Rebels look to create some momentum in season finale versus Aggies
OXFORD — Five weeks ago, Saturday’s season finale versus Texas A&M shaped up as a coronation of sorts, an arrival, if you will, for Ole Miss basketball.
The Rebels had just beaten Mississippi State to improve to 5-3 in the Southeastern Conference and 18-3 overall. One didn’t have to be all that creative to imagine Saturday being the Rebels’ season celebration, as an NCAA Tournament bid appeared to be all but locked up.
Then February happened — and the first week of March. Instead of celebrating a season, Ole Miss enters play Saturday (1 p.m., CBS) trying to avoid an appearance in the first round of the SEC Tournament next week in Nashville.
“I know it’s a lot easier to do when you’re playing that last home game trying to clinch the SEC regular season championship but that’s not the reality that we’re in right now,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said. “There’s a lot to play for. I think our players will embrace that and I hope our fanbase will embrace that.”
Ole Miss is 20-10 overall and 7-10 in the SEC after losing seven of its last nine games. Texas A&M is 17-13 overall and 8-9 in the SEC. The Aggies are fighting to land an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.
Ole Miss won the first meeting this season, 71-68, in College Station. The Rebels trailed by seven points with less than four minutes remaining before rallying to win on Jaylen Murray’s clutch 3-pointer in the final minute.
Veteran guards Wade Taylor IV (18 points per game) and Tyrece Radford (15.4 points per game) lead the team in scoring and rank fourth and 12th, respectively, in the SEC. Leading the conference in rebounding with an average of 9.3, Andersson Garcia is also the SEC's leader in offensive boards, grabbing 4.4 per outing.
Texas A&M leads all of college basketball in offensive rebounding, averaging 17.3 per game, and ranks third in total rebounding with an average of 42.5. They've been one of the best in the country at getting to the charity stripe, ranking third in the SEC and 17th in the NCAA in free throw attempts per game at 23.7. The Aggies are one of the better teams in the country in minimizing turnovers, averaging just 9.6 per outing which leads the conference and ranks 17th in the nation.
Ole Miss is 10th in the SEC standings entering today's regular season finale. Looking ahead to seeding at the fast-approaching SEC Tournament, the Rebels can lock down the nine seed with a win over Texas A&M and would play at 1 p.m. on Thursday. With a loss to the Aggies, Ole Miss will need to wait to see the results of Georgia at Auburn to see where they end up. An Ole Miss loss and Georgia win moves the Rebels into the 11th seed, where they'll play Wednesday, versus Missouri. A loss by both Ole Miss and Georgia means the Rebels will be seeded 10th and play the seventh seed Thursday night.
“We’re going to have to show a level of discipline that we have not shown to this point in a 40-minute segment,” Beard said. “We’ve had some great moments. There will be time to reflect back on our season, some of the great games we played, halves we played, wins we played, but in my opinion, there still hasn’t been one game where I walked off that court, regardless of what the scoreboard said, and said, ‘Hey, man, that was 40 minutes of disciplined basketball.’”