Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and Happy Thanksgiving weekend to you and your families. Today is the Championship Game of the Rady Children's Invitational from LionTree Arena in San Diego matching the #23-ranked Mississippi Rebels (6-0) and the #13-ranked Purdue Boilermakers (6-1). Tip is scheduled for approximately 6:00 pm (Eastern time) with television coverage on FOX.
Mississippi advanced with a 96-85 overtime win over Brigham Young University yesterday, and Purdue advanced with a 71-61 victory over North Carolina State.
Projected Starting Line-ups:
Mississippi - Malik Dia, Sean Pedulla, Matthew Murrell, Dre Davis, and Jaylen Murray
Purdue - Trey Kaufman-Renn, Cameron Heide, Myles Colvin, Fletcher Loyer, and Braden Smith
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Ole Miss has 5 players who average double-digits and it scores 83.3 points per game, which could cause some trouble for Purdue. The Boilers will definitely need to duplicate the defensive effort from yesterday. Jaylen Murray is the leading scorer for the Rebels with an average of 14.5 points per game, and Sean Pedulla is second with an average of 14.2 points per game. Ole Miss has three other players averaging double figures in scoring with Matthew Murrell, Dre Davis, and Jaemyn Brakefield off the bench . Murray is the assists leader with an average of 4.2 per game. Ole Miss is averaging 36.4 rebounds per game led by Malik Dia with an average of 6.8 boards per contest. Matthew Murrell is the leader in steals with an average of 3.0 per game, and Dia is the rim protector with an average of 0.8 blocked shots per game.
Ole Miss is currently rated 41st in KenPom - 36th offensively and 68th defensively with 191st in adjusted tempo.
Purdue is up to 12th in KenPom - 9th offensively and 35th defensively - and the Boilers have one of the slowest adjusted tempo ratings in the nation at 334th.
Look for the Ole Miss Rebels to cause some issues for Purdue through its defense, a staple of Chris Beard-coached teams. With a turnover margin of +9.2 through six games, the Rebels own one of the best margins in all of college basketball, forcing 17.5 per game (No. 15 in the NCAA on Nov. 28) while committing just 8.3 (No. 2 in the NCAA on Nov. 28). Ole Miss also ranks among the top teams in the nation in both steals per game (10.5, No. 20 in NCAA on Nov. 28) and blocks per game (4.2, No. 61 in NCAA on Nov. 28), giving them the 38th-ranked scoring defense (on Nov. 28) in the country at 66.7 points.
Purdue will need another solid game in the turnover department - they did just that yesterday and will need it again today, as well as the all-hands-on-deck team effort on the glass.
These two teams are fairly evenly matched, and it should be a highly competitive game. Can the Boilers keep up the momentum and prevail heading into the opening games of conference play next week?
We shall see, starting in a little over an hour or so.
Boiler up, my friends....