The Ole Miss Rebels are back in the basketball national rankings.
Back-to-back wins over top-15 ranked opponents have the Rebels at No. 18 in The Associated Press Top 25.
Ole Miss defeated No. 8 Auburn 82-67 and No. 14 Mississippi State 81-77 last week. The Rebels hadn’t beaten a ranked opponent since November of 2014. Now they’ve beaten two in a week.
The Bulldogs, after back-to-back losses, dropped 10 spots to No. 24.
It’s the Rebels' first AP ranking since the week of Jan. 28, 2013 when they were No. 16.
Ole Miss also produced the SEC basketball player of the week for a second straight week. Senior guard Terence Davis was honored Monday after averaging 19.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists as the Rebels won back-to-back games against top 15-ranked opponents.
Davis had 27 points and 12 rebounds in the Rebels' 87-62 win No. 8 Auburn and 12 points in the Rebels' 81-77 win at No. 14 Mississippi State.
Junior guard Breein Tyree won the award last week after a 31-point performance at Vanderbilt.
Ole Miss has won 10 straight, its longest streak since opening the 2007-2008 season at 13-0 before losing the SEC opener at Tennessee.
The Rebels look to stay hot tonight at 8 against LSU (12-3, 2-0), which has won five straight. The game will air on the SEC Network.
For MSU, the Bulldogs lost in overtime at South Carolina 87-82 on Tuesday and fell to Ole Miss 81-77 at home on Saturday.
They host Florida on tonight at 6 and travels to Vanderbilt on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Both games will be televised on the SEC Network.
The Bulldogs built an impressive non-conference resume but losing their first two SEC games to teams that were expected to finish in the lower half of the league certainly isn’t a great start.
There’s still a lot of basketball left to be played and Mississippi State needs to get back on track before the hole gets any deeper.
