Kermit Davis explains giving Malique Ewin more minutes

Ole Miss simply couldn’t climb out of the 21-0 hole they dug themselves in to start the game against UCF on Wednesday. The Rebels slowly built a comeback as the game wore on but still fell by double digits. However, one positive takeaway from the defeat was the emergence of freshman Malique Ewin down low. Ewin had yet to play more than seven minutes in a game before last night and had only tallied six total points thus far this season.

Well, last night, Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis rode Ewin for 21 minutes, during which the rookie big man poured in 10 points and got his hands on five rebounds. Call it a breakout for the 6-10 newcomer, whose contributions were massive in getting Ole Miss back into the game.

Afterwards, Davis was asked: why so many minutes for the freshman? He denied it as a stroke of coaching genius and admitted that after falling down by 21 to start the game, he had to experiment. Which meant thrusting Malique Ewin into the middle of a high-stakes game for the first time in his career.

“We’re just trying guys,” said Kermit Davis in the presser, noting that the opportunity didn’t come out of nowhere for Ewin. “He’s been playing a lot better in practice. He had some good moments in the game.”

Some of the Rebel bench players came through on the glass, including Ewin.

“You know, we started having trouble rebounding the ball, so that’s when we went to Josh Mballa and Malique. I thought they rebounded a little bit better. Josh was a physical guy. He was our most physical player tonight. You know, Miles Burns was really getting us off to some really good starts but didn’t have his toughness and physical approach. I mean, he’s got to hang his hat on defending, his physical approach, rebounding. So just, you know, we were trying different guys and he gave us a great spark with the 21-nothing hole.”

Ewin certainly ended up being that spark with his 10 points and five boards. Not enough to earn the comeback, but the effort from Ewin should earn him more play on down the road.

After all, this is an old Ole Miss team that is looking at another uphill battle for making the NCAA Tournament. However, their three leading scorers are underclassmen, and Daeshun Ruffin, their sophomore point guard, is still coming back from injury. That four plus a sturdy big makes for an enticing group next season. Ewin is one of the few Rebel bigs who isn’t a senior, so developing him ought to be a goal for Kermit Davis in the second half of this season.

Judging by the UCF game, he may be on his way to cracking the rotation.