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The Barclays Center Classic begins today with the Ole Miss Rebels taking on the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets at 3:30 PM Central. The game will be broadcast nationally on the NBC Sports Network, and can be caught on the Ole Miss Rebel radio network wherever you can get it.
Georgia Tech ain't a bad team. They're 5-1 on the year, with their one loss coming to a very good Dayton team (which the Rebs have on their schedule this season as well). They average 77 points per game, and rebound very well, outrebounding their opponents by 9 boards per game on average. They, like our Rebels, have defeated both Mississippi Valley State and North Carolina A&T, beating the former by 17 and the latter by seven.
Andy Kennedy's Rebels will face either the Penn State Nittany Lions or the St. John's Red Storm tomorrow, based on which sides of the bracket these teams wind up in.
Now, for buster_bluth's Four Factors preview, copied and pasted from here:
Here's how the Rebels (4-0) match up with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (5-1) using the Four Factors. (National Rank in Parentheses)
| OM O | GT D | GT O | OM D | ||
| eFG% | 50.6% (129) | 44.3% (43) | 50.4% (136) | 41.5% (15) | |
| TO% | 15.9% (68) | 17.5% (223) | 17.5% (130) | 21.6% (42) | |
| OR% | 34.5% (97) | 24.1% (11) | 33.7% (125) | 30.3% (127) | |
| FTR | 50 (68) | 35.8 (94) | 46.7 (108) | 39.6 (143) |
Official Preview from OleMissSports.com is here
This is later than I had intended posting, but I didn't feel like screwing it with it last night, and then had a 6-hour drive this morning. Anyway, the basketball season kicks off in earnest today as the Rebels take on an ACC team in Georgia Tech.The Yellow Jackets are led by Trae Golden's 15.8 ppg. Golden played for Tennessee last year and the Rebels did a good job defending him, holding him to 8 ppg. They also attacked him well defensively, as he picked up 9 fouls in 2 games.
Golden is just part of a balanced attack though, as 4 other players average 8.8 ppg or more. The Rebels have excelled this season defensively as their 41.5% Defensive eFG% ranks 15th in the country. That will be crucial today as well, as Georgia Tech scores 59.7% of its points on 2-pointers and just 15.6% on 3-pointers.
(Sure to be terribly, terribly wrong) Predictions:
Rebels 75, Yellow Jackets 68
With fewer guys playing, the Rebels find a nice groove on offense and defense and rebound the ball well for the first time this season
Marshall Henderson struggles with consistency, but hits 3 big 3s in the final 5 minutes of the game
(As always, the national rankings pulled from kenpom.com, quite possibly the coolest site on the whole wide intertubes... Red Cup Rebellion excluded of course)