Bracket Watch: Where Does Ole Miss Basketball Land Entering Crucial Home Matchup?

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The No. 19 Ole Miss Rebels have found a winning streak on the hardwood, and they are looking to ride that momentum into a crucial home matchup against No. 22 Mississippi State on Saturday evening. When the Rebels take the floor, where will their NCAA Tournament chances stand?
According to the latest bracketology update from Joe Lunardi, those chances are in good health.
The Rebels remained a 5-seed in Lunardi's latest projections, residing in the East (Newark) portion of the bracket. Ole Miss is projected to be playing alongside 12-seed McNeese, 4-seed Michigan and 13-seed Lipscomb in Seattle.
Coach Chris Beard's team is just one of 14 SEC programs who are projected to be in the field, the most of any conference in the country. The Big Ten is second with 10 teams in the projections.
Other SEC teams in the grouping include 1-seed Auburn, 1-seed Alabama, 1-seed Florida, 2-seed Tennessee, 2-seed Texas A&M, 3-seed Kentucky, 6-seed Missouri, 8-seed Mississippi State, 10-seed Oklahoma, 10-seed Vanderbilt, 11-seed Texas, 11-seed Arkansas and 11-seed Georgia.
Arkansas and Georgia are included in the "Last Four In" category, and Texas, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma occupy the "Last Four Byes" slots.
Ole Miss will look to gain another quality win on Saturday against Mississippi State in an attempt to split the season series with the Bulldogs. The Rebels lost in overtime earlier this season in Starkville, and they will look to return the favor on their home floor this weekend.
This game comes on the heels of Ole Miss picking up back-to-back road wins over LSU and South Carolina in contests that were close at the end. Prior to those wins, the Rebels took down nationally-ranked Kentucky in Oxford.
Tip-off between Ole Miss and Mississippi State on Saturday is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
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John Macon Gillespie has a journalism background spanning 10 years and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from the University of Mississippi in 2020 and 2022, respectively. His experience in the field includes work on the Ole Miss beat for nine years and high school sports coverage in the state of Mississippi for the Calhoun County Journal. He is currently a columnist for Ole Miss On SI and a high school journalism teacher in North Mississippi.
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