Rebels Host Florida on Saturday

Picture by Danny Dickey

Ole Miss returns to the Pavilion at Ole Miss on Saturday night as they play host to the Florida Gators. The game will begin at 7 p.m. and ESPN 2 will air it.

The Rebels come in with a 2-2 mark in the SEC and a 12-4 record overall. On Wednesday night, Ole Miss dropped a 90-81 heart-breaker to LSU in Baton Rouge. Senior Stefan Moody scored a new career-high 33 points in the contest. The 5-10 guard knocked down 10 of 18 from the field, including six of 11 from behind the arc, and was seven of nine from the charity stripe. He also added four assists, three rebounds and two steals.

Coach Andy Kennedy’s squad leads the SEC in scoring over the last nine years as they average just under 75.0 points a game.

The Gators are 10-6 and 2-2 in the SEC after falling 71-68 at Texas A&M Tuesday night. Florida is led by senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who is averaging a team-best 13.4 points and 7.6 rebounds a game. The Gators have three players scoring in double figures and three players pulling down at least 6.4 boards a game. Memphis native and sophomore guard Chris Chiozza leads the team with 64 assists and has an SEC-best 4.0 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Florida leads the conference in scoring defense allowing just 63.9 ppg, but ranks last in the league in field goal percentage (.415), 3-point percentage (.290) and free throw percentage (.606). The Gators ranks first in the SEC in offensive rebounding at 14.4/game, while Ole Miss is fifth in the league pulling down 13.0/game.

Saturday night, Ole Miss will be welcoming a former Rebel letterwinner, Mike White who is now the head coach of the Florida Gators. As a point guard from 1996-1999, White helped Ole Miss to 74 wins, two SEC West titles and three NCAA Tournament appearances during his four years in Oxford. As a senior co-captain, White ranks seventh in Ole Miss history with 370 career assists. After his playing career, White served as an Ole Miss assistant coach for seven seasons, including five under head coach Andy Kennedy.

This game will be the 108th meeting between the Rebels and the Gators. Florida holds a 62-45 lead in the series, which began in 1940. The Gators had won five in a row in the series until 2012, and now the Rebels have taken four of the last six meetings including a home-and-home sweep of Florida last year, which was their season sweep of UF since 1990.

Adam Brown is the sports editor for HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.

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