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SEC Title Game Preview: Florida meets Ole Miss in championship

Missouri Tigers v Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, FL - JANUARY 19: Fans of the Florida Gators display a huge poster of coach Billy Donovan during play against the Missouri Tigers January 19, 2013 at Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida. The Gators won 83 - 52 and Donovan scored his 400th win as the Gators coach. (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

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Ole Miss can make the NCAA tournament Selection Committee’s job a whole lot easier Sunday. If the Rebels can pull the upset and beat No. 13 Florida in the SEC championship game, they will move from a bubble team to an automatic bid and be able to Sunday evening. If not, things could get dicey. Florida, on the other hand, is solidly in the tournament and will be playing for its first SEC tournament title in six seasons. How do they match up in their respective quests for the NCAA tournament? Check out the preview below:

Coaches

Andy Kennedy has gone from the hot seat to having Ole Miss on the brink of the NCAA tournament. He deserves credit for that, especially considering where the Rebels were chosen to finish in the conference during the preseason. But Kennedy faces Sunday a coach who has won five SEC regular season titles, three SEC tournament titles, and two national championships. Especially for his age, few compare to Billy Donovan and what he has been able to do at Florida.

Advantage: Florida

Guards

Kenny Boynton is prone to taking bad shots and shoots below 40 percent from the floor, but is still the team’s second-leading scorer. Point guard Scottie Wilbekin has been one of the most improved players in the conference and is averaging 9.1 points and a solid five assists per game. Add in the fact that Mike Rosario is blossoming this season and it’s tough to discount the Gators. For as exciting as Marshall Henderson is as a personality and scorer, he is limited to affecting the game on the offensive end as a volume shooter. It is unclear whether Ole Miss will have point guard Jarvis Summers Sunday after he sat out the team’s win over Vanderbilt with injury. If he is out, that would be a big blow to the Rebels.

Advantage: Florida

Frontcourt

Murphy Holloway and Reginald Buckner combine to over 17 rebounds per game. That’s the heart and soul of a team that is Top 40 in the country in that department. They also provide the interior scoring complement to Henderson on the perimeter. They’ll have the upper hand against a Florida team that doesn’t rebound the ball particularly well and is not very deep in the front court. Erik Murphy is the team’s leading scorer and Patric Young already has an NBA-ready body, but Will Yeguete and Casey Prather make up the rest of a short rotation.

Advantage: Ole Miss

Prediction

Florida beat Ole Miss by 14 points in the first meeting between these two teams and did it by making Marshall Henderson the only real offensive option for the Rebels. The Gators’ stifling defense directed all of the offensive toward him and he was able to finish with 25 points, but there was very little else for Ole Miss to have on that end of the floor. Ole Miss will need to get out on three-point shooters on the perimeter, especially Erik Murphy, who was 5-of-6 from long range in their first meeting.

Final Score: Florida 74, Ole Miss 64

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_