Ole Miss back in the Top 25 after strong start through early rounds of '18 round' SEC fight
Chris Beard is just in the beginning stages of his first time through a Southeastern Conference schedule, guiding the Ole Miss men’s basketball team in his first season.
Attrition is the name of the game in what Beard labeled after Saturday’s win over Vanderbilt as a “18 round” fight that is conference play. So far Ole Miss has fared well through the first week of the SEC gauntlet in a season that the league is looking very top-heavy to start out.
After being knocked around in Knoxville by Tennessee in the lopsided loss on January 6 the Rebels responded with a blowout win over Florida this past Wednesday and then the win over the Commodores that seemed to draw the ire of Jerry Stackhouse.
Back-to-back wins over SEC opponents boosted Ole Miss back into the Top 25 rankings on Monday. The Associated Press poll had the Rebels ranked at No. 22 after falling out a week ago. The Coaches Poll bumped them up two spots to No. 21
The metrics and stat sheets show a turnaround on offense for Ole Miss through the first 16 games of the Beard era.
Last season the team was one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the nation. This year the Rebels lead the SEC at 40.1 percent from outside the arc and currently the sixth best team in the country.
Box scores and statistical trends are not something Beard is focused on in mid-January. He is focused on the next game of the remaining 15-game SEC slate.
“In terms of all the stats and stuff I think it’s too early,” Beard said on Saturday. “My personal philosophy is you go through the first half of the 18-round fight and kind of see where you’re at. When you make that turn there’ll be some teams that have a chance to compete for a championship. There’ll be other teams that are trying to get back in the fight. For us, all the statistical stuff we don’t spend much time.
“I would say, and I think said it a couple times earlier in the season when we had some off nights and people were even asking questions about our shooting. We have good shooters, I think. To be a quality team you have to have four-five guys that are 40 percent three-point shooters.”
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Beard currently has two players shooting 40 percent or better from three-point range. Jaylen “JuJu” Murray leads Ole Miss at 44.4 percent and Matthew Murrell is next at 40.6 percent.
Two others are close to that 40 percent threshold as Jaemyn Brakefield is shooting 39.1 percent, TJ Caldwell is shooting 38.2 percent and Allen Flanigan is shooting 37 percent.
The No. 22 Rebels have two more rounds of their SEC on tap this week and two chances to bounce back in road environments.
With games at LSU (10-6, 2-1) on Wednesday at 6 p.m. CT and at No. 13 Auburn (14-2, 3-0) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT.
Both are opportunities for Ole miss to get key road wins but also continue bolstering its NCAA Tournament résumé. Currently the Rebels have a NET ranking of 56 as of Monday but are 1-1 in Quad 1. Saturday’s game on The Plains provides a massive opportunity to get that second Quad 1 win and try to neutralize the sting of that road loss to the Volunteers.
In the latest ESPN Bracketology projection by Joe Lunardi, Ole Miss is the 8-Seed in the East Region.
