Ole Miss Basketball: Grove Grinder, Rebels hoops suffering

In this edition of Grove Grinder, we look at some of the problems Coach Kermit Davis and Ole Miss basketball are facing this season.

This has been a tumultuous season for coach Kermit Davis and Ole Miss basketball. The Rebels have a decent defense but no offense to speak highly of. As of the writing of this article, the Rebels are 8-7 overall and 3-5 in SEC play. After a strong start to the 2021 college basketball season, the Rebels have turned out to be barely average.

This isn’t the season Kermit Davis had planned for and looked forward to. This isn’t the season the players had planned for, worked for, and looked forward to. It especially isn’t the season Ole Miss fans had hoped for and expected. In fact, it has been a huge letdown and a major disappointment. So what’s wrong with the Rebels and why can’t they win games?

More Than Defense

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The Rebels began the season with one of the top-scoring defenses in the nation. Rebels fans watched as Ole Miss was obliterating opponents. Of course, those games were against mid-major opponents and should have been won anyway.

The Rebels were great on defense and were scoring points. Then the majors came along and everything fell apart. There is nothing that shows a team’s deficiencies like some real competition from tough teams who have their game together.

First came the 65-62 road loss at Dayton. Then came the 82-64 blowout loss on the road in the Rebels SEC opener. Of course, Alabama sits atop the SEC with a 9-0 record. In the following game, the Rebels hosted Wichita State and fell 83-79 at home in The Pavilion.

Then the SEC schedule kicked in and the losses began to pile up until the Rebels won two consecutive games against Miss State and TAMU. Then this past week took a tough loss at Fayetteville against the Razorbacks. The obvious problems have come to light and even Kermit Davis knows what they are. According to OMSpirit, Davis is quick to tell the truth.

"“We’re 15 games in. It’s a pretty good sculpture of who you are as a team. We’re struggling scoring. We try to play in transition. We try. (In the loss at Arkansas) we didn’t get a lot of stops to get in transition. Start of the second half, we had unbelievable looks, and we’re not stretching it at the four or the five. Not stretching at some other spots. ~Coach Kermit Davis"

Davis went on to discuss the Rebels inability to score points,

"“Our first year here, we could win games 80 to 78, 81 to whatever. That’s college basketball. Right now, (it’s) our inability to generate points by some guys that we thought were going to be able to score, and we’re struggling. I take full blame for that, and we’ve got to keep trying to work.” ~Coach Kermit Davis"

There is little doubt that Davis knows what the problems are and how to fix them. However, when you have players who simply can’t make their shots it does fall on the head coach to make lineup changes. Personally, I would like to see more of some of the younger players on the Rebels roster get more minutes on the court.

Ole Miss currently sits at No.11 in the SEC and No.69 in the nation. With just nine regular-season games left coach Kermit Davis has to do something to right the ship. Of those nine games, the Rebels will play just four at The Pavilion in Oxford. The Rebels are 6-3 at home in The Pavilion and 2-4 on the road.

Saturday evening the Rebels will play their third road game out of the last four matchups. The Rebels record is 2-1 in those three games. The Rebels will be facing Georgia in Athens and really need to get the win. Georgia picked up the 78-74 win against the Rebels just two weeks ago in Oxford. So, we wait and see what Kermit Davis can come up with to win games.