A Look at the Ole Miss Men’s Basketball Rematch with Missouri

OXFORD, Miss. — The Ole Miss Rebels (19-9, 6-9 SEC) begin their final road trip of the season today as they travel up north to face the Missouri Tigers (8-20, 0-15 SEC) in Columbia. The Rebels have been in the NCAA Tournament conversation all season; however, after winning only one of their last seven games, they will need to win out and get a large amount of luck, or win the SEC Tournament in Nashville. 

In their two most important games of the season last week, the Rebs lost 72-59 to the South Carolina Gamecocks and 103-88 to the Alabama Crimson Tide. These were Q2 and Q1 home opportunities that would have boosted Ole Miss’ resume and potentially pushed them into the NCAA Tournament. Now the Rebels are not listed on ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s bracketology report after their poor week last week.

Again, there is still a chance for Ole Miss to make the tournament if the Rebels win out and obtain a ton of luck on the way. But, realistically speaking, head coach Chris Beard’s team is looking at an NIT Berth. I know the NIT is not what all Ole Miss fans hope and dream of; however, an NIT Berth in Beard’s first year at the helm is an extremely positive result for the program. Playing any sort of postseason basketball in March shows that your program is trending in the right direction, especially because they have not played in any postseason tournament since the 2020-21 season. 

Per many different NIT projection websites, the Rebels are slated as a 1 or 2 seed in the NIT. Again, this is an extremely positive result for the Rebels who play in the arguably toughest basketball conference in the country. This result will also mean that there will be postseason basketball played at the SJB Pavilion. The Ole Miss fans and students will have a chance to cheer on the team one last time as the Rebs will most likely have home court advantage in their portion of the bracket. 

But before we look forward to the postseason, Ole Miss still has three games left in the regular season. Tonight’s game will be the first of two straight on the road as the Rebs travel to Columbia, Missouri and then Athens, Georgia. They round out the season with a home game against Texas A&M. The Missouri Tigers are still winless in SEC play and rank at the very bottom of the conference. Compare this to the Rebels who rank 9th in the SEC with a 6-9 conference record. 

In the SEC Tournament, the Tigers are set to play on Day 1 and face the Arkansas Razorbacks while the Rebs are set to face the 8-seed LSU Tigers. The winner of the Ole Miss vs. LSU game will most likely face the winner of tonight’s Tennessee and Alabama game. 

After the Tigers faced Coach Beard’s team two weeks ago, head coach Dennis Gates’ Missouri team has played away games at Florida and Arkansas as well as a home game against Tennessee. The Tigers played a really close game with Tennessee, and were almost able to pull off the upset. However, Tennessee pulled away late, and were able to leave Columbia with a W.

Compare this to the first Ole Miss contest when the Tigers led Ole Miss in Oxford for a majority of the game, but they were unable to capitalize on their lead which the Rebs took advantage of. Ole Miss was victorious in the first meeting, 79-76. In the Tigers’ games against Arkansas and Florida, Missouri was unable to keep the scores close as Gates’ team lost 88-73 and 83-74 respectively. 

For a full scouting report on the Missouri Tigers, make sure you check out “Scouting the Opposition” Missouri Tiger edition. In this article, we are going to discuss some of the names to watch for Missouri as well as where Ole Miss can take advantage of the last place Tigers.

What have the Tigers been up to?

The first name that needs to be brought up when you think about this Missouri Tiger team is Sean East. We did not do a large deep dive on the Tigers’ best player in the first article as he was coming off an injury and was unsure if he would play in Oxford. He did play, however, and he scored a team-leading 25 points. Sean East is by far the Tigers’ number one scoring option and averages 17.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, and 4.2 apg. These numbers, alone, showcase that East is one of the SEC’s premier guards. He currently ranks in the top 10 in the SEC in scoring with his 17.2 ppg, and he shoots the ball extremely well by shooting 52.6% from the field. This is good for being a top 5 shooting percentage in the SEC.

East’s effective shooting percentage also translates behind the three-point arc as well because he is shooting 44.9% from deep. He is the second-most efficient three point shooter in the conference behind Kentucky’s lottery pick Reed Sheppard. In addition to these impressive shooting numbers, East currently ranks in the top 10 in assists in the conference. 

The senior guard is in his second season with the Missouri Tigers, East began his collegiate career with UMass and then transferred to Bradley in his sophomore season. He then sat out a season, and found himself in Columbia. Last year, East was primarily used off the bench and only averaged 7 ppg, 10 points less than he averages this season. He is extremely crafty and quick with the basketball. He has an ability to score at all three levels on the floor and is an extremely skilled passer. East is also doubled teamed a lot by opposing teams; however, he is more than likely always able to split the double team and find an open teammate. East is one of the premier guards in the SEC. 

He has also been on an absolute tear as of late. In his four games, East has scored:

25 points @ Ole Miss

24 points vs Tennessee

33 points @ Arkansas

20 points @ Florida

Over the past four games since his return from injury, East has averaged 25.5 ppg. Slowing East down will be a key for Ole Miss as he provides and creates a large majority of Mizzou’s offense. 

Another player who has been trending in the right direction recently is another senior guard, Nick Honor. Honor is the Tigers’ premier three point scoring threat. He has been playing well as of late by scoring 18 against the Gators and 14 against the Razorbacks. Unlike East, Honor is not the most efficient of three point shooters. Over the past three games, Honor has averaged nine three point attempts per game. In the Tigers and Rebs first meeting, Ole Miss limited Honor to 9 points on 3/10 shooting. 

Despite Honor’s poor shooting night in Oxford, Mizzou shot the ball extremely well from behind the arc. The Tigers’ shot 45.5% from behind the arc. Even against Tennessee, Gates’ team shot the ball well from three. The key for Ole Miss will be to limit the Tigers from three. In the games against Arkansas and Florida, Mizzou shot 26% and 22% respectively from behind the line. The Tigers were blown out in these games, so look for Ole Miss to try and limit Missouri’s three point attempts. 

Another key for Ole Miss will be to continue to limit Missouri’s bench scoring. Mizzou ranks 13th in the SEC in bench scoring for the season. The Tigers only averaged 11.6 from their backups, and in the games against Arkansas and Tennessee they only scored 6 points and 5 points respectively. If Ole Miss can force Missouri to rely on only four players: Sean East, Nick Honor, Tamar Bates, and Noah Carter, the Rebels should be in good shape.

Also look for Ole Miss to run a ton on the Tigers. The Rebels play their best when they play in transition and at a fast pace. In the first half against Alabama, the Rebels played extremely well and were able to get good looks in transition and run an up-tempo offense. This was probably the best half of basketball they have played in a while, so look for this trend to continue as they face a worse team in Mizzou than the Alabama team from Wednesday night.

Ole Miss should expect to get a win in Columbia tonight and break their three-game losing streak. If the Rebels have any hope of getting into the tournament this year, these are the types of games they must win — and win big — to show the committee what type of team they are. 

Game Info

Make sure to catch the Rebels as they travel to face the Missouri Tigers today at 7:30 CST. The game will air on the SEC Network.