No. 10 Missouri will continue its quest for a high NCAA Tournament seed when it faces Ole Miss on Wednesday in Oxford, Miss.
The Tigers (13-3, 6-3 Southeastern Conference) jumped eight spots in the Associated Press Top 25 this week after upsetting then-No. 10 Alabama 68-65 on Saturday in Columbia, Mo.
“You have to celebrate these type of moments because they don’t come often,” Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said. “We have a program that beat three top-10 teams in the country.”
The Tigers will catch Ole Miss (10-8, 5-6) coming off victories over then-No. 11 Tennessee and Auburn last week.
“So proud of our players,” Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. “They hung tough. Really good week for the Rebels.”
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Missouri will look to re-establish Jeremiah Tilmon the low post. He scored just 17 total points in his past two games after scoring a combined 54 points in his previous two games.
“I don’t think Jeremiah was as assertive in posting because of the doubles and all those things,” Martin said after the Crimson Tide game. “And like I told him, I said, ‘Man, you’re an elite-level, low-post guy, that physical, they’re not going to allow you to beat them. They’re going to make other people beat them.’
“So he has to stay aggressive, stay assertive, take the double-team, whatever happens, find open guys.”
The Tigers will try to pick up their offensive pace after bogging down late on Saturday. They allowed Crimson Tide to cut a 22-point margin to a single point in the second half.
“I think we were a little stagnant and we weren’t really getting good looks there in the second half — well, later in the second half,” said Missouri guard Dru Smith, who scored a total of 42 points in his past two games. “We weren’t running as much in transition. I thought early we were doing a great job of getting the ball out, getting some easy layups.”
The Tigers will face a stiff challenge against the Rebels, who are making a late push toward postseason play. On Saturday, Ole Miss erased a 14-point, second-half deficit at Auburn and won 86-84 in overtime.
“We couldn’t let this get away from us, especially because we had a great game last game,” Rebels forward Romello White said. “We really just wanted to win, and everybody bought in. We were all connected. No matter how much we went down, we were still connected. The energy didn’t go anywhere.”
After upsetting Tennessee 52-50 with stellar defense, the Rebels cranked up their offense at Auburn.
“Good teams win in all different areas,” Davis said. “Whether you can beat a (No. 11)-ranked team 52-50 or score in the 80s in an overtime game, that’s when your team starts maturing.”
In his past eight games, Rebels guard Devontae Shuler has averaged 19.1 points, raising his season average to a team-best 15.5.
“We’ve had a couple of games where nobody was really hitting shots,” Shuler said after scoring 26 points at Auburn. “I can’t let that affect me on the defensive end and being the leader on the court. That’s what I tried to do (Saturday), and that’s what’s been helping us the last couple of weeks.”
–Field Level Media
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