Tar Heels looking to Stay Hot vs. Ole Mis
by Sharon Thorsland
North Carolina advanced to the opening round of the NCAA Tournament after destroying San Diego State in a First Four matchup Tuesday night. Now the Tar Heels (23-13, 13-7 ACC) will take on No. 6 seed Ole Miss of the vaunted SEC (insert sarcasm here). The Rebels (22-11, 10-8 SEC) have some impressive wins this season, including over Alabama, Tennessee and Louisville, but they’ve lost five of their last eight games. Tip-off is set for 4:05 Friday on WBT.
The Rebels are a veteran team with a deep, balanced scoring attack. Six players average in double figures, led by senior guard Sean Pedulla (14.9 points per game). Pedulla might look familiar, he played his first three college seasons at Virginia Tech. Malik Dia is outstanding, the 6’9 forward is a threat under the basket and can knock down 3’s, similar to UNC’s Jae’Lyn Withers. Dia leads the Rebels with 5.7 rebound per game. Jaemyn Brakefield played one season at Duke before transferring to Ole Miss, he’s second on the team with 10.8 points per game.
Ole Miss has an aggressive defense, forcing 5.4 more turnovers per game than they commit, that’s the best margin in the SEC. But the Rebels have a mediocre scoring defense, giving up 71.6 points per game, that’s 169th in the country. UNC has potent, fast-paced offense that averages nearly 81 points per game, and hung 95 on SDSU, which boasted the best defense in Division I. Senior guard RJ Davis leads the way with 17 points a game, and he lit up the Aztecs on Tuesday, with six 3-pointers. UNC needs another big game from him, and the Heels need to hit from deep if they want to advance to the round of 32. Another thing to keep an eye on is rebounding. The Rebels grab just 33 rebounds per game, that’s 296th in the country, and have nabbed just 27 a contest over their past 10 games.
These teams have only played twice before – a very long time ago – losing in 1923 and winning in 1926. The Tar Heels are red hot coming into this one, winning nine of their last 11 games, including the beat-down of San Diego State. While it’s probably too much to ask that the Tar Heels play the way they did against the Aztecs, they should be able to put up a solid performance against an Ole Miss team that hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 2015. I say UNC stays hot and advances – go Tar Heels!