The NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 Schedule: Ole Miss Basketball vs. Michigan State Tip-Off

ATLANTA – The magic continues for the six-seeded Ole Miss men's basketball team as they head east to take on the South Region's two seed Michigan State on Friday, March 28 at 7:09 p.m. ET in State Farm Arena and on CBS.

ON THE AIR
Television/Online: CBS
Play-by-Play: Ian Eagle
Analysts: Bill Raftery & Grant Hill
Reporter: Tracy Wolfson

OLE MISS RADIO
Radio: Ole Miss Radio Network
Play-by-Play: David Kellum
Analyst: Marc Dukes

SERIES HISTORY VS. MICHIGAN STATE

While just the second time these two programs have met on the hardwood, both will have come in the NCAA Tournament. In the 1999 postseason, Ole Miss won their first-ever NCAA Tournament game with a 72-70 victory over Villanova in the first round.

As a nine seed, the Rebels matched up with the region's number one seed Michigan State who would win 74-66. The Spartans would go on to reach the Final Four that season.

LAST MEETING: March 14, 1999 (L, 66-74, Milwaukee, Wis.)

• Ole Miss led by three at the half, holding Michigan State to just 29 points over the first 20 minutes of action. The Spartans would respond with 45 in the second period to eventually win by eight.
• Jason Smith (Ole Miss): 18 points, three rebounds, five steals, one block.
• Mateen Cleaves (Michigan State): 18 points, one rebound, seven assists, three steals.

SCOUTING THE SPARTANS

Michigan State enters its 22nd Sweet 16 in program history with an overall record of 29-6 after going 17-3 in conference play. In the postseason, the Spartans fell by three points to Wisconsin in their second game of the Big Ten Tournament.

Earning a second seed in the NCAA Tournament, they took down Bryant 87-62 in the opening round in Cleveland, Ohio before handling 10-seeded New Mexico 71-63. They entered the tournament with a NET Ranking of 11 in the country.

Their scoring has come from their depth, as they are led by Jaden Akins with an average of 12.7 points per game. However, they have seven players who average 7.0 per outing or more, and rank fifth in the nation in bench points per game with a clip of 34.5.

They've been led this year in rebounding by Jaxon Kohler, who averages 7.5 boards per game and has posted seven double-doubles. Their offense runs through guards Jeremy Fears Jr. and Tre Holloman, who average 5.4 and 3.8 assists per game, respectively, to help the team rank 22nd in the country with 16.7 helpers per contest.

The Spartans also rank highly as a team in three-point percentage defense (1st, 27.8), rebound margin (+9.4, 2nd), fastbreak points per game (3rd, 16.1), and defensive rebounds per game (9th, 28.0).

In his 30th season with the program, Tom Izzo has won 736 games, tallying a win percentage of 71.0 percent while posting 20 20-win seasons and five 30-win seasons.

Since his third year with the Spartans, he's earned an NCAA Tournament bid every season, 28-straight invites, including eight Final Four appearances and a National Championship in 2000.

The 2016 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee is a four-time conference coach of the year, two-time NABC National Coach of the Year, and has been a staple with the program since 1983, when he was an assistant until his promotion to head coach in 1995.

"IT'S OURS FOR THE TAKING, IT'S OURS FOR THE FIGHT"

Ole Miss punched their ticket to the Sweet 16 with a second-round victory over three-seeded Iowa State on Sunday in Milwaukee, Wis. Trailing early in the game, the Rebels snatched the lead midway through the first half and never looked back, leading by as much as 26 in the second period.

For the ninth time this season, five players scored in double figures for Ole Miss, led by Sean Pedulla with 20, who dished out eight assists as well.

The team shot a blistering 58.2 percent from the floor, 57.9 percent from three, and 76.2 percent from the free throw line, each of which were program records for an NCAA Tournament game.

They also tied the school record for made threes in a tournament game with 11, as Jaemyn Brakefield, Malik Dia, Matthew Murrell, and Pedulla each had multiple makes from deep.

Their win propels them to the program's second-ever appearance in the Sweet 16, matched by the 2001 squad.

The Sweet 16 Schedule: Friday, March 28

(2) Michigan State vs. (6) Ole Miss, 7:09 p.m. | CBS
(2) Tennessee vs. (3) Kentucky, 7:39 p.m. | TBS
(1) Auburn vs. (5) Michigan, 9:39 p.m. | CBS
(1) Houston vs. (4) Purdue, 10:09 p.m. | TBS

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