The rivalry heats up again tonight, as the TSFWCDAO Bullfrauds' Mississippi State Bulldogs' will attempt to take advantage of a chance to split the 2012 Eggball series with our Ole Miss Rebels. It's a very important game for both teams with regards to SEC and NCAA Tournament footing. Ole Miss has had a few "must wins" on the schedule this year, with tonight's game being no exception to this. MSU's resume at this point is better than Ole Miss', but if they drop this one, they're not looking at many games remaining that will improve their RPI.

The Rebels are looking for a second big win to make bracketologists take us seriously enough to put us in the tournament for now. While things don't look good for our chances at a bid, they could be much brighter with a win tonight as it is a road win against a top-25 team. Were our Rebels to have bettered Florida, Auburn, or Alabama (all games were easily winnable), we'd be in much better shape today resume wise, but no use in rehashing that; we are where we are, and we need a win tonight in a place we, and most SEC teams, rarely win.

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The Rebels (9-2, #42 RPI) travel to Southaven to take on the MTSU Blue Raiders (10-2, #132 RPI) tonight at 8 CT. The game is on CSS, so watch it.

The Blue Raiders present an interesting matchup with Ole Miss as they are deep and tall. I would think we'll probably beat them due to athleticism, but their bigs are very competent offensively, and that could be a problem for us down low. We can't let them shoot from outside a lot (41% as a team from three), but we don't need to worry too much about them getting to the line (63% as a team). This is the first game in a while where height won't be a major advantage for us. I hope we can still outrebound them and succeed with a stingy defense.

I didn't get a chance to do a recap of the Southern Miss game, but suffice it to say that Jelan Kendrick didn't look all that good. We need him to be what he was supposed to be if we have a hope at a tourney bid.

After the jump, my prognostications.

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The Ole Miss Rebels (9-1, #35 RPI) take on the Southern Miss Golden Eagles (7-2, #13 RPI) Saturday at 3:30 CT. The game will be available on CSS and should be a very interesting one. The Golden Eagles have four players averaging double figures and significant depth. Led by star player LaShay Page (15.3 ppg), they have strong contributions from several battle-tested guards. The Rebels do have a significant height advantage as Southern Miss only plays one player who is listed over 6'6". If we can attack the board (something we've done poorly the past few games), we could exploit a significant mismatch.

Our problem is going to come on the perimeter, where Southern Miss has six players with three point percentages higher than our highest. I would guess we'll see tons of Nick Williams, Murphy Holloway, and (fingers crossed) Jelan Kendrick in order to adquately defend the perimeter. If we let Southern make shots from three all night, we're screwed. This can't be a shootout.

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Hail, hail. The gang's all here. The last holdout on a team with NCAA tournament aspirations is now eligible in 6'7" 210 pound guard Jelan Kendrick, who was recently declared eligible to begin his Ole Miss career by the NCAA after sitting out for one semester per an NCAA ruling following his dismissal at Memphis. As you've all read or heard, Kendrick is the first McDonald's All-American to ever play for the Rebels. Certainly, the expectations are high for him, but temper your enthusiasm at first. The guard isn't expected to come out of the chute leading our team in scoring, assists, or three pointers.

We get to see Kendrick's first performance tonight against UL-Lafayette. He has been recovering from a recent sports hernia surgery, so don't expect him to be insanely good or active tonight. This is just his first test. He'll likely increase his minutes slowly before becoming a fixture (either as a sixth man or a starter) in SEC play.

Kendrick's game revolves primarily around his ability to drive to the basket. In highlight tape (which you can find after the jump), his three-point shot looks sweet, but that's not the name of his game. He has a chance to make an impact here and go the NBA (eventually) because of three things:

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vs.

2:00 CT - No TV

Ole Miss (7-1, #9 RPI)

MVSU (1-7, #238 RPI)

Snoop White's grades are posted, and he can play. Jelan Kendrick's grades are not yet posted, so he cannot play.

The battle of two athletic departments in disarray.

You can't watch it, because it's on the Big Ten Network.

Get out of the lines at Best Buy and Wal Mart ("But I'm gonna save, like, twenty dollars by being here, idiot."), put down the leftover turkey sandwich, and drive yourself to Oxford tonight to support the Ole Miss Rebel basketballers as they take on the Miami Hurricanes in the Tad Pad. They'll be looking to avenge a 86-73 loss to the 'Canes last season in Coral Gables and extend their record on the season to 5-1.

Earlier this week, the Rebels fell in embarrassing fashion to Marquette by 30-or-so points (I don't remember, nor do I care to look it up - that's how bad it was) before beating TCU to claim third place in the US Virgin Islands' Paradise Jam tournament. After that Marquette loss, head coach Andy Kennedy was upset enough to say that such a performance should count as "two losses," but was relieved that it did not. In order to bolster the Rebel RPI, a win tonight over Miami is crucial, especially if Ole Miss is going to be a typical "just on the wrong side of the bubble" type of team again this season.

The 'Canes are 4-0 so far this year, with their only win worthy of any mention being over Rutgers which still isn't saying very much at all. They are led by a pair of guards, Malcolm Grant and Durand Scott, who are averaging 17 and 13 points per game respectively. Their head coach is Jim Larranaga who, if you know anything about mid-major basketball, is an excellent coach, having led George Mason for 14 years. I'm sure you all remember their Final Four run back in 2005 or 2006 or whenever that was. His style is guard oriented and focuses on minimizing turnovers, which the Hurricanes have done this season, coughing up fewer than ten turnovers a game on average.

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Hopefully not lost amid the ongoing debate as to who should lead our Rebel football team going forward is tonight's tipoff of the Ole Miss men's basketball season. At 6:30 PM central, the Rebs will take on the Warhawks (SQUAWK 'EM HAWK 'EM!) of ULM in the Tad Pad in front of what I hope is an excited, raucous home crowd. This will be the beginning to yet another season over which Rebel fans are generally pretty excited and, once again, with seemingly good reason. The Rebs have a deep and experienced front court accompanied by an athletic and highly-touted back court. 

But, while the Rebels may feel that they've improved on the past few seasons with this year's team, the rest of the (former) SEC West is likely to feel the same about their squads, and with good reason. Recruiting, coaching, and fan support have jumped a good bit in this neck of the SEC woods as of late, meaning that it the road to the NCAA Tournament seems to only get tougher for the Rebs.

Regardless, though, we're excited for a host of reasons, and hope to see a lot of questions answered over the next couple of months as we prepare for conference play. How well this offense runs through Dundrecous Nelson and Terrence Henry, as opposed to Chris Warren and Zach Graham? What kind of defensive effort can we expect by Reginald Buckner, Murphy Holloway, and Jalen Kendrick - once he becomes available? What exactly will the gameplans will be with such a large, long lineup?

So be there. If you're a student, you'll get in for free, so you have nary an excuse to miss out. Show up, be obnoxious, throw things at the ULM players, and do whatever it takes to maintain the home court advantage afforded to our program by the Tad Pad.

Hotty Toddy!