The Southeastern Conference’s highest-ranked men’s basketball team will face the league’s most intriguing squad Saturday night when No. 5 Tennessee welcomes No. 22 Ole Miss to the Food City Center.
Ole Miss is 13-0 under first-year coach Chris Beard and could set a program record for its best start with a win in Knoxville. The Volunteers, meanwhile, are the definition of battle-tested with a 10-3 record that includes a win over No. 9 Illinois and losses to No. 1 Purdue, No. 2 Kansas and No. 8 North Carolina.
The Vols have won eight of the last 10 series meetings with the Rebels heading into a sold-out showdown that will tip at 6 and be televised by the SEC Network.
“Not only can they spread you out, but they’ve got some guys inside that you’ve got to deal with,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes told reporters before Friday’s practice. “They’ve got two terrific shot-blockers. A lot of credit goes to the players, but Coach Beard is putting them in a great position to be effective.”
The Rebels have not played close to the same schedule as Tennessee, but they do have an 80-77 triumph over Memphis, which is ranked No. 15. They also have a 72-52 win over North Carolina State in the ACC/SEC Challenge, which is a larger margin of victory than Tennessee’s 79-70 victory over the Wolfpack in San Antonio.
Ole Miss beat both Memphis and N.C. State in Oxford, and the Rebels already have a whopping five wins by one possession, topping Memphis, Detroit Mercy (70-69), Sam Houston (70-67), Temple (77-76) and UCF (70-68).
“Some people think Ole Miss hasn’t had any adversity yet,” Beard said Thursday in a news conference. “Somebody said that the other day, and that’s far from the truth. Whoever said that doesn’t know what they’re talking about. We’ve had a lot of adversity.”
Beard has certainly had his share of personal adversity, with Friday marking the one-year anniversary of his firing at Texas as a result of his arrest on a third-degree felony assault by strangulation charge. His fiancée at that time would later claim she initiated the physical struggle and that she was not strangled, which led to the third-degree felony charge being dismissed in February.
Although he had guided the Longhorns to a 29-13 record early in his second season and to a No. 2 ranking at the time of his suspension that became a dismissal, Beard is best known on the court for his time at Texas Tech, leading the Red Raiders to the 2019 national championship game against Virginia.
“Chris Beard has just done an incredible job everywhere he’s ever been,” Barnes said. “You know what his teams are. They take on his personality. They’re going to play hard, and they definitely aren’t going to beat themselves.
“I’ve known him for a long time, and I know how he’s worked his way up to become one of the best in the business.”
Beard refers to Barnes as a mentor, adding, “I think the word ‘friends’ is used a little loose in coaching. I don’t know if there are a lot of friends out there, but I do consider Coach Barnes my friend.”
The Rebels have been led this season by 6-foot-4 senior guard Matthew Murrell (17.0 points per game), 6-6 senior guard Allen Flanigan (16.7) and 5-11 junior guard Jaylen Murray (14.7). Murrell led Ole Miss in scoring last year with 14.4 points per game, while Flanigan is a graduate transfer from Auburn, where he averaged 8.5 points and 4.2 rebounds in his four seasons and 114 games with Bruce Pearl’s Tigers.
Wes Flanigan, Allen’s father, is an Ole Miss assistant coach after spending the past five seasons at Auburn, his alma mater.
Ole Miss, Houston and James Madison are the only undefeated teams remaining among the 362 that compete at the Division I level. For the Rebels to remain in that category, they will have to knock off a top-five team on the road.
“We’re going to try and play our best game of the year on Saturday,” Beard said. “That’s Captain Obvious, but I think that’s what’s in our guys’ hearts.”
Where they stand
The SEC will enter league play with nine of its 14 teams projected in the 2024 NCAA tournament field, according to longtime ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi.
Tennessee leads the way as a No. 2 seed, with Kentucky a 3 seed, Auburn a 5 seed, Alabama and Texas A&M as 6 seeds, Ole Miss an 8 seed, Florida and Mississippi State as 10 seeds, and South Carolina an 11 seed. The Gamecocks have also been a pleasant surprise under former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Lamont Paris, having gone 11-21 in his debut season but currently standing 12-1.
The nine projected teams are more than any other league.
Area of improvement
On the cusp of the 18-game conference grind, Barnes scored some 11th-hour brownie points with the officials.
“Our officiating has improved so much to where I truly believe every night you go out, you’re going to get a good game from them,” Barnes said. “When I first came in the league, that wasn’t so.”
Odds and ends
Tennessee junior forward Jonas Aidoo continues to battle through a calf strain, but Barnes expects the 6-11, 240-pounder to play more than his season-low 11 minutes during Tuesday night’s 87-50 rout of Norfolk State. … Beard labeled Barnes as one of the “least talked-about Hall of Fame coaches in our game,” adding, “I’m not sure why, but my personal opinion is that he’s not a self-promoter.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.