Ole Miss Basketball: Rebels pick up desperation win at Georgia
As we’ve covered for most of the season, the men’s Ole Miss basketball team has struggled mightily so far throughout the 2022-23 campaign. They picked up a much-needed win on Tuesday against an unimpressive Georgia Bulldogs squad.
It’s been an unmemorable season for the Ole Miss Rebels basketball team this year. After an impressive inaugural season in 2018-19, Ole Miss basketball head coach Kermit Davis has struggled to repeat that same type of success. As a matter of fact, it’s practically been all downhill from there.
In that first season, Ole Miss men’s basketball qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2014-15 season when they made an appearance under then-head coach Andy Kennedy.
The Rebels took a step back in the 2019-20 season posting a record of 15-17 including going 6-12 in the South Eastern Conference and missing out on the tournament.
The following season in 2021-22 they would at least finish above .500 but needless to say, it wasn’t an impressive season ending at 16-12.
The Rebels fired former head coach Kennedy with the assumption that it was time to take the next step. The bad news for Rebels fans is that Kennedy also had 20 or more wins in nine of the 11 and a half seasons he spent at the helm, and in one of those seasons, he still had 19.
Andy Kennedy’s worst season, before getting fired halfway through the year in 2017, was a 16-win year in 2008-09. So far Kermit Davis has only one season with 20 wins and the Rebels won’t be able to reach that mark this year.
They did however squeak out a close win this past Tuesday night against the Georgia Bulldogs winning 78-74. The Bulldogs haven’t exactly been impressive this year currently sitting at 14-10, but the Rebels desperately needed to pick up another win after a five-game losing skid, something that has become quite common in the 2022-23 year.
This win puts the Rebels at 10-14 on the season and 2-9 in the SEC. The Rebels’ tournament chances are all but gone at this point and they are one of the worst teams in the SEC this season.
While they may not have made very many NCAA tournament appearances, at least the Ole Miss basketball program was competitive under former coach Kennedy. As the saying goes, I guess you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.