Ole Miss vs Alabama Odds, Picks, Predictions (1/3/23)

Ole Miss visits Alabama tonight in a big SEC matchup. Ole Miss is coming off two straight close losses to both North Alabama and Tennessee, while Alabama is coming off a win against Mississippi State. This should be an interesting matchup in the early part of SEC conference play. Let’s take a look at the odds and make some picks and predictions for this game!

Ole Miss vs. Alabama Odds

Alabama is a 12-point home favorite against Ole Miss and is at -790 on the money line. The over/under is also at 148. The Crimson Tide being this big of a favorite makes sense because of how good they’ve looked all year, when compared to Ole Miss. The over/under also make sense because Alabama especially can score very well and will have the pace of the game sped up. This spread should stay where it’s at up until tip-off.

Ole Miss vs. Alabama Prediction & Pick

The pick: Alabama -12

Alabama is among one of the better teams in all of college basketball this year. They have a better team this year than last year. The biggest piece of that improvement has been freshman Brandon Miller. The five-star freshman has been an immediate difference maker for the Crimson Tide. He’s their leading scorer and leading rebounder. Mark Sears has also been great at the guard spot for the Tide, after transferring from Ohio. He’s been a great Robin to Miller’s Batman and is the second-leading scorer for them as well. Another key piece, is Noah Clowney down low. He’s also tied with Miller in leading the team in rebounds and is third on the team in scoring.

As a team, Alabama is the best rebounding team in college basketball at 47 a game. On the other side, Ole Miss hasn’t been great this year, especially on offense. Matthew Murrell has easily been the Rebels’ best player this year. He’s the leading scorer and leads the team in assists and steals too. Daeshun Ruffin and Amaree Abram are right behind Murrell in terms of production and all three are from the guard spot. As a team, Ole Miss hasn’t been able to find much offense all year, but they can defend decently. Take Alabama to cover here. It’s not only a home game, but Alabama is just the better team in this game in almost every facet of the game. The Crimson Tide should be able to clamp down a struggling Ole Miss offense and win pretty easily.

Ole Miss Vs. Alabama Key Matchups

Can Jaemyn Brakefield matchup against Brandon Miller at all? Can Mark Sears go toe-to-toe with Matthew Murrell?

Brandon Miller vs Jaemyn Brakefield

Brandon Miller has been almost unstoppable this year. He’s averaging 19 points, 2 assists, and 9 rebounds for the year. There’s not much any team has been able to do against Brandon Miller at all this year. His matchup in this game is Jaemyn Brakefield who averages 9 points, 1 assist, and 5 rebounds. He’s been okay on defense, but he has a huge matchup against Miller. This will have a huge factor in deciding the game because Miller has been so good all year and not many can stop all year.

Matthew Murrell vs Mark Sears

Matthew Murrell is a do-it-all player for Ole Miss at the guard spot. He averages 15 points, 3 assists, and 3 rebounds per game for the year so far. He’s been asked to do a lot because Ole Miss can’t do much else on offense and defense. He has a tough matchup against Mark Sears for Alabama. He averages 15 points, 3 assists, and 4 rebounds on the year so far. This should be a great matchup at the point guard position and is another important matchup that’ll decide what happens in this game. These are two electric guards that should be huge factors in deciding if their team will win.