Ole Miss Men’s Basketball Takes on No. 25 LSU on the Road

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

The Ole Miss men’s basketball team is headed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Tuesday night to take on the No. 25 LSU Tigers. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. on SEC Network.

Ole Miss (11-10, 2-6 SEC) returns to conference action after a 67-56 win over Kansas State in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday. The Rebels were led on the floor by the SEC Freshmen of the Week Daeshun Ruffin with 17 points.

Ole Miss out rebounded the Wildcats 43-33 in the win.

LSU (16-5, 4-4 SEC) is coming off a 77-68 loss at TCU in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. The Tigers currently own the SEC’s fourth-best NET rating at No. 13, and they have spent a large portion of the 2021-22 season nationally ranked, rising as high as No. 13 in the Jan. 10 edition of the AP Top-25. LSU has played a crushingly difficult schedule that ranks third-toughest in the nation behind Alabama and Oklahoma State, posting a combined 9-5 record against Quad 1 (4-4) and Quad 2 (5-1), and a perfect 7-0 record against Quad 3 (3-0) and Quad 4 (4-0). LSU owns two ranked wins on the year against No. 16 Kentucky on Jan. 4 (65-60) and No. 18 Tennessee on Jan. 8 (79-67) which were part of a three-game winning streak before a three-game skid from Jan. 15-22.

The Tigers own a powerful defense that frustrates opposing offenses but also forces costly mistakes. LSU leads the nation in steals per game at 11.2 per contest and seventh in the NCAA in turnovers forced per game at 18.1 (No. 2 SEC), but it also stymies opposing offenses to the NCAA’s second-best field goal defense at 36.6 percent (No. 1 SEC) and sixth-best three-point defense at 27 percent (No. 1 SEC). This crushing defensive front helps the Tigers toward their SEC-leading scoring defense of just 59.2 points allowed per game (No. 22 NCAA) and the SEC’s third-best scoring margin of 13.7 points per game (No. 18 NCAA).

Leading the way for LSU is Tari Eason, who averages 15.9 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.6 steals, 1.1 assists and 1.0 blocks per game primarily off the bench while shooting 53.5 percent overall and 78.5 percent from the free throw line. Eric Gaines’ 2.1 steals per game ranks third in the SEC and 23rd in the NCAA. Other Tigers averaging double-digit scoring include Darius Days (13.1) and Xavier Pinson (10.3).

These two programs will be meeting for the 215th all-time meeting on Tuesday night. LSU holds a 126-88 all-time lead, hosted the 15 meetings between the Rebels and Tigers, with the streak being broken up by a neutral site meeting in the SoCon Tournament in 1928 (W, 55-28) before the series finally coming to Oxford on Jan. 18, 1929 (W, 28-24). LSU holds an 81-29 edge in Baton Rouge, with the Rebels last win at the Maravich Center coming on March 9, 2013 (81-67). Ole Miss holds a 56-37 advantage in Oxford, but the Tigers lead elsewhere in neutral sites (7-4) and postseason (6-4), as well as overtime games (6-3). Over the last 10 meetings, LSU enjoys a 9-1 edge over the Rebels, with the last Ole Miss win coming in Oxford on Valentine’s Day 2017 (96-76).