Red Hot Ole Miss Rebels Look to Roast Hogs Saturday

Kennedy Looks to Keep Things Going … Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Seph Anderson is an Ole Miss graduate who currently serves as the student loan coordinator for the Office of Financial Aid at Ole Miss, where he has worked for the past eight years. Email him at seph.anderson@hottytoddy.com

A near sellout crowd set to witness Rebels face-off agains Arkansas Razorbacks at the Tad Pad on Saturday

By Seph Anderson

seph.anderson@hottytoddy.com

Follow @SephTheRebel for Ole Miss news from an Ole Miss guy …

The red-hot Ole Miss Rebels are set to tangle with a scrappy Arkansas club at 12:30pm ET Saturday afternoon in front of a nearly sold-out C.M. Tad Smith Coliseum in Oxford.

The 14-2 (3-0 SEC) Rebels look to improve their conference record to 4-0 for the first time since the 1936-1937 season. It would be yet another shot in the arm for Coach Andy Kennedy’s Rebels that won in thrilling overtime fashion at Vanderbilt earlier this week as a result of guard Marshall Henderson’s heroics.

Not so fast, though! The Razorbacks, led by guard BJ Young (17.4 ppg) and forward Marshall Powell (15.2 ppg), will enter Oxford 11-5 (2-1 SEC) following a thrilling double-overtime win against the Auburn Tigers in their last outing. It will mark their second conference road game in as many tries.

First and foremost, this game will showcase the SEC’s leading scorer, the Rebels’ Marshall Henderson (19.1 ppg) against the conference’s 2nd best scoring defense in the Arkansas Razorbacks (only giving up 60.7 ppg). It will be strength against strength, setting up for an interesting battle.

Additionally, while both the Rebels (4th in the nation at 82.8 ppg) and Razorbacks (12th in the nation at 79.6 ppg) put up a lot of points, it’s the big men on the boards that may play a determining factor in this SEC Western Division showdown.

Ole Miss currently ranks 14th in the nation, averaging 41.1 rebounds per game, while Arkansas comes in somewhat below the Rebels, averaging only 36.4 rebounds per game—good for 124th nationally.

Razorbacks Figure to Test Rebels … Wesley Hitt/Getty Images

Will Ole Miss improve to 4-0 for the 1st time since the 1936-1937 season?

It should be a closer than imagined game, but I think a hot-shooting Marshall Henderson will be the difference for the Rebels.

Prediction:

Ole Miss 73 – Arkansas 68