Al Pinkins has Ole Miss pegged pretty well.
After spending the past three seasons beside Rebel head coach Andy Kennedy as an assistant coach, that much should be expected.
But with the current Tennessee assistant coach slated to make his return to Oxford, Mississippi on Saturday, Kennedy must be in the process of switching up his offensive and defensive calls, right?
Wrong.
“Knowing Andy, he’s not going change,” Pinkins said. “He’s going to go with what he has done and he’s going to run what he has been successful doing, and we just got to stop them.”
Stopping Ole Miss (18-8, 9-4 SEC), though, is easier said than done.
The Rebels’ offense, which ranks third in the SEC with an average of 73.6 points per game, is a guard-oriented lineup that is paced by junior Stefan Moody. In his first season at Ole Miss after transferring from Kilgore College, the 5-foot-10, 179-pound Kissimmee, Florida native is the SEC’s second-leading scorer in league play, averaging 18.4 points per game.
In the Rebels latest victory against Mississippi State on Thursday — making themselves winners of seven of their last eight contests — Moody displayed his offensive prowess, scoring a career-high 29 points while sinking eight 3-pointers.
“He’s a great player who has made big shots all season long,” Tennessee head coach Donnie Tyndall said. “He’s one of those rare instances when a junior college player makes the transition really quickly.
“He’s certainly a key tomorrow regarding limiting his shot attempts, or at least clean looks, and making him earn every basket he gets.”
The combination of Moody and his backcourt counterpart, Jarvis Summers, however, provides Tennessee (14-11, 6-7) with an even stiffer challenge.
Averaging 12.7 points and 4.6 assists per game this season, Summers is “the guy that makes Ole Miss go,” according to Tyndall, and his ability to shoot and find other shooters could pose a problem for a UT team that has struggled to defend the 3-point shot, allowing its opponents to shoot 37.4 percent from beyond the arc this season.
“We haven’t been playing the zone like we should,” sophomore guard Robert Hubbs said. “We have to get to shooters, contain them and make them drive it.
“When certain players see zone, their eyes light up and they start settling. That can be a good thing or a bad thing because you can live or die by the three.”
And while their opponents have been draining 3-pointers consistently, Tennessee has struggled to hit the long ball in recent contests.
In the Vols’ last two games, they have combined to hit just four of their 31 3-point attempts. In the last six games, UT has only shot more than 30 percent from beyond the arc once — the 76-73 victory over Vanderbilt on Feb. 11.
Pinkin’s knowledge of Ole Miss, however, might be just what the Vols need in order to get out of their long ball slump.
“On Thursday we went through and practiced their zones,” junior forward Derek Reese said. “They switch a lot, so he kind of walked us through and told us what they are going to do in their zone and how they play it.”
Tipoff between the Vols and Rebels is scheduled for 7:35 p.m. EST and can be seen on ESPNU.
