Ole Miss Basketball Hosts No. 11 Florida Saturday at 11 a.m. ET on ESPN
Ole Miss Basketball will welcome No. 11 Florida to the SJB Pavilion on Saturday, Feb. 21, with the game scheduled for 11 a. m. ET and nationally televised on. The matchup pairs the Rebels' 11-15 season with the defending national champions, and it carries immediate implications for conference positioning and fan attention.
Ole Miss Basketball: Game details and broadcast
The game is set for Saturday, Feb. 21 at 11 a. m. ET at the SJB Pavilion in Oxford and will air on. The television broadcast team for the contest is Richard Cross on play-by-play and Chris Spatola as analyst. Local radio coverage will come through the Ole Miss Radio Network with Gary Darby on play-by-play and Murphy Holloway serving as analyst.
Ole Miss enters the game with an overall record of 11-15 and a conference mark of 3-10 in SEC play under third-year head coach Chris Beard, who is 55-39 at Ole Miss and 292-137 for his career. Florida arrives at 20-6 overall and 11-2 in the SEC under fourth-year head coach Todd Golden, listed at 96-39 at Florida and 153-75 for his career. Florida is the defending national champion and appears in national polls, holding the No. 12 spot in the Poll and No. 11 in the Coaches Poll while ranking highly in advanced metrics such as KenPom and the NET.
Context and escalation
This meeting is part of a long-running series that dates back to 1940; the pair have met 120 times, with Florida leading the all-time series 71-49. Ole Miss holds an edge when playing in Oxford, with a 33-23 home record in the series and a current streak of four straight home wins against Florida, including a 103-85 victory in the most recent Oxford meeting in 2024.
The teams last met on March 8, 2025 in Gainesville, where Ole Miss fell 71-90 to Florida. In that game, Sean Pedulla led Ole Miss with 22 points, while Walter Clayton Jr. paced Florida with 23 points, five rebounds and eight assists. Florida’s season to date includes notable non-conference wins over Florida State, Miami and Providence and ranked SEC victories over Georgia, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Alabama and Kentucky; those results have reinforced Florida’s standing atop the conference.
What makes this notable is the contrast between Florida’s status — defending champion and 11-2 in conference play — and Ole Miss’ attempts to climb out of a sub-. 500 season in conference play. That contrast helps explain why the game secured national TV coverage and why both teams have prominent broadcast assignments.
Immediate impact
The matchup has immediate consequences for both programs. For Florida, a win in Oxford would sustain momentum in a 20-6 season and help preserve its position at the top of the SEC standings. For Ole Miss, a home victory over a nationally ranked, defending champion opponent would represent a notable boost to the Rebels’ 11-15 record and could alter perceptions surrounding the team’s progress under Beard in his third season.
Fans and stakeholders will feel tangible effects: the national window increases exposure for both teams, while the local radio broadcast assignments ensure regional audiences can follow the game live. The strong lineup of broadcast and radio personnel highlights the game's profile and the competitive stakes at this point in the SEC schedule.
Forward outlook
The next confirmed milestone is the tip at 11 a. m. ET on Saturday, Feb. 21, with full television and radio coverage in place. The contest will be a direct test of how Ole Miss responds at home to a Florida squad that carries the weight of a national title and a top ranking in the Coaches Poll. Rosters and coaching strategies will be finalized in the lead-up to the tipoff, and both teams enter with clear records and recent results that set immediate expectations.
Following this game, conference standings and records will be updated, affecting seeding and positioning as the regular season progresses toward postseason play. The confirmed schedule, broadcast assignments and historical series history frame Saturday’s clash as a consequential SEC encounter for both programs.
