There have been results to celebrate recently for Mississippi and North Carolina State, but both teams need breakthroughs.
They’ll look to achieve that when they meet Sunday afternoon in Greensboro, N.C., in what is officially a neutral-site game.
Both teams missed chances for notable victories across the opening month-plus of the season, so this matchup looms large.
“It’s an opportunity,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said. “It’s a great measuring stick for us before Santa comes to town.”
Meanwhile, NC State coach Will Wade is searching for consistency from the Wolfpack (8-4).
“We’re going to keep demanding it,” he said. “It will break eventually.”
Ole Miss (7-4) has won back-to-back games, including Wednesday’s neutral-site game against Alabama A&M in Tupelo, Miss. Senior forward Malik Dia racked up a season-high 27 points in that game. He also set season highs for field goals made and attempted (9 of 19) and free throws attempted (13, making six) in a game.
The Rebels are winless in four matchups against power conference teams.
“We’re searching,” Beard said. “We haven’t had enough players separate through game production. … Game production when you get in the game is important.”
The Wolfpack’s 108-72 home victory over Texas Southern on Wednesday night in Raleigh featured sophomore guard Paul McNeil Jr.’s school-record 11 3-pointers which led to 47 points.
“You get what you earn,” Wade said of McNeil. “You get what you deserve. You get what you work on.”
McNeil said he can’t dwell on that performance, knowing the critical games ahead.
“This will be in the past,” he said. “We move on to Ole Miss and focus on that.”
Wade has been concerned about NC State’s defense, and he’s harping on that topic.
“Our attention to detail, our effort, our intensity — on a consistent basis, every possession — it’s not where it needs to be,” Wade said. “We’ve got to fix that quickly because we play Ole Miss on Sunday.”
Darrion Williams is the Wolfpack’s top scorer at 16.0 points per game, followed by Quadir Copeland (14.5) and Ven-Allen Lubin (13.5), who leads the team with 7.5 rebounds per game.
The Rebels are led by Dia with 14.2 points per game, and AJ Storr is next at 13.4. Storr has a team-high 16 baskets from 3-point range.
“AJ Storr can score it anywhere,” Wade said.
Beard said he liked what he saw in a leadership role from Ilias Kamardine in the Alabama A&M game.
“We had point guard play,” Beard said.
