Published: December 02, 2008 11:01 pm      

WVU looking to rebound vs. Ole Miss

West Virginia and Mississippi will clash for the first time in men’s basketball tonight at Oxford, Miss.

Tip-off time in Ted Smith Coliseum is 9 p.m. (EST). Fox Sports Net South will televise the game. It also will be on ESPN Full Court (pay-per-view) and on ESPN 360 (Internet).

WVU (4-1) will be trying to bounce back from last Saturday night’s 54-43 loss to Kentucky in the championship contest of the Las Vegas Invitational. The Rebels have a 5-1 record after beating Morgan State 78-70 at home the same night.

This should be an interesting sideline matchup between WVU coach Bob Huggins and Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy, an assistant under Huggins at Cincinnati for four seasons.

Kennedy has a 50-25 record with the Rebels in his third season. He has eight lettermen, including three starters, back from last year’s team that posted a 24-11 record and reached the National Invitation Tournament semifinals.

“Their guards are terrific, and Andy does a great job,” Huggins noted. “They ball-screen a lot. If they get the ball in the lane, they will shoot the three. They’re a terrific transition team and they play multiple defenses.”

In reply to a question, Huggins said he couldn’t recall another game in his lengthy career that one of his teams was limited to 17 points in a half as Kentucky did to overcome a first-half deficit last week.

“We just didn’t make any shots (going the last 7:12 without a point),” he said. “It came down to the way they stacked people around the rim that we had to make some longer shots.

“And we all knew that if our free throw shooting didn’t improve, it was going to bite us at some point and time. They were 23 for 25 and we were 10 for 17. What happens then is you lose your aggression because you don’t want to go to the foul line.

“We’re just going to have to be more assertive.”

Huggins is expected to stick to the same starting lineup. That includes Alex Ruoff (15.8 points, 2.8 rebounds), Da’Sean Butler (12.4, 5.8), Devin Ebanks (7.0, 3.4), Wellington Smith (6.2, 4.0), and point guard Joe Mazzulla (6.2, 2.6).

Huggins has been using 10 players in each game.

Kennedy, who was 1-1 against WVU as interim head coach at Cincinnati, gets most of his team’s scoring from guards Owen Warren and David Huetas. They are averaging 19.0 and 22.7 ppg, respectively.

Rounding out Ole Miss’s starting lineup will be 6-9 Malcolm White (3.7 ppg), 6-9 DeAundre Granton (3.5), and 6-5 freshman Terrico White (5.7).

West Virginia’s next home game is 1 p.m. Saturday against Cleveland State.