Kentucky is riding a four game winning streak in SEC play currently, managing wins over Mississippi State, at LSU, at Tennessee, and most recently, Texas at home this past Wednesday evening. This comes after a disappointing start to conference play beginning with a loss at Alabama and a loss to Missouri at home. As of present day, the Wildcats are 4-2 (in the SEC) and they look to improve to 5-2 alongside five game winning streak tomorrow with a win. They will host the Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday in Lexington.
Ole Miss, who is led by head coach Chris Beard, has had a rough start to SEC play. They are currently 3-3 amongst SEC competition but their three wins do come against some quality opponents. They own wins over Missouri (who beat Kentucky earlier this month), a top-25 Georgia team on the road, and Mississippi State on the road also. Additionally, the Rebels also gave top-15 (at that time) Arkansas a run for their money as well.
Tomorrow’s matchup between the Cats vs. the Rebels is a big one for a few different reasons. One of the most notable reasons is that former Kentucky guard, Travis Perry, is set to make his return to Rupp Arena since transferring to Ole Miss during the offseason. Perry is a Eddyville (Ky.) native who spent his freshman year under Mark Pope last season. Since transferring to play under Chris Beard, the former 2024 KY Mr. Basketball award winner is averaging nearly 6 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, and 1 assist per game with his new team. His stats all come within just 15 minutes of floor time per game. Overall, he’s shooting 36% from the field.
For Ole Miss this game against Kentucky is extremely important for their chances of making the NCAA Tournament in March. If they fall to 11-8 overall with a loss tomorrow, then the odds seem bleak for them to make the postseason, unless they won out in the conference tournament. Kentucky also cannot really afford to lose this game as well. The home team currently sits at 13-6 overall and a loss against the Rebels could be detrimental as their schedule for the rest of conference play definitely doesn’t get any easier. They’ll play like 7 more ranked opponents with many tough opponents coming on the road. This is a win they need to get, and one that they should get.
Due to the likelihood of inclement weather coming into the state of Kentucky tomorrow, the tipoff time has been moved up an hour from 12:00 p.m. EST to 11:00 a.m. EST. The broadcast will still be held on ESPN. If you’re planning on attending the game in person, please be careful, because the weather is supposed to hit pretty badly towards the end of the game which will make your commute back home much more difficult.
Kentucky needs to do a couple of things in order to ensure a victory against the Rebels tomorrow. They’ll need to set the pace early on from the start. Ole Miss will attempt to slow the game down and control the possessions to a minimum, so they’ll want to get out in transition and push that, controlling their own narrative offensively.
They also need to keep that same aggressive mentality on offense that they had just this past game against Texas, by earning tough drives to the basket and making the free-throws that come with. They went 30-for-35 against the Longhorns and that was the difference in the winner versus the loser.
Lastly, the need to keep putting in effort to bettering themselves in the post by boxing out and fighting for extra possessions. Offensive rebounds gives you another chance at scoring and all it takes is hustle and doing the right thing to give your team extra possessions.
A few names to keep an eye on for Ole Miss:
6’5″ senior guard, AJ Storr, is averaging nearly 14 points per game and can burn you if you leave him open from behind the three-point line. He averages 37% from deep and will be a contributing piece to their offense on Saturday.
Malik Dia, the 6’9″ senior forward, is averaging nearly 14 points per game also. Dia isn’t the tallest guy on the floor, however, his big frame at 250 pounds could be a problem for Kentucky’s skinnier big men.
And for the third weapon — IIias Kamardine. The 6’4″ senior guard averages over 11 points a game for his team. But what makes him so productive for his roster is his ball handling skills. He averages over 4 assists per outing, so he’s a great facilitator that’s used to get their offense flowing consistently. Monitor him and you can help limit this, going back to the first point mentioned above.
The opening betting line from DraftKings has Kentucky as the 9.5 point favorite at home. Keep in mind that Kentucky will be without Jaland Lowe, Jayden Quaintance, and now Kam Williams. However, I still like Kentucky to win this one but I think it could be closer than what people may think. I’m going with a final score of 79-72, in favor of the Wildcats.
What are your final score predictions? Send them in the comments.
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