Kermit Davis addresses Daeshun Ruffin struggles, point guard options

Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis knows he needs to find an answer at point guard with Daeshun Ruffin struggling of late. The Rebels sophomore saw the least amount of playing time he has all season Tuesday in a 82-73 loss to Auburn with just nine minutes off the bench.

Ruffin finished the game with five points on just 1-of-4 shooting while also turning it over twice in his short time on the floor. Speaking in his postgame press conference, Davis pointed to a lack of confidence from Ruffin, who had a similarly poor shooting performance in the pervious game, going 1-of-8 and fouling out in just 13 minutes against Mississippi State.

“Daeshun right now is not in a great place,” Davis said. “He looks like he’s lost some confidence and he’s got to become a better practice player. He had a good practice yesterday. I think if anything, we talk about his body language. You hear it all the time. (Auburn guard) Wendell Green‘s got unbelievable body language. I love him as an opposing coach just because of his demeanor. The quarterback at Georgia, he’s got this unbelievable persona with body language.

“So I can say, ‘Screw the games, just picture him on a Tuesday at 3 o’clock.’ When he walks through the door and you say, ‘I love seeing that guy.’ He just makes you feel good. So we’ve got to develop a persona and body language at that spot. It is so critical. We work every day and we talk about it all the time. It’s just something we’ve gotta keep working on. They’re all three good guys, but we’ve gotta get better.”

Davis opted to start freshman TJ Caldwell at point guard Tuesday, citing his defensive play as the reason why. It was just the fourth start all season for Caldwell, who finished with eight points in 24 minutes. Fellow freshman Amaree Abram, who has started in 11 games this season, came off the bench and played just eight minutes.

“Amari, he gets hard pressure,” Davis said. “His escapability of going by guys. I love Amari, but he’s having trouble guarding the spot. I think that’s probably the biggest thing, because every night they come at you with elite guards. So that’s why TJ, I think right now as a point guard he’s our best defender, gives the best chance. TJ’s not a true point guard, but he’s gotten better.”

Obviously, Kermit Davis did not expect to still be searching for a reliable point guard at this point in the season. The poor play has affected the Rebels’ record, as they are just 8-8 on the season and off to an 0-4 start in SEC play.

However, Davis told reporters all they can do is keep trying to improve.

“We thought we would be further along,” he said. “All we can do is just keep working. I get it with the freshmen. Really TJ was kind of an off-guard. We’ve just got to keep encouraging, keep working, keep coaching ’em hard, keep demanding. Same thing with Daeshun. The injury he came back from is not an easy thing. It’s one of those things that he’s gotta fight through it and we’ve just gotta keep working at it.”

Ole Miss will look to notch its first conference win when it takes on Georgia at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday. Based on the recent struggles, it will be interesting to see who Davis opts to start at point guard for that game.