Below is each team's NET ranking and quadrant resumes for each team. This is a quadrant 2 game for LSU against Ole Miss as they are inside the Top 135 (vs. 76-135 away game is Quadrant 2). These results are as of 1/17/20.
Quad 1 = Against #1-30 Home, #1-50 Neutral, #1-75 Away
Quad 2 = Against #31-75 Home, #51-100 Neutral, #76-135 Away
Quad 3 = Against #76-150 Home, #101-200 Neutral, #136-240 Away
Quad 4 = Against #161-353 Home, #201-353 Neutral, #241-353 Away

#27 (12-4, 4-0 SEC) LSU
Quad 1 = 3-1
Quad 2 = 3-3
Quad 3 = 2-0
Quad 4 = 4-0

#111 (9-7, 0-3 SEC) Ole Miss
Quad 1 = 1-5
Quad 2 = 0-2
Quad 3 = 0-0
Quad 4 = 8-0

LSU as of recent
LSU is coming into this contest 4-0 in the SEC now after a nail biter on the road in overtime at Texas A&M. We’ve now pulled 3 straight SEC wins out by 4 or less points, 1 in overtime, talk about living on the edge! On the unfortunate side of things, Charles Manning Jr. got hurt badly in the A&M game and is getting surgery and is expected to miss several weeks now. The loss there will be one we feel in my opinion over these weeks, especially if Marlon Taylor who missed the A&M game still can’t get healthy. This leaves us effectively with 1 player we like to bring off the bench in Aundre Hyatt. We will likely have to play former walk on Marshall Graves as well as Courtese Cooper to give some relief to the starting group.

Ole Miss as of recent
Ole Miss has recently been on a path of disappointment after a 9-3 start in non-conference play, they finished up their last OOC game with a loss to Wichita State to drop to 9-4 and now have lost their last 3 SEC games to A&M, Ark and Florida and they sit a highly disappointing 9-7 overall in Kermit Davis’ 2nd season there. Things looked to be going well for Kermit at Ole Miss last year going 20-13, 10-8 in conference play sneaking into the NCAA tournament, but this year despite returning a solid core of guys, finds themselves desperately looking for their first SEC win now 4 games into conference play for them. They were without 2 starters for their last game against Florida and they simply couldn’t keep up. I have not heard if Tyree (back contusions) or Sy (coach’s decision) will be back for our game with them.

Ole Miss projected starters
C (6'10, 240) JR. Khadim Sy
PF (6'7, 225) SO. KJ Buffen
SF (6'7, 229) SO. Blake Hinson
SG (6'2, 195) SR. Breein Tyree
PG (6'2, 190) JR. Devontae Shuler

Khadim Sy is Ole Miss’ true big but sat out last game due to a “coach’s decision” so unsure if he plays or not against us. Sy is averaging 22 minutes a game while dropping 8.8 points and 5.1 rebounds game. He will step back and take a 3 on rare occasion and overall is a decent player for Ole Miss. He has a 18.6 PER on the season.

KJ Buffen is more traditional 4 (but a little undersized) who averages 28.6 minutes, 10.4 points and 6.5 rebounds (2 offensive) per game. Like Sy he will rarely throw one up from 3 and is probably Ole Miss’ best front court player overall. His PER on the season is 20.1.

Blake Hinson is a very big wing who throws up 5 3’s a game. He is averaging 28.8 minutes, 11.4 points, 5.2 rebounds per game. He shoots 35% from 3 on the season. Hinson has a PER of 14.2 on the season.

Breein Tyree like Sy sat out last game for Ole Miss but his was due to back issues, so not sure if he will be back our game or not. Tyree is really the player who makes Ole Miss tick as a combo guard of sorts, as he averages 32.6 minutes, 17.8 points, 3.8 boards 2.9 assists and 1.2 steals a game. He takes 6.3 3’s per game and is 35.1% from 3. His PER on the season is 19.4.

Devontae Shuler is Ole Miss’ PG who averages 32.8 minutes, 10.5 points, 3.9 assists 4.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. He is not a big 3 point threat at 31.7% on the season but still have to guard him out there as he will take them. Shuler has a 14.7 PER on the season for Ole Miss.

Ole Miss top bench players
CG (6'5, 190) FR. Austin Crowley
CG (6'2, 180) JR. Bryce Williams
PF (6'9, 228) FR. Sammy Hunter
SG (6’3, 199) rFR. Franco Miller Jr.
PF (6’7, 224) FR. Antavion Collum

Kermit is playing a lot of players off the bench as these were almost all guys he brought in as he tries to change things how he wants them in Oxford, however, not really any single player sticks out and nobody averages more than 17 minutes a game. Crowley is a tall guard who is averaging 3.9 points and 1.5 assists in 17 minutes a game, he started in place of Tyree last game as Tyree sat out with injury. Williams is another guard who is averaging 11.5 minutes and 3.8 points per game. Hunter is a big averaging 13.8 minutes, 3.3 points and 1.6 boards per game. Miller started last game with Sy out and was completely irrelevant going for 0 points in 16 minutes, he is averaging 0.5 point in 10.3 minutes per game this season. Collum is another forward who is averaging 8.8 minutes and 1.3 points per game.

Ole Miss has really really struggled as of recent. Flat out, if both Sy and Tyree miss this game like they did against UF earlier this week, Ole Miss has little answers for things. Even missing just 1 of those 2 could be really tough on Ole Miss. Ole Miss is one of the worst offensive and defensive teams in the conference per kenpom. That’s a bad recipe. They aren’t good grabbing offensive rebounds but defend well against that so that’s a good matchup to watch, assuming Sy plays. They do a decent job of turning teams over and are Top 100 in country in steal %, so we need to take care of the basketball.

Without knowing the status of Tyree and Sy right now for the game this one is hard to predict. If both play, I sincerely think this will be a tough game to win on the road for the simple reason Ole Miss is in desperation mode right now for a win and we are very short handed with Manning out and potentially Taylor too. That means Wade has to play Bishop, Graves and maybe Cooper some. We cannot have a 6 man rotation basically with Hyatt and the starters. Kenpom likes us in this game, and I definitely do as well especially if Ole Miss is missing both Tyree and Sy, even missing just 1 I feel pretty confident. Sy is really the main guy who could bother us a lot matchup wise, and with Tyree not 100%, even if he plays it’s unlikely he would go off unless the rest is just what he needed, and that’s someone Ole Miss depends on.

Projected LSU Starting 5
PF (6'6, 230) SO. Emmitt Williams - #5
PF (6'6, 240) SO. Darius Days - #0
SF (6'9, 235) FR. Trendon Watford - #2
SG (6'4, 205) SR. Skylar Mays - #4
PG (6'4, 205) SO. Javonte Smart - #1

Main rotational players
SF (6'5, 210) SR. Marlon Taylor - #14 [If available]
SF (6'5, 225) rFR. Aundre Hyatt - #15

Kenpom's Prediction: LSU 77 Ole Miss 72

This post was edited on 1/18/20 at 9:10 pm