After a comeback win over Georgia this past weekend, the Ole Miss men’s basketball team heads to South Carolina as it looks to get on a winning streak going into the homestretch of its schedule. Tipoff tonight is set for 6 p.m. on CSS.
Thomas Graning | The Daily Mississippian
Junior guard Marshall Henderon
With six regular season games left, Ole Miss men’s basketball will need to take advantage of every game to continue to improve its resume for the NCAA Tournament.
“Our focus is just on trying to win games,” head coach Andy Kennedy said in Monday’s Southeastern Conference Teleconference.
“We have six remaining on our schedule, plus one in the SEC tournament. We have seven opportunities, and what we do with those seven opportunities will determine what happens next.”
The next game for Ole Miss (19-6, 8-4 SEC) is a road trip to take on South Carolina (12-13, 2-10 SEC). Entering the matchup, South Carolina has lost six games in a row, including five by double digits.
The Gamecocks’ RPI sits at 207, and they have just one win over a top-100 RPI team. Ole Miss has an RPI of 51 and is 14-0 against teams outside the top 100 in RPI.
The Gamecocks’ head coach Frank Martin, who left Kansas State for South Carolina in the offseason, recently ripped his team after they lost to LSU by 18 on Thursday.
“I’ve been doing this for 28 years, nine of which as a junior varsity high school coach,” Martin said after the loss.
“That means I dealt with 14-year-olds. I’ve never been more embarrassed to call myself a basketball coach than I am today.”
A loss to a team tied for last in the SEC would be detrimental to the Rebels’ NCAA Tournament chances. However, Kennedy is not overlooking this game, despite South Carolina’s struggles.
“Frank (Martin) is a very good basketball coach, and his team is always going to be fundamentally sound,” Kennedy said.
“Life is never easy on the road in SEC play.”
Ole Miss is 5-4 on the road this season and have lost three straight road games to Florida, Missouri and Texas A&M.
Freshman forward Michael Carrera is South Carolina’s leading scorer and rebounder with 10.4 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. He’s scored over 15 points in four SEC games. Along with Carrera, junior guard Bruce Ellington averages 9.9 points and 2.3 assists per game.
As a team, South Carolina gives up the highest field goal percentage to opponents in the SEC at 44.5 percent.
South Carolina has allowed the most free throw attempts in the SEC, while Ole Miss leads the SEC and ranks 11th in the country in free throws attempted and has drawn the most fouls in the SEC. The Rebels average 23.6 free throws attempts per game.
The game will tip off at 6 p.m. and will be televised on CSS.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss men’s basketball, follow @Tyler_RSR and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
