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One Last Look: Ole Miss riding high into SEC Tournament matchup with top-seeded Auburn

Ben Garrettby:Ben Garrett•03/14/25•

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Ole Miss guard Sean Pedulla (Photo credit: Ole Miss Basketball/X)

Ole Miss basketball had a 12-hour rule during the regular season to celebrate wins. 

The Rebels aren’t afforded such a window in the SEC Tournament. 

Second-year head coach Chris Beard said instead the No. 8-seeded Rebels spent about two hours relishing their last-second, 83-80 win over 9-seed Arkansas on Thursday. They don’t have time to lose.

Next is top-seeded Auburn at 12 p.m. CT on ESPN.

“We set this up as a four-team tournament like we always do,” Beard told ESPN. “We beat a school called ‘Bye’ in the first round. Just won the second in the four-team tournament. On to Auburn.”

Auburn (27-4, 15-3 SEC) is riding a two-game losing streak. Ole Miss improved to 22-10 (10-8) following the win Thursday.

The Rebels dropped both their meetings with the Tigers this season, including a 106-76 blowout on the Plains last month. Auburn is an 11.5-point favorite.

“Both games we didn’t play our best ball,” senior guard Sean Pedulla said. Pedulla hit the game-winning shot against Arkansas. “We have a lot of ways we can win the game. Both those games we played Auburn we didn’t do any of those things well. 

“Think it’s fixing the little things — boxing out, communicating defensively and staying out of rotations and playing us.”

The ESPN BPI gives the Tigers an 82.8 percent chance of winning.

KenPom has Auburn with an 81 percent win probability. KenPom is predicting a 82-73 win for the Tigers. 

Ole Miss is in the NCAA Tournament for the 10th time in school history regardless. The Rebels were a 5-seed playing in the Midwest Region in the most recent bracketology from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.

The included highlights from the win over Arkansas were provided by Ole Miss Athletics.

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