Pregame Injury Report: Tennessee updates status of Igor Milicic for Ole Miss game
GrantRamey
Igor Milicic Jr. is expected to be available for No. 4 Tennessee in tonight’s game at Ole Miss. The senior forward is not expected to be on the SEC Injury Report after missing practice Tuesday due to an illness. He was listed as probable on Tuesday night’s injury report.
The Vols (24-5, 11-5 SEC) and Rebels (20-9, 9-7) are scheduled for a 9 p.m. Eastern Time start (TV: ESPN2) at The Pavilion at Ole Miss in Oxford.
Tennessee, projected as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament during the final week of the regular season, closes the regular-season schedule against South Carolina on Saturday, on Senior Day in Knoxville.
Sickness has been an issue the Tennessee roster recently. Senior guard Jordan Gainey was a game-time decision at LSU last week due to flu-like symptoms. He played a season-low 17 minutes off the bench, scoring five points on 2-for-7 shooting.
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said last week, when asked about wanting Chaz Lanier to be more aggressive and take more shots, that Lanier has also been sick recently.
“We’ve had some guys under the weather and he’s been one of them,” Barnes said, “but he needs to (shoot more). We need him to, he needs to and so we’ll see.”
Start Time: Wednesday, 9 p.m. Eastern Time
TV: ESPN2
Streaming: ESPN App or WatchESPN.com
Radio: WNML-FM 99.1 in Knoxville. The Vol Network radio broadcast can be heard on local affiliates across the state of Tennessee.
KenPom Prediction: Tennessee 69, Ole Miss 65 (62% chance to win)
The Line: Tennessee -2.5 (Total: 137.5)
Milicic is Tennessee’s fourth-leading scorer at 10.2 points per game and lead the Vols in rebounding at 7.5 per game. He’s shooting 47.6% from the field and 31.6% from the 3-point line in 26.6 minutes per game, starting all 28 games he’s played in this season.
Milicic has scored just 12 points over Tennessee’s last three games, with five in the win at Texas A&M, four at LSU and three on Saturday in the win over Alabama. He’s 4-for-16 from the field and 2-for-9 from the 3-point line in the three-game stretch.
He had 19 in the home loss against Kentucky on January 28 and 21 in the win over Missouri on February 5.
GrantRamey
Everything Rick Barnes said after No. 4 Tennessee’s 78-76 loss at Ole Miss Wednesday night at The Pavilion at Ole Miss in Oxford:
What went wrong for Tennessee in the final two minutes
“Well, give Coach (Chris) Beard and his staff credit. I thought he had his guys much more ready to play than I did. And some of the plays we gave up, forget the last two minutes. It’s the things we did throughout the game, not sticking to our scouting report, transition defense, going at it half-speed, offensive rebounding on their their half. They had 46 points in the second half and we just weren’t making plays. But again, I don’t want to take anything away from them. I told our team, I thought (Ole Miss) wanted the game more, which is always disappointing. And we didn’t have the focus that we had. We came out and they took a shot, missed it, had a chance to get the defensive rebound and go down and maybe win the game. We didn’t. Executed what we wanted to do there at the end, just didn’t come up with a shot at the end.”
How disappointing Tennessee’s rebounding and defensive effort was in the second half, how uncharacteristic it was
“Well, that’s it. We didn’t deserve to win this basketball game. When you make those kind of mental mistakes, you don’t deserve to play against the team that is well-coached and played as hard as they played. And they made shots on us. But again, you let a team get comfortable and you’re not as aggressive and you’re not playing smart. Offensive rebounding can just take the wind out of your sail. And they did a great job getting there and, I mean, think, 46 points in the paint. I don’t know what else I can say. Just disappointed. Most of the time in games like this, certainly from where I’m sitting right now, I think you get what you deserved. And we deserve to lose because we didn’t make enough plays to win the game. And I think you got to give them all the credit because even when we had a chance to maybe stretch it out a bit, (we had) some turnovers, just throwing the ball out of bounds, not getting the ball inbounds, all those type things. That’s being intense, that’s being focused, that’s doing your job. Because they played hard. (Chris Beards’) teams play hard. But again, I just don’t want to take anything away from them. Because they did what they had to do to win the game and we didn’t.”
Ole Miss having so many chances at three-point plays in the game, Tennessee fouling but not stopping Ole Miss from making the shot
“It’s ridiculous. And we talk about having confrontation. We play like we were — that’s soft, honestly. That’s being soft. That’s you not really trying to go in and make plays on the ball. And guys slide out of the way. There’s got to be a confrontation there. And we’ve been a pretty good rim-protecting team this year, but we weren’t tonight. And you can’t give up, I mean, I don’t know how many and-ones. And we foul on a three-point shooter again, give up a four-point play there. We foul 75 feet from the basket, things like that. That’s a recipe for losing. And that’s what we did.”
Ole Miss forward Jaemyn Brakefield scoring all 19 of his points during the final 10:24
“I love him. I love the way he plays. I love his game. He’s patient and everything he did with his shot fakes, driving. I mean, think about it. We wanted him to shoot threes. So if you want a guy to shoot a three, why would you ever take a shot fake. And we kept leaving our feet and he doesn’t need much room. He’s a really good angle player, got great hands and again, he’s a terrific player. He had his way with us. I mean, anybody, we tried different guys on him, but whatever he wanted to do, (he did). You let a player like that start feeling good, that rim opens up for him, (gets) bigger, but he really fought hard to get space where he wanted it, which really good players do and that’s what he did.
How he would assess how Tennessee junior forward Felix Okpara played on defense
“I didn’t think Felix had one of his better games. He is a guy that normally really protects the rim in there for us, but they went at him. They did. Give them credit. They had their way with him.”
Tennessee sophomore forward Cade Phillips only playing six minutes in the last two games:
“We didn’t think he was locked in. He comes in, he fouls the three-point shooter, he fouls 75-feet from the basket. But again, we had some times where we mishandled the ball. too. I’m sitting here, my mind’s racing through all this. But yeah, we just didn’t feel like he was locked in.”
Tennessee struggling to get the basketball in the paint
“Well, we put it in there. I mean, we wanted to get it in there more, obviously. I mean, they’re a good defensive team. Believe me, it wasn’t our offense. I got no problem with our offense. I got no problem with our offense ’cause they’re a good defensive team. My problem is the way they got to 78 points and you know, they deserve to win. I’m telling you. The way we gave up 78 points, believe me, we deserve to lose this game.”
What he thinks about Ole Miss heading into the NCAA Tournament
“I think anybody in our (league that) gets in the tournament, (has) a chance. I mean, anybody in this league, because we saw early in the year, Oklahoma, go win the Bahamas. You saw what we did historically (in the) non-league, and you got a team like, think about Oklahoma, went through that field down there and won it. Georgia early in the year, beat St. John’s, who’s had a fabulous year. South Carolina beat Clemson early in the year. So I would say anybody in the tournament, I think this about anybody, you get in the tournament based on bracketing, based on matchups, they could do as much damage as anybody in our league. And I’d say that about any team of ours that gets into the tournament.”
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Tennessee vs. Ole Miss odds, predictions, time: 2025 college basketball picks, March 5 bets from proven model
The Ole Miss Rebels will host the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers on Wednesday night in SEC play and it’s the penultimate game of the regular season for both squads. Ole Miss is 20-9 on the season and 9-7 in the conference while Tennessee is 24-5 overall and 11-5 in the league coming off an emotional win over Alabama on Saturday. The Volunteers have won nine of the last 10 head-to-head matchups between these programs and are also 6-4 against the spread during that span, but the Rebels did cover as 7.5-point underdogs the last time they hosted Tennessee. Tennessee forward Igor Milicic Jr. is listed as probable.
Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday from The Pavilion in Oxford, Miss. The Volunteers are 2.5-point favorite in the latest Ole Miss vs. Tennessee odds, while the over/under is 139.5 points, per SportsLine consensus. Before entering any Tennessee vs. Ole Miss picks, you’ll want to see the college basketball predictions from the model at SportsLine.
The model simulates every Division 1 college basketball game 10,000 times. It enters Week 18 of the 2024-25 season on a 221-162 betting roll (+1895) on all top-rated college basketball picks dating back to 2023. Anyone following at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen huge returns.
The model has set its sights on Ole Miss vs. Tennessee. You can head to SportsLine to see its picks. Here are several college basketball betting lines for the Tennessee vs. Ole Miss game:
Ole Miss ended a three-game losing skid on Saturday with an 87-84 win over the Oklahoma Sooners. Sean Pedulla led the team with 26 points in the victory and Jaemyn Brakefield added 16 points off the bench as five different Rebels reached double-figures in scoring.
Ole Miss shot 50.9% from the floor as a team in the win and is now 6-0 on the season when it shoots 50% or better from the field. Pedulla, a Virginia Tech transfer, is now averaging 15.2 points per game this season and he’s also shooting 40.4% from the 3-point line. See which team to pick here.
Meanwhile, the Volunteers enjoyed a 79-76 win over Alabama on Saturday thanks to a 35-footer from senior guard Jahmai Mashack as time expired. Mashack is well known as one of the country’s best on-ball defenders and he took over late in the game, drawing a foul on a missed free throw attempt and hitting both of his free throws to swing momentum in Tennessee’s favor before delivering the game-winner.
Chaz Lanier and Jordan Gainey both added 18 points in the crucial victory and Zakai Zeigler added 15 points and four assists. Tennessee’s winning streak is now up to four games and CBS Sports bracketologist Jerry Palm moved the Volunteers up to a No. 1 seed in his most recent 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket update. Tennessee is 16-12 against the spread this season. See which team to pick here.
The model has simulated Tennessee vs. Ole Miss 10,000 times and the results are in. The model is going Over the total, and it also says one side of the spread hits well over 60% of the time. You can only see the pick at SportsLine.
So who wins Ole Miss vs. Tennessee, and which side of the spread hits well over 60% of the time? Visit SportsLine now to see which side of the Tennessee vs. Ole Miss spread you need to jump on, all from the model that is on a 221-162 roll on top-rated college basketball picks, and find out.
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