OXFORD — The opening of the $95 million Pavilion at Ole Miss and a 29-game slate featuring 17 home dates and an appearance on ESPN2 highlight the 2015-16 Ole Miss women’s basketball schedule released by coach Matt Insell on Thursday.
Ole Miss will play host to eight SEC foes, including 2015 NCAA tournament Final Four participant South Carolina and Mississippi State and Texas A&M.
“We are excited about the challenges that our schedule will present us this season,” Insell said. “With nine of our 13 players being freshmen or sophomores the enthusiasm and energy couldn’t be higher around our program. Our non-conference schedule features 16 teams that played in the postseason last year, which will allow us to grow as a team against really good competition in preparation for January which starts, what I believe, is the toughest conference schedule in our league this season.”
Ole Miss will play host to nine non-conference foes and will open the season Nov. 13 against Mississippi Valley State in the 13th-annual School Kids game at 11 a.m. at Tad Smith Coliseum.
Ole Miss will play its first game in the Pavilion at Ole Miss on Jan. 10, 2016, against Florida. The Ole Miss men’s team will kick off the weekend Thursday, Jan. 7, when it plays Alabama in the first game at the new home for Ole Miss basketball. Ole Miss women’s basketball called Tad Smith Coliseum home for 42 years and currently boasts a nearly 80-percent winning percentage in what Ole Miss fans call the “Tad Pad.”
For the third-consecutive season, Ole Miss will open SEC action at home, when it will play host to Vanderbilt on Jan. 3. It will travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to face LSU on Jan. 7. Ole Miss is seeking its second consecutive win in an SEC opener after defeating Arkansas last season – its first SEC opening win in three seasons.
n Alabama will open SEC play against LSU: At Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the Alabama women’s basketball team will play host to LSU at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 3, 2016, to open SEC play.
Alabama will play eight of its 16 league games at home. The schedule consists of a single round-robin game with 10 teams and a home and away with Auburn, Alabama’s permanent opponent, and two rotating opponents that change annually.
The SEC Network will broadcast the game against LSU. From there, the Tide travels to Kentucky to face the Wildcats on Jan. 7 in a game that will be part of SEC Network’s whip-around coverage. Remaining matchups in January include Vanderbilt (Jan. 10 on SEC Network +), at Auburn (Jan. 14 on SEC Network +), Georgia (Jan. 17 on SEC Network), at Florida (Jan. 21 on SEC Network +), at Vanderbilt (Jan. 25 on SEC Network), Texas A&M (Jan. 28 on SEC Network +), and at Tennessee (Jan. 31 on SEC Network).
Alabama will play consecutive home games to open the month of February, first against Ole Miss (Feb. 4 on SEC Network +) and then versus Auburn (Feb. 7 on SEC Network). Next up, Alabama hits the road twice taking on Missouri in Columbia on Feb. 11 (SEC Network +) and Arkansas in Fayetteville on Feb. 18 (SEC Network +). The Tide will play its final two home games of the league schedule next with contests against South Carolina (Feb. 22 on SEC Network) and Tennessee (Feb. 25 on SEC Network Whip Around) before closing out the regular season at Mississippi State on Feb. 28 (SEC Network +).
The SEC tournament will take be March 2-6 in Jacksonville, Florida.
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