COLUMBIA, Mo. - The state of Mississippi has been a mixed bag for Missouri in Southeastern Conference women's basketball.
The No. 11 Tigers (15-2, 3-1 SEC) are 1-5 against national powerhouse Mississippi State all-time, but they are 6-1 in games against Mississippi and undefeated against the Rebels in conference play (5-0).
Missouri travels to Oxford, Miss., to play the Rebels (11-6, 1-3 SEC) at 8 p.m. today on SEC Network. Mississippi was Robin Pingeton's second-ever conference win after Missouri joined the SEC.
Two of the first three meetings were decided by one possession, but the two programs have steadily trended in opposite directions since then, culminating in a 100-65 win in Columbia last season, the first time the Tigers have reached the century mark in conference play under Pingeton.
The Tigers have already kicked off their conference slate with a 3-1 record, its best start since joining the SEC, and a win today would give Missouri its first 16-2 start to a season in program history. That success this season has been rewarded in the polls, as the Tigers' No. 11 ranking is four spots from the highest in program history.
Teams ranked higher than the Tigers - Tennessee, Notre Dame, Oregon, Mississippi State and Louisville - all play at least one ranked matchup this weekend, which means the Tigers could move even higher if they take care of business this weekend.
Rankings are not something Pingeton concerns herself with, but she and the team understand they have an opportunity in March, and one of their goals is to host a regional event in the NCAA Tournament. She reflected on the 81-70 road win against Vanderbilt, a game in which Missouri led by as many as 20 points. Amber Smith and Jordan Chavis each scored 18 points.
Like the Commodores, Pingeton also refused to overlook the Rebels.
"I've got a lot of respect for Matt (Insell) and that program," she said. "They've had a tough start to SEC play but they've probably played the toughest schedule out of anyone in the SEC."
Mississippi played then-No. 9 Oregon in non-conference and has already faced South Carolina and the in-state rival Bulldogs. Madinah Muhammad leads the Rebels, scoring 17.8 points per game, sixth in the conference and a tenth of a point behind Missouri junior Sophie Cunningham.
Fellow junior Alissa Alston averages 15.1 points per game, and both are 3-point threats, though Muhammad has taken one-third of her team's 343 3-point attempts this season.
Shandricka Sessom, a senior guard, played in just seven games this season before tearing her ACL against Middle Tennessee and was a big loss for the team.
Insell took a while to find a starting lineup that worked. Eleven of 13 Mississippi players, including Sessom, have started this season, but he found a lineup he likes.
Muhammad, Alston, Shelby Gibson, Chyna Nixon and Bree Glover have started every conference game for the Rebels. Nixon is a true freshman and Gibson and Glover are sophomores. Gibson scored 21 against Arkansas and 10 against South Carolina, and is the only one of the young trio to reach double figures in conference play.
The Rebels are a fast, guard-heavy team, with just two forwards and two forwards/centers on the roster. They often have no trouble scoring, Muhammad especially, but struggle to stop opponents from doing so as well. Mississippi allows 68.3 points per game, third-worst in the conference and tied for 241st nationally. None of the Rebels' guards are taller than 5-foot-10, which means Cunningham and Smith, who leads the team with 18.3 points per game in SEC play, should have no trouble drawing mismatches on the perimeter.
"I'd say more on the perimeter these days," Smith said of where she can draw a mismatch more regularly. "You don't find a lot of six-foot guards running around. So putting me and Sophie on the court, if they put the shorter (defender) on me, I can go inside, if they put the shorter on Sophie, she can go inside. We're both strong enough to be able to go down into the post."
Both players are excellent at working both inside and outside as scorers, and Smith has benefited from practicing and talking with and learning from one of the nation's best combo scorers.