Ole Miss travels to face wounded Vanderbilt
Feb. 27—In a strange twist that a COVID-19 season can often provide, Vanderbilt has been added as a home game to the Ole Miss basketball schedule for March 6, the regular season's final playing date.
It will be the two teams' second meeting in a week.
Before then the Rebels and Commodores meet today at 2:30 at Memorial Gym in Nashville, where Ole Miss could benefit from a more traditional twist — injuries.
Vanderbilt, in its second season under coach Jerry Stackhouse, will be without its second-leading scorer and perhaps its top scorer also.
Ole Miss is clinging to March Madness at-large hopes and enters the game with a NCAA Net ranking of 59 after its 60-53 win at No. 24 Missouri on Tuesday.
"I consider this postseason. We're in postseason right now. We've got to stay in the fight and control what we can control," Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said.
The addition of Vanderbilt (6-13, 2-11 SEC) on March 6 gives Ole Miss (13-9, 8-7) two home games in the final week. Tuesday night at 8, the Rebels take on Kentucky.
Vanderbilt sophomore guard Scottie Pippen Jr., the team's leader and second-leading scorer in the SEC at 20.5 points a game, missed the Commodores' 70-58 loss to Tennessee Wednesday with a hip flexor.
He was scheduled to have an MRI on Thursday to better examine the injury. The school has not updated his status for an SEC Network meeting with the Rebels.
Big man out for season
Vanderbilt will not have the 15.0 points and 9.2 rebounds of Dylan Disu, a 6-foot-9 sophomore power forward. The school has announced that Disu will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
Quention Millora-Brown started in place of Disu against Tennessee but played less than 9 minutes and finished with two points and two rebounds.
Pippen's replacement was better as Issac McBride, a 6-1 freshman, had 11 points and was 3 for 4 behind the arc.
Since losing 78-71 at Florida on Jan. 27, Vanderbilt is 2-5 with a 12-point win against South Carolina and a 21-point win at Mississippi State. None of the losses have been by more than seven points.
"We're preparing like he's definitely going to play in the game," Davis said. "I just know Jerry's personality and the fight in that team. We'll have our hands full regardless."
