Anthony Perez dribbles around a South Carolina defender.
Tyler Jackson I The Daily Mississippian
Ole Miss will get the opportunity to bring home its biggest win of the season, as the Rebels host Missouri on Saturday.
The Tigers (16-6, 4-5 Southeastern Conference) sit at 50 in the RPI, according to WarrenNolan.com. And most bracket prediction experts have Missouri in the NCAA Tournament, though their seed projections range from eight to 13. Ole Miss (15-7, 6-3) has an RPI of 57, and sits outside — among the first four out — of most bracket projections. The Rebels are 0-4 against the RPI top 50 this season.
Besides sitting on the bubble, Missouri shares similarities with Ole Miss on the court. Both teams’ scoring is dominated by its guards, as each has two guards in the top 10 in scoring in the SEC.
“Really, really good guards,” head coach Andy Kennedy said of Missouri. “Jordan Clarkson and Jabari Brown have got size, they’ve got athleticism. Jabari Brown is having a Player of the Year type campaign.”
Brown is averaging an SEC-high 20.1 points per game, but he’s upped his scoring in conference play to 22.7 points per game. The six-foot-five guard efficiency has been incredible this year.
“He’s a volume guy,” Kennedy said. “He’s Marshall (Henderson), but Marshall’s around 33 or 34 percent; he’s at like 53 or 54 percent.”
Brown leads the SEC in offensive rating at 129.1. He shoots 6.2 threes per game and is knocking down 47.4 percent from three; in SEC play, his three-point percentage is at 55.4 percent. Henderson shoots 11.8 threes per game at 37 percent.
Clarkson, who runs the offense as the point guard, compares closely to Jarvis Summers. Missouri runs a pick-and-roll play that is similar to what Ole Miss uses with Summers and Henderson. Missouri uses Clarkson as the ball handler and has a forward set a high ball screen. Clarkson will attack the open lane to the side that Brown is set up on the three-point line.
The goal is force the defense to either give up an open lane to Clarkson or help off of Brown and give him a three. Ole Miss does this with Summers using the screen, and Henderson standing in the corner.
Clarkson is averaging 18.7 points and 3.3 assists per game. The third leading scorer for Missouri is their other starting guard, Earnest Ross, who averages 13.7 points.
This game will pit the top two isolation teams, in attempts and efficiency, in the SEC. The top four players in isolation will also be in action. Summers is tops in the conference with 1.21 points per possession on isolation plays; White scores 1.11, Clarkson 1.05 and Brown 1.03. They are the only four SEC players scoring over one point possession on isolations.
Missouri is coming off two-straight losses to Kentucky and Florida. The game will tip off at 4 p.m. from Tad Smith Coliseum and will be broadcast on FSN.
SEC Bias
The SEC is in danger of having just two teams make the NCAA Tournament this season, as Florida and Kentucky remain top flight teams, but everyone else sits on the bubble, or worse. Last season, just three SEC teams made the big dance, and the national perception of the SEC is that the conference is a step below the rest of the power conferences.
Kennedy sees this as an unfair bias against the conference.
“I just think it’s a company line, and it’s one the SEC hasn’t been able to shake for a couple of years,” Kennedy said. “I just think it’s an easy company line. I do think there is a bias in the national media because they get tired of talking about the SEC because it dominates in football. And they just get tired of it.”
After Kentucky beat Ole Miss on Tuesday, John Calipari sounded off on the harsh judgment of his team, which fell from 11th to 18th in the AP poll after a week in which the Wildcats lost at LSU and went to Missouri and won.
Comparatively, Michigan was ranked 10th two weeks ago. The Wolverines beat Purdue in Ann Arbor, but fell on the road to Indiana. Both Purdue (100) and Indiana (71) have a worse RPI than LSU (54) and Missouri (50). But in the next rankings, Michigan stayed at 10, while Kentucky dropped seven spots.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss men’s basketball, follow @Tyler_RSR and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
