Ole Miss looks to bolster its bubble hopes by topping Kentucky in SEC play.
It is officially crunch time as the last week of the college basketball season means it’s judgment week for teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble. This is certainly the case for the Ole Miss Rebels, who are trying to complete a late-season surge with an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Rebels weren’t even a consideration for a tournament berth in late January when Georgia completed a season sweep to drop Ole Miss to 8-8 on the year and 3-6 in SEC play. February was an incredible month for the Rebels, who went 5-2 while beating Tennessee and sweeping Missouri to put themselves right into the bubble mix.
The problem for Ole Miss is that the two losses were terrible ones, including Saturday’s disastrous loss at Vanderbilt, which entered the contest with a 6-13 record. There is no room for error left for the Rebels, who have to win their last two regular-season games and make some noise in the SEC Tournament to have a shot at an at-large on Selection Sunday.
That means there is little pressure on Kentucky basketball in this game since the Wildcats’ at-large hopes have long since died thanks to a brutal start to the season. Kentucky has been playing better of late, seeing a three-game winning streak get snapped with a tight loss to Florida over the weekend, but these games are essentially meaningless to John Calipari’s team right now.
The only shot that the Wildcats have of making the field is to win the SEC Tournament, meaning that Kentucky’s remaining regular-season games offer Calipari a chance to experiment with lineups as he tries to assemble the best version of his roster to make a run in Nashville next week. There is a ton of talent on the Wildcats’ roster with nothing to lose, making this a very dangerous game for Ole Miss to try and win in spite of their home-court advantage.
How to bet and watch Kentucky at Ole Miss
- Date: Tuesday, March 2
- Time: 9:00 p.m. ET
- Location: Oxford, MS
- Venue: The Pavilion at Ole Miss
- TV: ESPN
- Live Stream: WatchESPN
- Line: Ole Miss -1 (FanDuel)
- Prediction: Kentucky 75, Ole Miss 68
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