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Ole Miss

Kermit Davis shares message to players after rivalry loss vs. Mississippi State

Screen Shot 2024-05-28 at 9.09.17 AMby:Kaiden Smith•01/09/23•

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(Gilbert/Getty Images)

Ole Miss suffered their fourth straight loss on Saturday as they fell to rival Mississippi State on the road 64-54. Rebels head coach Kermit Davis is more than familiar with this rivalry, as he was born in Leakesville, Mississippi, played for Mississippi State in college, was an assistant for them in one season, and is the son of Kermit Sr. who coached the Bulldogs for seven seasons.

“It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t pretty, it’s hard. I’ve been in this rivalry for a long time, I’ve been in this rivalry for like 59 years. I’m 63 and I remember when I was 4 years old, this rivalry means a lot to me, been on both sides of it,” Davis said.

Davis shared what his message to the team was following the tough, rivalry loss, highlighting the importance of effort in Saturday’s game and how it attributed to their defeat.

“And when you get in a rivalry game and there’s a lot of things that happen in rivalry games, but when you leave a gymnasium and you think the other team was tougher than you and that’s the reason you lost, that is really hard to take,” Davis explained. “And that’s the way I feel right now, so that was the message to our team.”

The Bulldogs’ defense and rebounding became key in the Rebels’ loss, as they were out-rebounded 15-9 on Saturday and shot just 35.8% from the field. Ole Miss had a seven-point lead midway through the second half, but were on the receiving end of a 16-3 run by the Bulldogs that ended up being the driving force to their victory.

“Now we’ll get through it, we’ll get back in the morning, watch some tape, some spots up, and get ready for a really good Auburn team on Tuesday. So we’ll go next play, but yeah, that’s exactly what the message was and our guys, he knows it,” Davis said pointing to junior guard Matthew Murrell. “Some of our younger guys don’t know it. Matt knows it, Matt’s been through it.”

Murrell is Ole Miss’ leading scorer and had 19 points on Saturday versus Mississippi State, but it was not enough to lead the Rebels to a much-needed conference win. Ole Miss now sits at the bottom of the SEC with an 0-3 conference record and will seek their first SEC win Tuesday against a No. 21 ranked Auburn team that is fresh off of an impressive win over No. 13 Arkansas.