Buzz Williams makes bold declaration on Kermit Davis when discussing Ole Miss' decision to fire him

Buzz Williams and Kermit Davis had faced off multiple times over the years as head coaches of Texas A&M and Ole Miss respectively. But when the Rebels and Aggies faced off Tuesday, Davis was not on other sideline after being fired last week in the midst of his fifth season.

Davis was 74-79 over his four-plus seasons with the Rebels, including one tournament win. While Davis didn’t have the results he or Ole Miss was hoping for, Williams said after the 69-61 victory that Davis is a great coach.

“I think that the job that [Andy Kennedy] did here over 11 years was phenomenal,” Williams said. “In my opinion, I think on both sides of the ball, Kermit Davis was the best coach in this league. Inside the lines, the best coach. He’s had every bad job. He’s had every hard job. Been a head coach since he was 27 years old. I think a lot of what transpired in the five years here. Some of it was out of his control. The little guard that was a McDonald’s All American [Daeshun Ruffin] — from baseline to baseline is as fast as [Zakai Zeigler] at Tennessee — completely changes their team when he’s not healthy. I think a lot of the things that have transpired have been I don’t know if bad luck is the right word, but year number one, I think they went to the NCAA tournament.”

The Rebels were a No. 8 seed in that first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2018, losing to Oklahoma in the first round. They also had a 10-8 conference record. Ole Miss later accomplished that SEC mark a second time during the 2020-21 season when the team was 16-12.

But the last two years have seen Ole Miss slunk towards the bottom of the conference with a 4-14 record this year and a 2-13 record before Davis was fired last week.

“The margin is just so thin,” Williams said. “I guess I’ve been here one year less than Coach Davis was here. Even in the time that I’ve been here. I think whoever you would say the bottom teams in the league are have dramatically improved. Even if you’re improving, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re skipping teams. I think that it’s gotten closer to the mean. What Alabama has done this year, as an outlier, and they’re deserving of everything that they’ve done. But if you statistically look at the last 10 years in this league, and who has won this league, how many losses have they had and then if you look at the bottom teams, whoever they were over those 10 years, I just think it’s closer to the mean. So the margin just becomes so thin.”