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Rebel Roundabout: Ole Miss basketball throwing it back to the ‘Tad Pad’ again next season

Ben Garrettby:Ben Garrett•06/05/24•

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Tad Smith Coliseum spent 13 years as little more than a university venue for graduations, etc., until Ole Miss basketball returned for a game last season. 

Now the Rebels are going back for seconds. 

The Rebel Road Trip made one of its seven June stops in Memphis Tuesday night. It was there second-year Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard announced the Rebels will play another throwback game in their old arena in 2024-25.

Beard, according to the Ole Miss Spirit’s Jake Thompson, said the game will be Ole Miss’ third overall on the season and held on a Tuesday night.

The Rebels last season won 20 games for the first time since 2018-19. However, they again missed the postseason, despite racing out to a 13-0 start, including a 70-67 win over Sam Houston State in the ‘Tad Pad.’ Beard said upon being hired he’d like to host a game per season in the arena.

“This will be a night I’ll never forget,” Beard said after last year’s game. “This was an unbelievable night where we all saw what a home-court advantage can do in Oxford, Mississippi. The crowd willed us to this game in a lot of ways.”

OLE MISS ATHLETICS AGAIN TIES OVERALL APR RECORD

Ole Miss athletics, on Tuesday, and for the third straight season, tied the department APR record with a multi-year average of 992.

The Rebels are eight better than the national average (984). 

Six Rebel teams currently have a perfect multi-year APR score of 1,000: women’s basketball, women’s cross country, men’s golf, rifle, soccer and women’s track and field.

Ten of the 16 Ole Miss sports posted perfect single-season scores of 1,000: women’s cross country, women’s golf, men’s golf, rifle, soccer, softball, women’s tennis, men’s tennis, women’s track and field and volleyball. 

Ole Miss scored a single-season 990 in 2022-23.

FOUR REBELS NAMED TO 2023-24 CSC ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT TEAM

College Sports Communicators released its 2024 Academic All-District Baseball Team on Tuesday. 

Ole Miss, for the second straight year, accounted had some of its players honored in Will Furniss, Ethan Groff, Mason Nichols and Jackson Ross.

Student-athletes only qualify if they’re a sophomore and have at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average (on a 4.0 scale). They also have to participate in at least 90 percent of their team’s games. Pitchers have to throw at least 25 innings. 

Furniss is a sophomore majoring in Finance. He played 51 games for the Rebels last season — hitting .276 in SEC play, as well as posting Ole Miss’ third-best OPS (.853). Groff completed his third degree in the spring to go along with his Master’s in Sport Analytics. Groff was one of two Rebels to appear in every game. He led Ole Miss in stolen bases and doubles. 

Nichols is a junior majoring in Biology. He made 17 appearances (six starts) for the Rebels and recorded a 4.15 ERA over his 39 innings. Ross graduated in the spring with an Intercollegiate Athletics Administration Grad Certificate to add to his Bachelor’s of Arts in Health Sciences. He was the other Rebel to appear every game and the only to start all of them.

Ross set team highs in runs scored and walks.

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