee it is still another example of the positive direction first-year head coach Chris Beard has the Rebels going.

The first NET rankings of the season released on Monday and Ole Miss was ranked No. 95. This is the one that the committee recognizes and uses when selecting the 68-team field.

Same as the what the latest polls are showing, Ole Miss still has a lot to prove to national landscape of college basketball that is back to being a contender for a NCAA Tournament bid. Not since Kermit Davis’ first season in Oxford have the Rebels gone dancing. If they get in this March it will end a four-year drought.

Resume building chances are slim for Ole Miss in the coming weeks as UCF is ranked 112th in the NET and California is ranked No. 251 and Southern Mississippi sits at No. 259

The Rebels return to the court on Tuesday, hosting Mount St. Mary’s (2-5) at 7 p.m. CT on SEC Network+

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