Ole Miss Basketball: Rebels Hoops Set To Host Vandy On Senior Night
Ole Miss basketball will close out the regular season Saturday night when they host the Vanderbilt Commodores in The Pavilion.
To say Ole Miss basketball (12-18, 5-12) has had a rough season is truly an understatement. When you add up all the debris from this season it’s pretty ugly, however it will soon be over. The Rebels will play their final regular season game Saturday night. Sadly, this game features the bottom two teams in the SEC and just a couple of seasons ago the Ole Miss/Vanderbilt (11-19, 5-12) would have been a headliner.
Of course, neither team can take much pride in their current seasons, however there is a lot to be played for. With both teams tied at 5-12 in SEC play, neither team wants to lose this game and literally be the at bottom of the conference. Also there are a number of Rebels seniors and a graduate transfer who will be playing their last home games as Ole Miss Rebels.
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Making his final appearance as a Rebel in The Pavilion is graduate transfer Markel Crawford. Crawford graduated from Memphis and chose Ole Miss to spend his last year of eligibility. We appreciate you Markel and all you brought to Ole Miss basketball.
Seniors Deandre Burnett, Marcanvis Hymon, Lane Below, and Justas Furmanavicius will all be playing their final home game as Rebels as well. We appreciate you more than we can say. Thank you and good luck in the future.
Of course, there is the other team showing up tomorrow night at The Pavilion. The Vanderbilt Commodores are in pretty much the same boat as the Rebels. They have both seen a distinct decline in their teams over the past two seasons. Don’t think Vandy won’t come into Oxford not wanting to lose to the bottom team in the SEC. Let’s look at Vandy’s key players.
Scouting The Dores
Ole Miss Rebels Basketball
Don’t think for one second this team isn’t loaded with talent. The Commodores have a boatload of skilled and talented contributors. One player who is essential to the success of the Dores is senior forward Jeff Roberson. Roberson leads Vandy in scoring and also rebounding with 16.9 points and 7.2 boards a game. Roberson also averages 1.5 assists per game.
Of course, the Dores also depend greatly on senior guard Riley LaChance. LaChance leads the team in 3-point field goal percentage and is the team’s assists leader. LaChance makes 47.1% of his shots from the arc while also averaging 14.1 points and 3.2 assists per game.
The Dores also have other threats on the floor. Freshman guard Saben Lee is the teams steals leader with 1.2 steals per game while he also averages 10.3 points, 2.8 boards and 3.1 assists per game.
Other Vandy players to watch for include sophomore forward Clevon Brown and freshman forward Ejike Obinna. This is a Vandy team which has a strong bench and can produce points. Any Vandy player can have a hot night against the Rebels.
What To Expect
As I was saying there are plenty of weapons which coach Bryce Drew has at his disposal. Vandy can play with anybody and have had several big unexpected SEC wins. We can fully expect to see the line-ups we saw a few weeks ago when they had back to back wins over Miss State and Florida. Vandy desperately wants to get at least one road win so we will see Drew open the playbook tonight.
From acting coach Tony Madlock we can expect to see more ‘loose’ play. So far under Madlock the Rebels haven’t had much success on the floor. After the lone road win against Missouri the Rebels have been bested in their last two games. With it being senior night we can expect to see big games from all our seniors and also Markel Crawford.
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Tip-off for the Senior Night match-up between Ole Miss and Vanderbiltfrom The Pavilion in Oxford is set for 7:30pm CT. The game will be televised on the SEC Network. OHT wants to thank each of these great players for their dedication as Rebels and for some great memories. Good luck to coach Tony Madlock and the Rebels tonight. Hotty Toddy!