The Ole Miss Rebels and the Mississippi State Bulldogs meet Saturday in college basketball action from Humphrey Coliseum. Ole Miss is 8-6 so far this year. The Rebels lost to Alabama in their last game. As for Mississippi State, they’re 11-3 after a Tuesday loss to Tennessee. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Ole Miss was 7-3 after 10 games this year, losing to Oklahoma, Memphis and UCF. Since then the Rebels are 1-3 with a win over Temple and losses to North Alabama, Tennessee and Alabama along the way.
On Tuesday versus Alabama, the Rebels were drilled 44-23 in the first half. Ole Miss kept the pace in the second half and ended up losing 84-62. Leading scorer Jaemyn Brakefield posted 14 points with nine rebounds in 31 minutes.
Over on the Mississippi State side, they won 11 straight games to kick off the year. The Bulldogs took their first defeat versus Drake on December 20, then followed up with losses to Alabama and Tennessee.
In the Tuesday matchup versus Tennessee, Mississippi State fell behind 46-22 after one half. The Bulldogs were outscored 41-31 in the second half for an 87-53 blowout loss. Tyler Stevenson topped the team on 15 points with two rebounds.
PICK: I’ll probably stick with Mississippi State. The Bulldogs have faced some tough competition during this three-game losing streak and haven’t played very well during that quartet. Mississippi State was out-rebounded 34-19 against Tennessee, and they haven’t eclipsed 67 points for three straight outings. That said, the Bulldogs should match up much better with Ole Miss; the Rebels haven’t gotten past 65 points for five straight games themselves. I like a solid Mississippi State bounce-back cover effort here.