GameDay Primer: Slumping Ole Miss basketball Rebels calling Hogs for midweek romp

Ole Miss basketball has gone a week without a win. 

Such a stretch was commonplace for the Rebels over the last two years. Ole Miss won seven combined SEC games in the final two seasons under former head coach Kermit Davis. 

But these Rebels (15-3, 2-3 SEC) ushered in the Chris Beard Era by winning each of their first 13, which matched the program’s best-ever start and winning streak. The turnaround has been stark. Beard, one of the very best coaches in his sport, has had Ole Miss ranked multiple times this season. The Rebels had last made their way into the Top 25 way back in 2019. 

They’re completely made over — featuring a roster of just four returning starters, compared to 12 newcomers. The majority of their nightly rotation consists of experienced and proven transfers. 

Most have only ever really known winning. The same goes for Beard. Among them is Moussa Cisse. Cisse is one of two 7-footers for the Rebels. He was previously ranked as a five-star and Top 20 national recruit.

“Responding is a big part of a team sport,” Beard said a few weeks ago. “It’s not going to be rainbows and popsicles every day.”

But consistently stacking wins has proven elusive for Ole Miss since tipping off its SEC schedule earlier this month. 

The Rebels have lost three of their last five. They’ve put up two of the six worst defensive performances of Beard’s career in the process.

For perspective, Beard is trying to make the Rebels the fourth separate team he’s led to the NCAA Tournament since 2016. Ole Miss has been just nine times in its history. His 2019 Texas Tech Red Raiders made the National Championship Game.

“We’ve got to stay the course,” Beard said after Auburn. “We’ve been a good offensive team in a lot of our games this year. It starts with taking care of the ball. Doesn’t matter what kind of defense you’re playing against or what your offense is doing or not doing, if you hand the ball to the other team and don’t get a shot on goal, there is no offense.

“We’ve got to take care of the ball. In those (high-profile) games, just a high priority to try and have great offensive possessions. We did not early (at Auburn, an 82-59 loss).”

RELATED: Ole Miss men’s basketball should not hit the panic button yet following blowout loss at No. 13 Auburn

Ole Miss next hosts Arkansas Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT on ESPNU.

The Razorbacks hold a 52-33 advantage in the all-time series, which began in December of 1937. The two teams didn’t meet in Oxford until 31 years later. Ole Miss is 20-9 in Oxford, though Arkansas has won the last two. 

Actually, the Razorbacks have come out on top in nine of the last 10.

“Coach Beard is one of the best coaches in college basketball,” Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman said back in October. Musselman is in his fifth season at Arkansas. The Razorbacks are 10-8 (1-4 SEC) so far this season.

“Everywhere (Beard) goes, he wins. His teams play with great toughness. You better be able to get loose balls against his teams, and you have to be able to figure out a way to score. He’s a great defensive coach. Schematically, he’s really hard to prepare for. He gets his guys to play with maximum effort.”

Arkansas has a win over then-No. 5 Duke on its resume. However, the Razorbacks have losses to Memphis, No. 14 North Carolina and No. 19 Oklahoma. They’ve dropped games to Auburn, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, too. They beat Texas A&M.

Houston transfer Tramon Mark is fifth in the SEC in points per game (17.8). 

Mark is shooting 52.6 percent from the floor. Arkansas is Top 5 in the SEC in free throw attempts and makes per game. Trevon Brazile leads Arkansas in rebounding (6.7 per game). Arkansas averages the third-most blocks per game (6.5) in the country.

“This guy right here, man, he’s buckets,” Arkansas guard El Ellis said of Mark, in an interview with the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

“I have a lot of respect for (Musselman),” Beard said. “There’s a lot of respect on both ends. I have a lot of respect for them as a program — how they recruit, how they coach and player development.”