NCAA Tournament Preview Sweet Sixteen: Ole Miss vs. Louisville

Mar 23, 2023 - 8:08 PM

Ole Miss is in its first Sweet Sixteen since 2007 after knocking out one seed Stanford on its home floor, causing the Cardinal to miss the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since, you guessed it, 2007.

Styles make fights and the Rebels style of play really bothered the Stanford Cardinal, but Louisville will be a little better equipped for the Ole Miss style of play. The Rebs will be tasked with slowing down another team that likes to shoot the ball from deep. Louisville is also one of the faster teams in the country in terms of pace, which is the type of game Ole Miss wants to be in.

Louisville is led by senior guard Chrislyn Carr and junior guard Hailey Van Lith. Van Lith will jack shots up but to the tune of 29% from behind the arc. She is their leading scorer at 19.5 per game. Carr has made 84 threes on the season at 43%, so the Rebels will look to cut her off early.

Behind those two players, the Cardinals are fairly balanced with no one particularly standing out as a serious threat. Morgan Jones had 10 off the bench in their beatdown of Texas in the Round of 32 and Mykasa Robinson had 14 in 36 minutes in their two point victory over Drake in the opening round.

Led by their two guards, Louisville wants to play similar to the Rebs, turn you over and score on the break. Their points in the paint do not typically come from post play, but more from the guards getting to the rim.

The keys for Ole Miss will be the same.

• Take care of the ball while they force the other team to turn it over.
• Dominate the glass and take advantage of second chance opportunities.
• Just like the Gonzaga game, limit their looks on the perimeter and funnel them to your shot blockers inside.

Fun nugget for this game, former Rebel associate head coach Shay Robinson is on Louisville’s staff.

Louisville is currently a 2.5 point favorite and -140 on the moneyline.

How to Watch

When: Friday 9:00 PM CST

Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington

Streaming: ESPN and the ESPN App