ATLANTA– There is a trip to the South Region Final on the line Friday when the No. 2-seed Michigan State Spartans play the No. 6-seeded Ole Miss Rebels at State Farm Arena.
Ole Miss senior guard Sean Pedulla is the Rebels’ leading scorer and the biggest offensive threat to the Spartans.
MSU junior guard Tre Holloman has already faced some talented guards this tournament, so his strategy remains the same against Pedulla.
“Pedulla is hunting threes, hunting different shots, so we are just trying to slow him down and make him work,” Holloman said.
Rebels head coach Chris Beard got the best of Spartans’ head coach Tom Izzo in 2019 when Beard’s Texas Tech squad took down MSU in the Final Four.
“I did watch a little bit of [the 2019 Final Four] one night, but not much, because that’s five years, six years ago and so much has changed in so many ways,” Izzo said.
Ole Miss does a great job of limiting turnovers on offense. Spartans sophomore forward Coen Carr believes that MSU has to create alternative chances in transition.
“We just have to make sure we capitalize on every opportunity we have,” Carr said. “If we get stops and quick rebounds I definitely think that can start our break too, and I’m pretty sure that their coach is telling them how we run, so we gotta keep pushing the ball.”
MSU junior center Carson Cooper understands that the Spartans’ forwards can capitalize on the Rebels’ lack of size on the offensive glass. The Rebels send multiple undersized players to crash the boards by committee to fend off the Spartans’ big men.
“They do a great job of rallying to the ball, so for us, as rebounders, it’s a big game for us to be active on the glass and understand that’s going to have a big impact on us winning,” Cooper said.
One of the Spartans’ first games of the season was at State Farm Arena for the Champions Classic against the preseason No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks.
The Spartans fell 77-69 to the Jayhawks in a game that MSU junior forward Jaxon Kohler came away with motivation for the rest of the season.
“We didn’t know what the rest of the year would look like, but I think all of us kept our heads high after that loss,” Kohler said. “We also gained a motivation, that if we ever go against another team like that we make sure we fix those mistakes that we made here.”
Tip-off for this Sweet Sixteen between Michigan State and Ole Miss is scheduled for 7:09 p.m. on Friday.
