Bulldogs, Rebels renew rivalry with a Saturday rematch in Oxford
A pair of teams headed in the same unfortunate and dead end direction cross paths Saturday, in Oxford when Mississippi State visits Ole Miss. This renewal of the ancient rivalry tips at 5:30 with ESPN2 airing the action.
Not only are both the Bulldogs and the Rebels going in the same sad direction, with their seasons on track to end with the SEC Tournament. They are going at the same pace so far as each team is now 11-13 overall and 3-8 in SEC play. Barring a really unique run there will not be a post-season for either side.
So any Saturday motivation comes down to the barst and most basic of levels. That being, just wanting to win a game; with a little extra added by the rivalry aspect. For Ole Miss the goal is to sweep this regular season series as they came out ahead 68-67 in Starkville last month.
For Mississippi State the situation is inversely obvious: stave off an embarrassing sweep.
In the first meeting Mississippi State led 22-11 early and were still up 67-66 at half a minute remaining. TO Patton Pinkins jumper at 19 gave Ole Miss a lead, which Bulldog guarded Josh Hubbard had three chances to erase. But he missed both free throws at 0:12, then his hard driving scooper rimmed away at two ticks and was rebounded by a Rebel.
That ended a three-loss streak in the series for Ole Miss. Now the Rebels have their first chance to sweep this series since 2017.
If statistics mean anything, this will not be an offensive afternoon in Oxford. Mississippi State shows up averaging almost 77 points per game for the full season, which is just 14th in the league standings. Ole Miss is last at 74 points though. No Rebel is currently in the SEC’s top-twenty scorers, or top-15 shooters for that matter whether measured by overall or long-range accuracy.
What Ole Miss has is a good defensive lineup allowing 73.0 per contest on just 42% shooting for the full season. This dovetails with a Bulldog offense which is last in the league shooting overall and next-to-last in three-point accuracy. And, as all know, Mississippi State is built to shoot it outside.
This has made the struggles of the past three and four weeks by Hubbard, Jayden Eppsand Ja’borri McGhee devastating to Dog game plans. Hubbard did get back much more on his former form this past Wednesday in a home loss to Tennessee with 31 points, but other support was missing.
coach Chris Jans you’ve mixed up your lineups all SEC season with frustrating results all around. No matter the typoff team State has struggled to get scoring from the frontcourt and defense from everyone everywhere.
Still it is a rivalry even if in this transfer-dominated day such things don’t count for as much with participants as once was the case. Which side finds more internal motivation at this point of a struggling season will likely be the best ‘plan’ possible and one a coach can’t control. For that matter players may have to inspire themselves without big fan support.
Baseball season is started and Ole Miss is hosting Snowfall in the afternoon while back in Starkville attention is on the first weekend of Brian O’Connor’s Diamond Dog tenure.
There is at least one specific item of Mississippi State interest. Hubbard finished Wednesday’s game with 280 career made-treys, tying him for the all-time Bulldog record. With his first made longball the junior guard will claim that place in the book for himself alone.
