SAN DIEGO, Calif. – BYU will face Ole Miss in the opening round of the 2024 Rady Children’s Invitational, the organization announced on Friday morning.
A rematch of last season’s Final Four between Purdue and NC State opens the four-team tournament on Nov. 28 at Noon PT at LionTree Arena in San Diego, Calif. The Cougars and Rebels finish play on Thanksgiving Day at 2:30 p.m. PT on FS1.
The third-place game is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. PT, with the championship game set to follow at 3 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on FOX.
It will be the second all-time meeting between BYU and Ole Miss, after they met in the First Four of the 2015 NCAA Tournament, a 94-90 victory for the Rebels. Tyler Haws scored a game-high 33 points in the setback, going 13-of-23 from the field, 5-of-9 from three and 2-of-3 from the free throw line with Chase Fischer knocking down six 3-pointers en route to 23 points.
First-year head coach Keving Young returns two starters from last season’s squad that finished fifth in the Big 12 and earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, BYU’s 31st appearance in the Big Dance. The Cougars enter the 2024-25 season with a Top-15 recruiting class in the nation with Egor Demin, Kanon Catchings, Brody Kozlowski and Elijah Crawford.
Chris Beard enters Year Two in Oxford after going 20-12 in 2023-24, including a perfect 13-0 record in non-conference play. The Rebels are ranked No. 20 in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25, following the addition of Dre Davis, Sean Pedulla, Mikeal Brown-Jones and Malik Dia.