Rupp Roh: ESPN’s Jay Bilas evaluates Ole Miss’ postseason resume after another road ‘L’

Less than a month remains in college basketball’s regular season, and Chris Beard has his Ole Miss men’s basketball Rebels exactly where he wants them.

Firmly in the discussion for the NCAA Tournament with less than a month left in the regular season.

It’s the near-complete realization of a vision Beard laid out when he was hired to replace Kermit Davis as Ole Miss head coach nearly a year ago.

“We want to turn into one of those program where when you think of college basketball, it’s not a matter of, ‘Hey, did Ole Miss make the tournament this year?’ It’s, ‘What seed did they get?’” Beard said during his introductory press conference. “With a couple of weeks left in the SEC ranks, it’s not a matter of checking those rankings. It’s, ‘Ole Miss is right there. What do they got to do down the stretch to win the championship?’ 

“That’s our goals. We don’t apologize for it. I know it’s lofty. But to win, you’ve got to have some courage.”

🔮 NEW BRACKET PREDICTION 🔮@TheAndyKatz gives an updated bracket, as we continue to get closer to March 👀 pic.twitter.com/XA1chNFMWM

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) February 13, 2024

There’s currently one glaring issue for the Rebels, however. 

They can’t seem to break through on the road. Even worse, Beard and Co. are running out of time to get things fixed to boost their solid, if still-lacking, NCAA Tournament resume. 

“Ole Miss needs to get some road wins,” Bilas said during the national broadcast of the Rebels’ 75-63 loss at No. 20 Kentucky Tuesday night. “The (NCAA Tournament selection) committee tends to look at how you do on the road. Road wins are really, really valuable because they’re so difficult to get. This year they’re more difficult than normal.

“The spread between how Ole Miss plays at home and on the road is pretty significant. There’s a significant drop in their productivity and efficiency when they go on the road. All NCAA Tournament games are played away from home.”

Ole Miss did little to solve its woes at Rupp. Kentucky has been an absolutely miserable place to play for the Rebels historically. Ole Miss has won just two times in Lexington in its 61 all-time attempts. The Rebels’ last win came all the way back in 1998. Their loss Tuesday was their third straight on the season to fall to 18-6 overall and 5-6 in SEC games.

6-0 run for the Rebs out of the break pic.twitter.com/kGIWODFLG1

— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) February 14, 2024

The Rebels got out to a 23-18 lead.

However, Kentucky blew by them with a 25-6 run to ultimately go ahead 43-29 at halftime. Ole Miss came out firing in the second, though, using a 10-2 surge of its own to cut the deficit to six. 

Kentucky responded with an identical, 10-2 run to reclaim control and coast to the win. The Wildcats (17-7, 7-4) snapped a three-game home losing streak, the longest ever at Rupp.

Ole Miss the first Beard-led team since Texas Tech in 2020-21 to lose three straight games in a regular season. The Red Raiders made the NCAA Tournament anyway. 

Ole Miss would be the fourth separate program Beard has taken to the ‘Big Dance’ since 2016. The Rebels, as a program, have been just nine times in their 100-plus-year history. They last got there in 2018-19, the debut season of Davis.

“Kentucky was aggressive,” Beard said afterwards. “Tre Mitchell’s one of the best players in college basketball. There’s no denying the poise and composure he gives this young and really talented team. We played even with them for the most part in the second half, but Tre did a good job doing what he does. He’s a veteran player (and) makes plays.

“From our point of view, the combination of a high-turnover game and getting our shots blocked, which seemed like a hundred times from where I was sitting, just didn’t give us enough offensive possessions. We didn’t shoot it great tonight, but if our turnovers are lower and we don’t get our shots blocked quite as many times, we get enough shots, even on a bad shooting night, to hang a little bit more in the game.”

Four Wildcats scored double-digit points, led by Antonio Reeves, who finished with 15.

Reeves had a Kentucky-high seven rebounds, too. The Wildcats shot 51.9 percent (28-54) as a team. Ole Miss shot 37.5 percent (24-64). Neither team was particularly good from three. The Wildcats made 6 of 18 (33.3 percent), while the Rebels hit on just 5 of 22 (22.7).

Rebel seniors Matthew Murrell and Jaemyn Brakefield tied for the team lead with 16 points apiece. Murrell had six rebounds, the most of any Rebel, while Brakefield had five. Both players made six of their 12 shot attempts.

“Matthew Murrell is the most complete player in the Southeastern Conference,” Bilas said.

Ole Miss entered the night projected by ESPN as one of the ‘Last Four In’ the NCAA Tournament.

The Rebels had a NET ranking of 59 and were were 2-4 in Quad 1 games. They were 16-1 in Quad 2s. They’ll likely need 10 SEC wins to clinch a tournament berth. 

Ole Miss has seven games remaining, including two against Missouri. The Rebels host the Tigers Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT. Also to come is a road trip to in-state rival Mississippi State on Tuesday, followed by back-to-back home showdowns against No. 11 South Carolina and No. 15 Alabama.