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Ken Pomeroy is a huge numbers nerd who has created a cottage industry and company out of creating an algorithm or calculation of how good basketball teams are throughout a season.
Last year, Ole Miss finished 50th in his rankings with a 20-13 overall record — a vast improvement from 108th in Andy Kennedy’s final season in Oxford.
But on Monday, Ken Pom put out his preseason rankings for the upcoming 2019-2020 college basketball season, and the Rebels came in at No. 60. This is after losing one player to the NBA (Terence Davis) and a few players to graduation and transfers.
Dropping only ten spots in his rankings means the Rebels most likely are in the hunt for an NCAA tournament bid as his computer takes into account recruiting and historical success.
The Rebels will have an uphill battle to climb in the SEC, however, if Ken Pom’s rankings are spot on. Here’s where the rest of the SEC ranks in the preseason Ken Pom:
- Kentucky - 2
- Florida - 12
- Tennessee - 19
- Auburn - 22
- LSU - 38
- Missouri - 39
- Arkansas - 44
- Miss. State - 53
- Georgia - 55
- Texas A&M - 58
- South Carolina - 69 (nice)
- Alabama - 70
- Vanderbilt - 148
Add into this equation and consider there is Butler (33), Oklahoma State (40), Penn State (43), Memphis (50), Syracuse (51), and Wichita State (62) on the non-conference schedule for the Rebels, and there is plenty of room for some nice wins to be stacked up.
To be clear, Ole Miss will either play the Cowboys or the Orange in the preseason National Invitational Tournament at the Barclays Centre in November depending on the outcome of the Penn State game.
The way it currently stands, the majority of the games played by Ole Miss will be against top 70 opponents, so the road map to dancing in March is pretty clearly laid out if opponents meet their expectations.