College Basketball Odds, Picks, Predictions for Temple vs. Ole Miss

Temple vs. Ole Miss Odds

Saturday, Dec. 17

5 p.m. ET

SEC Network

Temple Odds
Spread	Total	Moneyline
+7.5 -104	135.5 -114o / -106u	+290

Ole Miss Odds
Spread	Total	Moneyline
-7.5 -118	135.5 -114o / -106u	-375

Odds via FanDuel. Get up-to-the-minute college basketball odds here.

There were a lot of college basketball games played this week, but no program in the entire country had a worse start than Ole Miss against UCF on Wednesday night.

UCF scored the game's first 21 points, and the Rebels became the butt of plenty of social media jokes. Ole Miss battled back to cut the deficit to four, but ultimately the 21-0 gap was too much to overcome.

Ole Miss has the chance to rebound against another American Athletic Conference foe in Temple. With a chance to clinch a solo Big 5 title last week, the Owls lost by 20 at city-rival Penn.

Not only did Temple lose the game, but the Owls lost key big man Jamille Reynolds for 6-to-8 weeks to injury.

Temple began the season as a real potential bubble mid-major team, but non-conference play has been way too up and down to deserve that consideration anymore.

Temple Owls

Temple's offense has been inconsistent at times, but it has the profile of a unit that needs and wants to play up-tempo to be efficient.

The Owls are heavily reliant on the creation of their two lead guards for offense. Khalif Battle and Damien Dunn are the engines that power this offense, especially now that Reynolds is out as the main interior scorer.

Battle and Dunn are both good on ball screens and off the dribble more than anything. But they are most efficient when able to live in transition in an up-tempo game. The Owls' offense has problems being efficient when bogged down in a half-court battle.

The lack of great sets and turnover issues tend to show themselves in the half-court. The loss of Reynolds takes away any real post-scoring threat and also takes away the Owls' leading rebounder.

Temple wasn't a great defensive rebounding team with Reynolds in the picture, and now it has to face an Ole Miss offense that ranks eighth in the country in offensive rebounding rate.

It's not a good matchup for the Owls to face the Rebels off of an embarrassing home loss, either.

Given how good the Rebels are at making teams play in the half-court and defending ball screens, the Owls' offense faces major challenges in this game.

Ole Miss Rebels

Ole Miss owns a rare profile because it's good at both crashing the offensive glass and keeping teams out of transition.

The Rebels are elite at creating second-chance opportunities once the first attempt misses. But the Rebels are also 334th in defensive average possession length.

That means teams aren't shooting quickly against this defense and are in transition very rarely against it. The Rebels are in the fifth percentile nationally in percentage of possessions facing a team in transition.

They also grade out elite in this category statistically. Teams get bogged down in the half-court and run a lot of pick-and-rolls against the Rebels. But those opponents haven't had much success this season. The Rebels have a stellar ball-screen defense, too.

The biggest weaknesses for the Rebels include perimeter defense and defensive rebounding. Temple doesn't really have many floor spacers, given that its best shooters are Dunn and Battle, who are on the ball so often.

And now that Reynolds is gone, the Owls' best offensive rebounder is out of the picture.

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Temple vs. Ole Miss Betting Pick

I've already said how Temple can really struggle in the half-court offense, but Ole Miss' half-court offense is pretty mediocre, as well. The Rebels turn the ball over too much and don't generate many open shots from the perimeter.

The Rebels are in the eighth percentile in spot-up shooting, per Synergy. This has been an ongoing problem for Kermit Davis' teams. A lack of shooting makes it hard to score against an athletic, long and packed-in defense.

Temple does an excellent job of using its length to contest shooters, and the Owls are longer than most mid-major programs. They rank 37th in height and even without Reynolds, the perimeter length will make it difficult for the Rebels' offense to create and hit open jump shots,

Even if Ole Miss is getting offensive rebounds, that will slow this game to a crawl pace wise. Instead of the Owls running the floor, Ole Miss will be setting the tempo with its defense and long offensive possessions.

Temple doesn't have another reliable interior scorer to replace Reynolds, either.

I'd play the under at 132 or better.

Pick: Under 133.5

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