#8 Ole Miss vs. #9 Oklahoma NCAA Tournament Betting Odds, Spread Spread: Ole Miss -2 Ole Miss -2 Over/Under: 142.5 142.5 Date: Friday, March 22 Friday, March 22 Time: 12:40 p.m. ET 12:40 p.m. ET Location: Columbia, S.C. Columbia, S.C. TV: truTV Mississippi’s Statistical Profile Few picked the Rebels as an NCAA tournament team before the season began. In fact, Ole Miss was projected to finish last in the SEC a season after going 12-20 and 5-13 in league play. But Kermit Davis’ team far exceeded expectations winning 20 games and finishing above .500 in a tough SEC conference, which earned him Coach of the Year honors. Mississippi is making the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2015. The program does not have a history of deep runs as the Rebels have only played in one Sweet 16 (2001). It is hard to imagine the team reaching the second weekend of play this year after going 2-4 against ranked opponents in the regular season. This is the fourth time that Davis has led a team to the NCAA tournament. In his previous gig as coach at Middle Tennessee the Blue Raiders went 2-3 straight up and ATS during March Madness. — John Ewing Record: 20-12 20-12 Adj. Efficiency Rank: 44 44 Adj. Offensive Efficiency Rank: 32 32 Adj. Defensive Efficiency Rank: 63 63 Tempo Rank: 129 All advanced metrics via KenPom as of Friday, March 15 Oklahoma’s Statistical Profile Oklahoma is going dancing for the second straight year and the sixth time since Lon Kruger took over the program in 2011. The Sooners finished seventh in the Big 12 with their best win coming against No. 13 Kansas in early March. OU’s strength according to KenPom is its defense which ranks 23rd in efficiency. But the team’s success comes down to shooting. The Sooners were 19-0 in the regular season when they had a better shooting percentage than their opponent and 0-11 when they didn’t. This year’s appearance in the NCAA tournament will be the 12th game for the Sooners that Kruger has coached. Oklahoma has been a disappointment for bettors going 3-8 ATS in the previous 11 games. — John Ewing Record: 19-13 19-13 Adj. Efficiency Rank: 38 38 Adj. Offensive Efficiency Rank: 74 74 Adj. Defensive Efficiency Rank: 22 22 Tempo Rank: 110 All advanced metrics via KenPom as of Friday, March 15 Ole Miss-Oklahoma Instant Bracket, Betting Picks Finish reading this entire article absolutely FREE in our app GET OUR FREE APP Both Ole Miss and Oklahoma struggled to win games down the stretch. The Rebels lost five of their last seven while the Sooners have lost eight of their last 12. The teams are evenly matched in the advanced metrics, with the Ole Miss offense and Oklahoma defense having similar ranks. But Ole Miss is the pick here, as we focus on free throws and offensive rebounds. The Rebels are fifth in free throw percentage compared to Oklahoma’s rank of 234th. While the Ole Miss rank in offensive rebounding is just 102nd, Oklahoma is one of the worst on the offensive boards at 243rd. I’m looking for a close game, but one that Ole Miss pulls out in the end. Early ATS lean: Ole Miss Early bracket pick: Ole Miss — Collin Wilson Sean Koerner’s Mississippi-Oklahoma Projections Sean Koerner’s proprietary projections also power our Bracket Simulator, which helps you find the most optimal bracket for your pool size.<doc-sep>The Oklahoma men's basketball team has made the NCAA Tournament, selected as the No. 9 seed in the South Region.The Sooners (19-13, 7-11 Big 12) will open March Madness play against 8-seed Ole Miss at 11:40 a.m. Friday in Columbia, South Carolina.Oklahoma's path to the tournament was full of up-and-down moments, with the Sooners starting the year with a nearly perfect record in nonconference play. OU started 11-1, with wins over Wichita State, Southern California and Northwestern.The Sooners entered Big 12 play ranked No. 23 and topped out at No. 20 in the nation before losing four of their first six conference games. After a rocky start and a win against Vanderbilt in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge, OU lost five straight games against Big 12 opponents, including a 30-point loss to Baylor.Oklahoma's inconsistent play continued through the end of the season, which was highlighted by a nationally televised victory against Kansas, ending the Jayhawks' 14-year stretch of winning the Big 12 regular-season title. The Sooners dropped their final two games, including a loss that came down to a review against West Virginia in the conference tournament.The NCAA Tournament appearance is the Sooners' 31st, and coach Lon Kruger's team will be looking to make the program's sixth Final Four and win its first national title. Last year, OU lost its first game of March Madness against Rhode Island. The Oklahoma men's basketball team has made the NCAA Tournament, selected as the No. 9 seed in the South Region. The Sooners (19-13, 7-11 Big 12) will open March Madness play against 8-seed Ole Miss at 11:40 a.m. Friday in Columbia, South Carolina. Advertisement Oklahoma's path to the tournament was full of up-and-down moments, with the Sooners starting the year with a nearly perfect record in nonconference play. OU started 11-1, with wins over Wichita State, Southern California and Northwestern. The Sooners entered Big 12 play ranked No. 23 and topped out at No. 20 in the nation before losing four of their first six conference games. After a rocky start and a win against Vanderbilt in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge, OU lost five straight games against Big 12 opponents, including a 30-point loss to Baylor. Oklahoma's inconsistent play continued through the end of the season, which was highlighted by a nationally televised victory against Kansas, ending the Jayhawks' 14-year stretch of winning the Big 12 regular-season title. The Sooners dropped their final two games, including a loss that came down to a review against West Virginia in the conference tournament. The NCAA Tournament appearance is the Sooners' 31st, and coach Lon Kruger's team will be looking to make the program's sixth Final Four and win its first national title. Last year, OU lost its first game of March Madness against Rhode Island.<doc-sep>The 2018-19 season has been far from a smooth ride for the Oklahoma Sooners, but it will indeed end with the program’s sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament in the last seven seasons. It’s been revealed that OU has earned a No. 9 seed and will face 8-seeded Ole Miss in the South Region. The Sooners will square off against the Rebels on Friday at 11:40 a.m. CT in Columbia, S.C., and the winner will face Virginia if the Cavaliers aren’t bounced by a 16-seed again. WE'RE IN!#Sooners receive the No. 9 seed in the South Region and will face Ole Miss Friday in Columbia, SC! pic.twitter.com/Ayy5GwyjTt — Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) March 17, 2019 In total, six of the Big 12’s 10 teams made the field of 68, and I think it goes without saying that the overall strength and reputation of this conference helped the Sooners in the eyes of the selection committee. When combining the conference gauntlet with OU’s 29th ranked non-conference strength of schedule, it’s fairly easy to see how OU was given the nod over other high-major programs with similar records. This was expected to be a bit of a stop-gap year for this program, as Oklahoma had just lost Trae Young after a lone season and still had a year to wait for a promising group of 2019 recruits. Because of this, OU wasn’t expected to make the Big Dance during the lead-up to the season, so it’s certainly possible to look at this with some sense of satisfaction. Having said that, the Sooners haven’t performed like a team that deserves to keep playing meaningful basketball. For a group as experienced as this, the inconsistent and often lackadaisical effort down the stretch has been incredibly disappointing. I’m squarely in the camp that believes Lon Kruger at least deserves a chance to do something with the next wave of talent before riding off into the sunset, but it’s safe to say that he and his staff haven’t done enough to develop the recent personnel as players or leaders. I’m (perhaps stubbornly) holding out hope that they can hit the right notes with De’Vion Harmon & Co. in 2019-20 and beyond. In the meantime, I’m curious to see if this current group can give this OU basketball fan something to smile about before the focus fully shifts back to the gridiron.<doc-sep>Ole Miss’ first season under Kermit Davis was supposed to be a dud. The Rebels, picked to repeat their bottom-place SEC finish from a year ago, were too small, too thin and too inexperienced to compete in an increasingly difficult conference. The roster, built around Andy Kennedy’s run-n-gun offense, was a mismatch for Davis’ methodical, defensive-oriented scheme. Davis was a good hire, most agreed, but it’d take at least a year or two before his team was ready to compete. Throw all that out the window: Ole Miss is going dancing. After putting together a 20-win campaign that shocked the college basketball world, the Rebels have been announced as an eight seed in the NCAA Tournament. They’ll take on nine seed Oklahoma in the first round on Friday. The season wasn’t without its ups and downs. Ole Miss lost four of its last five games to close the season, including a one-and-done showing at the SEC Tournament. But winning 10 conference games and ranking in the mid-thirties of the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) was enough to cancel out the weak finish in the eyes of the selection committee, which put the Rebels a spot higher than what was projected by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. The Rebels will take on Oklahoma, which finished seventh in the Big 12 with a 7-11 conference record, in Columbia, S.C. If they win that, the Rebels probably face No. 1 seed Virginia in the second round (though it’s worth pointing out that last season Virginia became the first one seed in the history of the tournament to lose to a 16 seed in the first round). The last time Ole Miss made the dance was in 2015, when Stefan Moody led the Rebels to a play-in win over BYU before falling to six seed Xavier.<doc-sep>
OXFORD — The Ole Miss basketball team will face off against the Oklahoma Sooners at 11:40 a.m. CT in Columbia, S.C., on Friday in the Round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament. The eighth-seeded Rebels qualified for their first NCAA Tournament since 2015 with their selection on Sunday and face off against an Oklahoma team that finished eighth in the Big 12 this season. The Sooners enter the NCAA Tournament with a 19-13 record, while Ole Miss went 20-12 this season. Here are five things to know about the Sooners as the Rebels prepare to face them on Friday: 1. They've been up-and-down, like Ole Miss Ole Miss and Oklahoma have played bizarrely parallel seasons this year. Both teams were dominant prior to the start of conference play, with Oklahoma heading into Big 12 play with a 11-1 record compared to Ole Miss' 10-2 record prior to SEC play. Both teams stumbled in late January and early February, with Oklahoma losing five straight between Jan. 28 and Feb. 11 and Ole Miss losing four out of five games between Jan. 15 and Feb. 2. Both have a handful of impressive wins, with Oklahoma taking down Kansas and Florida and Ole Miss defeating Auburn and Mississippi State. And both faltered down the stretch; Oklahoma lost three of its final five games and Ole Miss lost five of its final seven. 2. They're a defensive team Oklahoma ranks as the No. 23 team in the country by defensive efficiency, as the Sooners allow an estimated 93.9 points per 100 defensive possessions. The Sooners allow an average of 68.2 points per game, which was the fifth-best mark in the Big 12, and held opponents to a field-goal percentage of .402, the No. 24 mark in the nation. Oklahoma also has a knack for limiting opponents' free-throw attempts, ranking No. 9 in the nation in fewest free throws allowed and No. 14 in the nation in fewest free-throw attempts allowed. 3. They've been here before 2019 will be the 14th time Oklahoma has sent a team to the NCAA Tournament since 2000, and the 32nd time overall. The Sooners made the tournament as a No. 10 seed last season, losing in the Round of 64 against No. 7 seed Rhode Island in an overtime contest. Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger also has an extensive amount of experience in the NCAA Tournament. Kruger has led the Sooners to the NCAA Tournament six times in eight years as their head coach, including a Final Four appearance in 2015-16, and has also appeared in the tournament as a head coach 13 other times between his stints at Kansas State, Florida, Illinois and UNLV. Kruger led Florida to a Final Four in 1994, the Gators' first ever Final Four appearance. 4. They've played a few common opponents Ole Miss and Oklahoma have played three of the same teams this year. Both teams defeated Vanderbilt and lost to Iowa State, with the Sooners losing to the Cyclones twice. The one flipped outcome is that Oklahoma defeated Florida 65-60 in November, while Ole Miss lost to Florida in overtime 90-86 on Jan. 30. 5. The game might be a toss up Ole Miss was listed as a two-point favorite to defeat the Sooners after the announcement, but some experts are torn on the matchup. FiveThirtyEight.com projects Oklahoma to have a 53 percent chance of winning the matchup and ESPN's Basketball Power Index gives the Sooners a 54 percent chance to advance. TeamRankings.com gives Ole Miss a slight 50.5 percent edge while numberFire gives Oklahoma an even slighter edge. Can't wait for the NCAA Tournament? Need more Rebels coverage? Contact Nick Suss at 601-408-2674 or nsuss@gannett.com. Follow @nicksuss on Twitter.