Ole Miss Heads to Rocky Top for an SEC Showdown

Deandre Burnett scored 16 points against Auburn. Photo courtesy of Joshua McCoy / Ole Miss Athletics

Ole Miss hits the road this weekend and travels up to Rocky Top to tangle with No. 18 Tennessee Saturday. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. on the SEC Network.

Ole Miss (11-11, 4-5 SEC) is coming off of a 79-70 setback to No. 11 Auburn Tuesday night, their first SEC loss at home this season. Senior Deandre Burnett led the Rebels in scoring with 16 points and 4 rebounds against the Tigers.
This season, the Rebel guards are accounting for 71.8 percent of the scoring. When Ole Miss shoots 30 percent from beyond the arc, they are 10-3 on the year.
Tennessee enters Saturday’s matchup with a 16-5 record, including 6-3 in SEC play. Winners of four straight, including an 84-61 thumping of LSU on Wednesday night, the Volunteers jumped into the top 25 of the national polls (AP-18, Coaches-19). After dropping its first two SEC games, Tennessee has won six of the past seven conference contests. UT leads the SEC in assists (16.7 per game) and ranks 33rd nationally. 
Grant Williams (16.1 points per game, 6.3 rebounds per game) and Admiral Schofield (12.4 ppg, 6.0 rpg) pace the Volunteers in scoring and rebounding, while Lamonte Turner adds 10.4 ppg off the bench and shoots 91.1 percent (52 of 57) from the free-throw line.
Rick Barnes is in his third season as Tennessee head coach after spending 18 seasons as the head coach of Texas. With 651 career wins, Barnes has 31 years of head coaching experience at the Division I level.
Ole Miss and Tennessee have met 115 times, with the Volunteers holding a 71-44 lead in a series that began in 1924. Ole Miss has won six of the last eight meetings, including three of the last four. The Vols have a 41-12 record against Ole Miss in Knoxville while the Rebels hold a 7-5 advantage in neutral site games. In Oxford, the series is tied 25-25. The two teams will play a home-and-home series for the third time in the last six years and second in as many seasons.

Adam Brown is the sports editor of HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.