GameDay Primer: Ole Miss aiming for back-to-back SEC wins for first time in three years
Ole Miss bounced back from its loss at No. 5 Tennessee last Saturday with a resounding and dominating win over Florida on Wednesday. The victory sets up a chance for the Rebels to do something they have not since the 2020-21 season.
Welcoming in Vanderbilt (5-10, 0-2 Southeastern Conference) to the SJB Pavilion on Saturday at Noon CT, Ole Miss (14-1, 1-1) can win back-to-back conference games for the first time in three years. Not since beating Mississippi State and Texas Tech in January 2021 have the Rebels won consecutive SEC games.
Chris Beard picked up his first SEC win as head coach of Ole Miss with the victory over the Gators.
The first-year head coach would prefer to keep that going with a winnable game over the Commodores up next. According to ESPN, the Rebels have a 87.7 percent chance to beat Vanderbilt.
“I told the guys that life’s not easy and we’re all going to be in situations where we have to respond,” Beard said following the win over Florida. “One of our core values in our program is responding. Certainly didn’t feel like we played our best the other day at Tennessee, give them all the credit, but we did a lot of soul searching here early in the season. Can’t get too high or too low but you can tell the truth adn we knew we had to come out tonight and kind of make stand for ourselves.”
Related: Both Ole Miss programs continue to trend towards meaningful basketball games in March
SERIES HISTORY — OLE MISS vs. VANDERBILT
The two schools will meet on the basketball court for the 128th time, dating back to 1925 when Vandy defeated the Rebels 19-18 on January 8. While the Commodores own the all-time series lead 79-48, Ole Miss holds a 33-24 advantage while playing in Oxford. In the last 10 matchups, the two teams are split at five games apiece.
SCOUTING THE COMMODORES
Vanderbilt owns a record of 5-10 on the season thus far, picking up wins over USC Upstate, UNC Greensboro, Central Arkansas, Alabama A&M, and Dartmouth. They’ve begun SEC play with a pair of losses, falling in a close game with Alabama at home 78-75 before dropping a road game at LSU 77-69.
The team’s leading scorer this year has been Ezra Manjon, who averages 16.7 points per game in his second year with the program after spending three seasons with at UC Davis. An elite player who excels at getting to the free throw line, Manjon leads the SEC with a shooting clip of 88.6% from the charity stripe.
VANDERBILT LEADS THE SEC IN FEWEST FOULS
As a team, Vanderbilt avoids foul trouble, leading the SEC with the fewest fouls committed per game at 14.9, good for No. 44 in the nation.
They also rank among the top-100 in three point attempts per game (24.9, No. 69 in NCAA), and fewest turnovers per game (11.1, No. 82 in NCAA).
ALL AMERICAN DR. PARTY
The Rebels hosted a block party on January 10 in the SJB Pavilion, setting a school record with 16 team blocks. Breaking the previous best by three, their total against the Gators tied the SEC record for most blocks in a conference game all-time.
Ole Miss was led in the paint by forward Jamarion Sharp, who set a program record of his own with a nine-block performance.
