After regaining its bearings and garnering a win versus Georgia after two-straight losses, Texas A&M travels to Oxford, Mississippi in search of starting a winning streak Wednesday against Ole Miss.
Both teams’ goal of making the NCAA Tournament remains extremely slim. A&M sits at the bottom of the SEC in 12th place only ahead of LSU and Missouri who are a combined 1-12 in conference play. Ole Miss is tied for eighth with a below .500, 3-4 SEC record.
To have a shot at the NCAA Tournament both teams will have to make a drastic turnaround and win nearly every game remaining on the schedule.
A&M head coach Billy Kennedy said he and the players know how important every game is and that he has confidence in his team’s ability to win.
“We haven’t been consistent in anything we’ve done this year but I think our guys know they can win every game,” Kennedy said. “It’s about going out and executing every day. We’ll see, these next two games won’t be easy. Ole Miss is fighting for their lives like every other team at this part of the year.”
The Aggies (10-8, 2-5 SEC) are coming off a dramatic 13-point comeback win over Georgia which gave them their second SEC victory of the season. The Rebels (10-7, 3-4 SEC) are coming off a 75-71 win away to Missouri and have posted a strong 10-4 record at home.
Junior point guard DeAndre Burnett has done a nice job of replacing Stefan Moody, last year’s starting point guard and leading scorer. Burnett leads Ole Miss in scoring and assists with 17.8 points per game and 3.1 assists per outing.
Burnett has been dealing with a high-ankle sprain but will be available against A&M. Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy shared with reporters Monday what he believes the team needs to do to win and said he’s had to make personnel changes around injuries.
“We have to be realistic,” Kennedy said. “We need to score in the mid 70s to give ourselves a chance to win high-level games, and we didn’t do that the first two games [against Georgia and South Carolina]. We responded well against Tennessee and Missouri but we’re continuing to tweak what we’re doing offensively just based on available bodies.”
Burnett is just one of four players who average double figures. Senior Sebastian Diaz out of Madrid leads the rest of the pack averaging a double-double with 15.4 points and 11.2 rebounds per outing.
Guards Terence Davis and Cullen Neal are scoring 12.5 and 10.2 points per game.
The Aggies have four players of their own averaging double figures. The trio of sophomores Tyler Davis (13.4), D.J. Hogg (13.1), Admon Gilder (12) as well as freshman phenom Robert Williams, (11.9) who had a career-high 18 points against Georgia.
Davis, the team leader in scoring and rebounding, said he needs to continue to improve his consistency and that he hadn’t played his best basketball until the win over Georgia. His goal is to beat Ole Miss and start a long winning streak to “get things rolling.”
“I’m an all around guy,” Davis said Tuesday before the team’s flight. “I feel like I can get better at everything but being consistent. As far as on the offense end goes and even at times on defense. But I’m really locked in right now and my confidence is up. Last game was the most confident I played with the ball all year.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in Oxford at Ole Miss’ new court, the Pavilion. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
