After earning a possible season saving win over Missouri Saturday afternoon, the Cats will return home to take on the Rebels of Ole Miss, oh and the man above, Marshall Henderson.
Henderson has drawn some very harsh criticism for his actions on the court, but there's one thing you cannot deny; the kid can play. You know going into this game, Marshall Henderson will have to be a focal point of the scouting report because he can absolutely score the ball; 19.2ppg, FT%: 81, 3P%: 36, so to say that he needs to be guarded heavily is an understatement because we all know how guys like this can shoot inside Rupp Arena.
I may be alone here, but I actually like Marshall Henderson and his antics. It's what is known as passion (sure maybe over the top) and something anyone would love if this guy was on their team. There was one thing that happened that made me a fan of Henderson and it came on the heels of Nerlens Noel's horrific injury at Florida last season. It was mere minutes after the injury that virtually ended Kentucky's season when Marshall Henderson posted the following on Twitter...
"What sucks about noel's injury was the fact that he hustled his ass down the court to stop a wide open layup... #prayfornoel"
No matter what he does tomorrow in Rupp, the above tweet makes him okay in my book...
Now that all of that is out of the way, let's look at so history on the Ole Miss Rebels...
SCHOOL INFO:
EST: 1848
ENROLLMENT: 17,142
LOCATION: Oxford, Mississippi
NICKNAME: Rebels
COLORS: Harvard Crimson/Yale Blue
I'm not going to say that the game tomorrow night is a "must win", but it sure isn't far from it to tell you the truth. I truly believe if Kentucky wants to avoid anything worse than a 5 seed they need to win out at home. Call me crazy, but that's just the way I see it. Sure they could lose a couple more games in league play, but they have got to avoid any upsets at home...
On that note, let's take a look at Ole Miss' stats, shall we?
Yes this a little different from how we used to do it, but I finally got my computer working properly so this is how we'll present the "stats" portion of the posts' from now on. Plus, it gives you ALL the information you could possibly need about the opposing team to get you prepared for the game...
Let's take a look at the history between these two schools...
SERIES HISTORY:
Kentucky has completely dominated this series with a record of 100-13. The first game between the two came waaaaaaay back in 1925 with Kentucky winning 26-23. The Cats own the longest win steak of the series at 39 wins dating from 1929 to 1973 when Ole Miss finally won 61-58 in Oxford. The most recent meeting was last season in Oxford where we saw the Cats win 87-74.
This is a game that Kentucky simply cannot afford to drop at home. They will have to guard the three as Ole Miss has several guys who can fill it up from deep. They will have to limit turnovers and rebound the ball at a very high rate. Free-throws is something that this team has struggled with all season long and something they will have to hit tomorrow night to pull out the victory. I'm gonna leave you with one last picture to get you pumped for tomorrow nights game...
(Even though I personally dig this guy, I FULLY expect the Rupp crowd to give this boy HELL tomorrow)
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