Previewing South Carolina-Ole Miss

South Carolina and Ole Miss with meet in the First Round of the SEC Tournament for the right to play Tennessee

With Tennessee snagging the five seed in the SEC Tournament, the Vols second round matchup will be determined Wednesday evening when South Carolina and Ole Miss meet. The game will be the first of two first-round games on Wednesday night, with Georgia-LSU to follow. The Gamecocks and Rebels split the season series, with both teams winning at each other's building. The Vols went 3-0 combined against these teams and blew out South Carolina twice. Ole Miss is a six-point favorite, but it certainly doesn't feel like they should be.

On the South Carolina side, they garnered some attention in the off-season, picking up G.G. Jackson in a weird recruitment. After an awful start to the season, the Gamecocks have really started to play better basketball. Their win at Ole Miss was just one of three wins that Lamont Paris' team got down the stretch. Both Meechie Johnson and Hayden Brown have stepped up for them, and the team overall has just played extremely solid defense in their losses.

On the Ole Miss side, the Rebels are looking to avoid tonight being Win Case's last game as the interim coach in Oxford. The Rebels have again gone through injury turmoil this season, with Daeshun Ruffin missing a ton of time. Last year it was the Rebels' other star, Matthew Murrell, who was injured. Ole Miss hasn't been playing as well as South Carolina, but they did pick up a couple of wins in February.

Overall, many coaches don't believe it is tougher to beat a team a third time. I'm sure Rick Barnes feels that way after what the Vols did to South Carolina this year; however, regardless of who Tennessee gets in the second round tomorrow. It should be a game they win handily.

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