Mizzou basketball is red-hot, but so is Ole Miss as Tigers look to avoid letdown
Missouri men’s basketball is right at the halfway point of its 18-game Southeastern Conference schedule — and the Tigers have made it through the tougher half. They’re 6-3, alone in second place with an outside shot at catching 10-1 Alabama, who they have the tiebreaker over, for the conference title.
Five of the Tigers’ next six games are against teams with a losing SEC record (Ole Miss twice, Texas A&M, South Carolina and Georgia). The home game against Arkansas on Feb. 13 is the lone time Mizzou faces a team with a winning conference record in the upcoming stretch.
That means a chance for the No. 10-ranked Tigers (13-3 overall) to pick up conference wins and round out their resume ahead of March and the postseason. That starts against Ole Miss (10-8, 5-6 SEC) at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Pavilion in Oxford, Mississippi.
The Rebels — teetering on the edge of relevancy just a week ago — have stormed back to snag much-needed momentum. They picked up victories against Tennessee and on the road at Auburn, both looking impressive on a resume lacking quality wins.
Next up for Mizzou is a suddenly red-hot Ole Miss team. The Tigers are scorching in their own regard, winning six of their last seven games ever since the 10-day COVID-19 pause. The Rebels will give them a fight, MU forward Jeremiah Tilmon said, especially if they’re caught off-guard.
“They’re a tough team,” said MU assistant Cornell Mann, who scouted the Rebels for the game. “There’s a chance those guys, they play so hard that at times it gets a little bit out of control. I think the foul numbers will be up a little bit. With it being at Ole Miss, we’re going to have to play through contact and that’ll be the game.”
Ole Miss has no problems guarding, ranked as one of the best defensive teams in the nation. And the Rebels excel in what’s been a problem spot for the Tigers this season: Turnovers. Ole Miss leads the SEC with 17 turnovers forced per game. They rank second at 63.4 points allowed per game.
Mann said part of what makes the Rebels so dangerous is their propensity to switch schemes up and create chaos. They’ll throw 1-3-1 or 2-3 zones, he said, or trap along the sideline. Between all those different looks, it creates a slew of opportunities for them to get steals, Mann said.
“With zone, you have to move the ball a lot more than you would in man,” MU forward Kobe Brown said. “Find the open guy. Make the correct reads. Just being able to see who’s open and just getting people open is our biggest thing with that.”
There’s also another twist: a matchup between SEC players of the week. MU guard Dru Smith and Ole Miss guard Devontae Shuler shared the award for their heroics last week. It was the third time this season Smith, a preseason All-SEC pick, earned the honor.
While the Tigers have seemingly traded off who leads the team in scoring each game, Smith has been the consistent rock. The Evansville transfer has scored double figures in eight straight games.
MU coach Cuonzo Martin, in his fourth year with the program, is also one win away from 250 career victories. He is 249-170 all-time and 62-49 at Missouri.
The Rebels lead the all-time series with 13 wins compared to Mizzou’s three. But it’s been a season of redemption for the Tigers, willing their way up the national rankings and higher than any other SEC team.
“It’s important because we just came off a big win against Alabama,” Tilmon said. “(Ole Miss) is a real crafty team; they play hard. I feel like this will be a good challenge for us.”