Ole Miss basketball is hoping to regain momentum against Arkansas

The last time Ole Miss was ranked in the top-25, it was riding a 6-0 SEC conference record and Marshall Henderson was trolling the entire league. The Rebs didn’t respond well to the accolade, dropping four of their next five games to plummet out of the rankings.

That’s what Kermit Davis’ bunch is trying to avoid on Saturday against Arkansas. After a 3-0 conference start buoyed Ole Miss to No. 18 in last week’s AP poll, an ugly offensive performance Tuesday against LSU waylaid the momentum. Unable to get inside against the Tigers’ size, the Rebs began pressing when their perimeter shots wouldn’t fall. They hit just eight of their 28 threes (LSU went 9-of-19) and lost 83-69.

Fixing that outside shooting issue will be key to turning things around against Arkansas on Saturday. The Hogs, anchored down low by 6’11 former top-50 prospect Daniel Gafford, rank eighth nationally in block percentage, per KenPom. Their perimeter defense is pretty salty as well, limiting opponents to 31.2 percent from behind the arc (61st nationally). For the Rebs, who launch over 41 percent of all of their shots from deep, finding a way to get those longs shots falling again is critical.

Not that Arkansas is shooting the lights out—the Hogs ranks 10th in the SEC in conference-only effective field goal shooting, 11th in three-point shooting and dead last in free-throw percentage.

How to watch

Tip-off: Noon CT
TV: SEC Network
Online: WatchESPN

Suggested reading

• A bad shooting night ended the Rebs’ winning streak
• The latest bracketology has Ole Miss as a seven-seed
• Ole Miss’ youth movement should have you pumped